What is Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?

Psychodynamic psychotherapy (or sometimes referred to as psychoanalytic psychotherapy) is a type of therapy focused on the unconscious movement of the mind. Psychodynamic psychotherapy aims to help people to explore their own minds—to be more honest with themselves in order to have greater satisfaction in their work and play. However, taking an honest look at one’s mind can be difficult and painful work. Unconscious phenomena include a sense of weakness and frailty, vulnerabilities to shame, fantasies of omnipotence, inner conflicts between wishes and prohibitions, temptations to be self-righteous, and aggressive, sadistic, greedy, or lustful impulses. Things we all would much rather keep under wraps despite the cost.

Through a careful and sustained attention, psychodynamic clinicians listen for those parts of the mind which appear to be in conflict with other parts, those parts which are unformulated, or simply those parts which need to be witnessed to. By drawing attention to such unconscious phenomena and approaching these parts of the mind with curiosity, psychodynamic clinicians aim to help relieve patients of the time and effort to keep these parts unconscious, freeing them up to live more realistically, productively, and joyfully.

Psychodynamic therapy sees the primary vehicle for transformation as the therapeutic relationship itself. Because of this, psychodynamic psychotherapy takes time—time to build a relationship, time to explore fears and resistances, time to struggle and work, and time to heal and grow. It is common for patients in psychodynamic therapy to work with their therapists weekly or twice weekly for several years.