Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is an intensive form of psychotherapy that originated with Sigmund Freud and his colleagues over 100 years ago and has come a long ways since.  Like psychodynamic psychotherapy, which evolved from psychoanalysis, it pays close attention to how our struggles are shaped by what is both conscious and unconscious for us, and it works to draw connections between our histories and our present.

In psychoanalysis, we are reminded that, for all of us, there is something about how we feel and think and act that lives outside of our immediate awareness. The analytic process can help us learn new ways to tune into, remember, and know more clearly these feelings and thoughts.  We can also learn about how they lead us to behave in the ways we do, both in relationship with ourselves and in our relationships with others.  In analysis, we have an opportunity to reflect on how long-held interpersonal dynamics may emerge in our relationship with our analyst so that we might learn more deeply and experientially about what needs to be felt and known – all in order to grow.  The theories and practice of contemporary psychoanalysis, pushed to their best, also offer a space to honor the complexities of the relationship between our cultural worlds and psychic lives.

Typically involving three to five sessions per week, psychoanalysis is a powerful endeavor that can unfold over considerable time.  It has the potential to heal the wounds of old hurts and unbind us.  Ideally, we may live more freely, with a real sense of meaning and fulfillment.

To learn a bit more about psychoanalysis, you may wish to read through a description provided here by the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis.  If you are curious about whether this might be a therapy you’d like to pursue, I am available for consultations to discuss your questions and thoughts.