5 Ways Psychodynamic Therapy Can Benefit You

Most people have heard about Sigmund Freud, and some may have heard of Carl Jung, but very few are aware of the therapeutic model born from their theories: psychodynamic therapy.

Rooted in psychoanalytic theory, psychodynamic therapy focuses on helping clients become aware of their unconscious processes. More specifically, how feelings, impulses, and defense mechanisms may be influencing your current behavior and personality, and why those mechanisms were created in the first place.

There are sometimes things within us that escape us, of which we are unaware, but which can put pressure on our general functioning (thoughts, emotions, behaviors) and on our interpersonal relationships. We can ask ourselves, for example, why we act or react in a certain way in the same type of situations, and how the visions we have of ourselves, and our relationships can affect our lives and our decisions.

Here are five ways Psychodynamic psychotherapy may help you on your journey toward healing and growth:

1. Psychodynamic psychotherapy focuses on the root level of human suffering.

The psychodynamic approach focuses on the psychological core of emotional suffering, with the therapeutic relationship being a central element of the therapeutic process. It considers the causal level of psychological pain and blockages. That perspective is designed to help patients delve deeper into their emotions, including those we may not be aware of. This approach is also known as insight-oriented therapy because that approach seeks self-reflection and self-inspection. The goal of tending to the roots of your distress is to make the symptoms resolve.

2. Psychodynamic therapy can help you gain greater self-awareness.

Psychodynamic therapy explores the root causes of your psychological disturbance.       

Psychodynamic therapy assumes that we have an unconscious part of our mind that also influences the way we perceive ourselves, our thoughts, and our behavior. The unconscious is akin to storage within the mind that contains thoughts, emotions, repressed feelings, and experiences that are outside of our awareness, oftentimes accumulated in childhood and adolescence. In psychodynamic therapy, you will be guided and supported to explore your unconscious, which also holds a lot of positive psychological resources that are unique to you.

3. Psychodynamic therapy can help you recognize your self-defeating patterns.

One assumption from psychodynamic therapy is that we tend to repeat certain patterns and themes as human beings, most of them are rooted in childhood strategies that protect the individual from painful emotions. Recognizing patterns and putting words onto them can help you change your relationship with them. Psychodynamic therapy will help you recognize your current habits and patterns as parts of a great trajectory that started in the past.  

4. Psychodynamic therapy is interested in your fantasy life

Psychodynamic therapy posits that your fantasy life, which comprises your night dreams, daydreams, your imaginative activity, and art) contains precious information about your inner world. Your fantasy life is more often than not symbolic of deeper psychological movements taking place within your inner world. It may provide some clues about the current emotional pain you may be experiencing but cannot rationally understand. Or it may pinpoint to a painful experience in the past that was never integrated, but unconsciously affecting your present.

5. Psychodynamic therapy will help you identify and maintain a stable source of self-esteem.

By exploring how your view of yourself was formed, you and your psychodynamic therapist will unpack the negative perceptions, harsh criticism and corrective methods, perfectionistic expectations imposed on you, or even a lack of parental empathy that can affect how you develop your image of yourself and your self-esteem. In psychodynamic therapy, we will explore where feelings of inferiority may be coming from, and we will help you restore a stable and authentic source of self-esteem. The psychodynamic approach is a very humanistic and empathetic approach.

If reading this post has helped you gain some insight into how psychodynamic therapy could help you, call us at 801.944.4555 to schedule an appointment with Lyna Jones, CMHC Intern, or one of our other therapists!