About Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy
Sessions
are planned on a regular basis and offer a continuing space for
reflection on what may be troubling the individual looking for
help.
This may take place on the analytic couch or face to face.
In analytic groups this reflection will take place between all
group members and the therapist.
It is not necessary to prepare a subject to be discussed. Often
it is helpful to look at what is uppermost in the mind. This may
feel pressing or it may not. Sometimes it is useful to wait and
see what emerges as this often shows the pattern of relating and
functioning in everyday life and it will thus illuminate where
things usually go wrong.
At some point in therapy the relationship between therapist and
individual, and in groups also between group members, may appear
as if troubling patterns in relationships now or in the past are
repeated. This can be helpful as this dynamic can be identified
and closely examined. It presents an opening to think about what
happens both in the interaction between people in the here and
now, and within the inner world of the person concerned.
Duration of Psychotherapy
This
depends on the needs of the individual. Where emotional problems
are of a long-standing nature (e.g. where a pattern of things
going chronically wrong in relationships or at work is recognisable),
it may be desirable to plan attending psychotherapy on an ongoing
basis.
Literature on Psychotherapy (The literature does not reflect my own view in all instances.) "Talking to a Stranger" (1986); Lindsay Knight; Fontana paperbacks. This book is out of print and the contact details are out of date,but it is a good guide to the different forms of psychotherapy . Any public library will be able to order it. "How to chose a Psychotherapist" (2003); Neville Symington et.al.; Karnac Books £9.99