Focusing on interpretation of mental and emotional processes rather than on behavior, Psychodynamic therapy aims to reveal the unconscious content of a person’s psyche to alleviate psychic tension. By finding patterns in their emotions, thoughts, and beliefs, they are able to gain insight into their current self. Aside from mental health conditions such as anxiety disorder, eating disorders, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), and psychosis, psychodynamic therapy is also good for depression. Here are 5 unique ways psychodynamic therapy can help treat it:
A Deeper Look
More than just attempting to reduce symptoms and knowing your history, psychodynamic therapy includes an in-depth analysis. Understanding your past is important in the treatment process. Together, you and your therapist uncover significant experiences, thoughts, and behavioral patterns that led to your depression. Defense mechanisms such as denial and repression are also identified. Psychodynamic therapy explores the entire range of your emotions and feelings you find conflicting, troubling, threatening, or those you’ve yet to recognize. Moreover, your deep-seated needs, urges, and desires, are carefully examined. All these are necessary in helping you see every little thing that makes up who you are, and adjusting them to foster a more positive sense of self.
Effective Therapist-Client Relationship
Proper communication with the right psychotherapist is essential, however, there’s more to it in psychodynamic therapy. How you interact with your therapist can reveal a lot about how you do in your relationships–for instance, with your parents or other adult figures in your life. If you have trust issues, you’re probably going to reflect that during sessions. This is a useful way for the therapist to learn more about your particular issues. Although drawn from theories and practices of Freudian psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy is less intense than psychoanalytic approach. You can expect a free atmosphere to express yourself.
Distinctive Tools and Methods
Psychodynamic therapy makes use of efficient ways that are quite different from others. These are a few of them:
Improvisational Psychodynamic Music/Art therapy
Unstructured and not requiring artistic or musical ability, this therapy allows you to create without worrying if you end up with something good. You can express yourself as you want, even if it’s simply showing your favorite song or artwork. Perfect for shy or anxious individuals, this method may replace mere talking as a form of communication.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
A famous psychological test that’s used to assess your personality characteristics and emotional functioning. By making you describe ambiguous inkblots, your therapist figures out how you think and feel. Specific issues that may be buried in your mind can also be brought to light.
Dream Analysis
Another therapeutic technique developed by Freud which aids in finding important meaning behind dreams. During the session, you narrate your dream (you’ve either recalled or written down) for the psychotherapist. Dreams usually contain images or symbols that reveal what’s inside your subconscious.
Transference
As previously discussed, this happens when you project feelings for people in your life onto your therapist. Feelings from a primary relationship during childhood are generally most common. This is a good way for the therapist to understand matters that trouble you.
Freudian Slip
Though least formal and least applied, this method involves considering slips of the tongue as clues to what’s going on in your mind. Saying something by accident, for example, “I’m mad that you’re here,” instead of “I’m glad that you’re here,” can indicate a hidden thought or a fixation.
Free Association
A technique in which you either respond to a list of words with what comes to your mind first, or you freely share your current thoughts. Free Association helps you know what you truly mean versus what you’re thinking, saying, or feeling at the moment.
Psychodynamic therapy may no longer be as popular as other forms of psychotherapy, but it can still be effective–it paved the way for most of them after all. Its theory has contributed a lot of important ideas to psychology. Psychodynamic therapy can help you become a much stronger person who’s able to live a fulfilling life.
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