Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of therapy that focuses on the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This approach can be helpful for individuals who are experiencing issues related to low self-esteem, anxiety or depression. Psychodynamic therapists focus on how past experiences (both positive and negative) may affect your present-day life. It is important to note that this type of therapy takes time; it’s not something you will necessarily see progress with right away. Although there isn’t one “cure” for all psychological problems, psychodynamic psychotherapy has been found to be an effective treatment option for many mental health disorders. Some research suggests that it could even reduce rates of relapse in patients suffering from major depressive disorder!
One of the therapy schools used in understanding people is psychodynamic psychotherapy. In short, in psychodynamic therapies, the processes that cause distress, anxiety, fear, unhappiness in the life of the individual and the feelings, thoughts and behaviors that create conflict in their relations with the environment are deeply understood and realized with the therapist within the unique historical development of the person.
With the insightful development gained by reinterpreting the realized processes within the therapeutic relationship, it is aimed that the individual will be able to pass his own desires and desires in accordance with his life as a result of the functional and healthy transformation of the conflicts that disturb the individual.
Are there any negative side effects of psychodynamic psychotherapy?
The main side effects of psychodynamic therapy are usually only noticed by the client. The most common complaints about psychotherapy are that it is too long, too little progress is made, or the therapist does not get them.
These are also generally characteristics of therapies administered by someone who is not well-trained in therapy techniques. This means you should research to make sure any therapy practitioner you consider working with has long-term experience seeing clients for therapy sessions – ideally 10 years or more as full-time work (in addition to a training and passing one degree such as an MFT or Psychologist degree).
What Is Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?
This type of therapy has its basis in the psychodynamic theory, which supposes that our present mental state is determined by experiences from earlier stages of life.
The word is derived from ‘psycho’ meaning Psychology and ‘dynamic’ meaning dealing with energy within a system. It proposes that psychological problems are related to internal patterns created by early relationships/disorders that are retrievable via free association, dreams, art work or play acting. This stems heavily from Freud’s theories on treatment found in his five methods for clinical practice known as Psychoanalysis (though not all Elements of Psychodynamic Therapy include this).
The aim of psychodynamic psychotherapy is to bring your unconscious mind into your consciousness – this is one of the key objectives.
The idea behind the process is that conscious effort can only get you so far when it comes to making changes in your life. Others have either achieved success by accident, or they may not be aware of what needs improvement. To work on some difficult aspects of your life, you need tools and insight that are hidden deep within the psyche – at an unconscious level.
It’s only through working with a therapist who’s trained to probe deeply into these metaphysical layers where healing can take place; whether it involves feelings about relationships (with others or self), deeper impulses like aggression or sexuality, traumatic past events which have serious effects on your daily life.
Psychodynamic Therapy Sessions
In psychodynamic therapies, the individual’s childhood experiences and development work with psychoanalytic concepts such as unconscious determinants behind behavior and affect, transference, defenses, object relations, the person’s resistance to therapeutic work, dreams, and repetitive vital experiences.
Although psychodynamic therapies use similar concepts with psychoanalytic therapies in treatment, as in psychoanalytic therapies, the study is performed face-to-face, not on the couch. Although the session frequency and working time are determined with the client, the session frequency is usually once a week, regression is not allowed as much as in psychoanalytic therapies, and the therapist uses more active interpretation within “the here and now” principle.
Last Updated on December 11, 2021 by Lucas Berg
