What is psychodynamic therapy?

Psychodynamic therapy attends to emotional life, personal and social histories, growth and development through time, the dynamics of the therapy relationship, and the role of unconscious processes. While a cognitive behavioural approach is focused on eliminating symptoms and increasing functionality, a psychodynamic approach is more geared towards understanding and shifting long-standing patterns of relationship and behaviour and deeply held beliefs abot the self. For this reason, it’s sometimes called “depth therapy."

This might be a good fit for you if you are looking to change stuck patterns, if you are interested in a longer process, and if you don’t want your therapist to give you a worksheet.

Psychodynamic therapy can also support your creative practice through building a stronger understanding of and connection to your unconscious life—turning with open curiosity towards dreams, fantasies, desires and fears and addressing the forces that stifle imagination, expression, and regular practice. If this is something that interests you, you might enjoy the New Yorker essay “Writing as Transformation,” in which the poet Louise Glück describes her writing practice in relation to her experience of psychoanalytic practice.