What Is Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy?
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a type of therapy that helps you explore your past experiences and relationships to understand how they might still be affecting you today. It’s based on some of the oldest ideas in psychology and focuses on personal growth through deep reflection.
While our whole team interested in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, none of us are psychoanalysts (yet!). Let’s break down some of the words you might hear therapists use to describe the way they work:
- Psychodynamic Therapy: This is a mix of psychoanalytic ideas and other therapy styles (like EMDR, DBT, IFS, or EF-CBT). It’s often used to look at how your childhood or family relationships still show up in your life.
- Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: This starts with how the therapist thinks and listens. Therapists using this approach train for 1–2 years (or more), learning to notice patterns and make connections in what you share. It’s a way of working that takes ongoing learning, reading, and talking with others in the field.
- Psychoanalysis: This is a much longer and deeper training, usually 5 to 8 years. Therapists go through their own analysis and work with more experienced supervising analysts to become certified psychoanalysts.
Affirmative Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytic Theory:
Psychoanalysis hasn’t always been kind to LGBTQIA+ people. But now, many therapists are working to use it in affirming ways—to support identity, gender, and sexuality exploration.
Your identity and sense of self are always centered in this work.
What Makes This Therapy Different?
- Talking About Emotions: You’re encouraged to talk about your feelings, even the ones that are hard to name or admit.
- Understanding Avoidance: We all avoid certain feelings. This therapy helps you notice how you might protect yourself emotionally and how that affects your life.
- Spotting Patterns: You’ll start to see repeating thoughts or behaviors that hold you back—and explore why they might feel necessary.
- Looking at the Past: Childhood experiences can shape how we act now. This is a space to understand those influences and grow beyond them.
- Relationships: You’ll explore how you relate to others and to yourself. This can lead to deeper and more fulfilling relationships.
- Therapist Relationship: Your connection with your therapist is part of the work. You’ll use that relationship to try out new ways of being and relating.
- Inner World: You’re encouraged to share whatever comes to mind—including dreams, fantasies, and daydreams. These can reveal hidden fears and desires that may be holding you back from the life you want.
Who Is This Therapy For?
This approach might be a good fit if:
- You enjoy learning and view growing as a lifelong journey.
- You’re curious about how your mind works, not just your brain.
- You’ve been dealing with long-term issues like anxiety, depression, or trauma that other therapies haven’t helped.
- You keep facing similar problems in relationships or other areas of life.
- You need long-term support for complex emotional or personality challenges.
Who Might This Not Be Right For?
This may not be the best fit if:
- You need quick symptom relief, life coaching, or help building specific skills.
- You’re in an urgent crisis (like active addiction, abuse, or thoughts of self-harm). Please use the resources below for immediate help.
- You live with unmanaged Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, or other forms of psychosis. However, if these are being treated and stable, this therapy may be a wonderful way to help you understand your mind and live with less distress.
Because of trauma or painful experiences, many people feel like they’re broken or unlovable. For therapy to work, your therapist must get past those harsh self-beliefs first, to help you and find the parts of you that are strong, creative, and resilient—no matter how deeply they’re buried. - – Paraphrased from Lena Theodorou Ehrlich’s writing
Not accepting new patients for teletherapy, but still providing letters for gender affirming surgery
