To say what psychoanalytic psychotherapy is, in a few words, is very difficult and likely arouse
heated discussion as there is no one single definition with which all psychotherapists would agree.
However, in this brief synopsis I hope that you get some sense of how I see psychotherapy.
Most people, at some time in their lives, experience some form of emotional difficulty
or problem. Often it can be resolved by talking with friends or family
but sometimes this is either not possible or the person wants to talk to someone not currently involved
in the issues.
Psychotherapy does not tell you how to live your life, but helps you unravel
your difficulties so that you can see the issues more clearly. In many cases
it becomes clear that old, habitual ways of seeing or thinking about things
have become outdated but nonetheless are still operating.
In particular, ways of relating to people (family, partner, friends, or work colleagues) are often
the hardest thing to deal with: psychoanalytic psychotherapy pays attention to
relationships, including the relationship between the patient and the therapist,
in the hope that this might throw light on the difficulties. Although it is not always very obvious,
many of the symptoms that people have can be linked back to their difficulties in relationships (including
with others, with the world, and with oneself).
Sometimes during therapy things that seemed impossible to be understood or tolerated become a little easier.
Sometimes through discussion it becomes clear what can no longer be tolerated. There is no one single way
of describing what may happen ahead of actually starting psychotherapy; each person's response is
unique.
It is always difficult to say how long it might take in psychotherapy for things
to feel better. However, you might need to be realistic: a difficulty that you might
have had for a number of years will not be resolved over night. And sometimes things feel
worse before they feel better.
If you want to be told what to do rather than reach your own solution through talking with
a therapist, then psychoanalytic psychotherapy is not for you. If on the other hand you want
a more open exploration of issues, feelings and thoughts, then you might want to think about
psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on the substantial theoretical works of Freud
and the many psychoanalysts that followed him (e.g. Jung, Klein, Guntrip, Winnicott, Fairbairn).
