Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Personal insight is a powerful tool for lasting change.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy uncovers how you perceive yourself and the world around you. Understanding your perceptions helps you uncover patterns you're stuck in and the beliefs you’ve created about your life. These insights are important for making lasting changes.
Have you ever wondered why you repeat specific patterns in your relationships, work, or life? Maybe you repeatedly find yourself drawn to romantic partners who aren’t emotionally available, or you regularly quit when you’re moving toward success. Whatever the situation, you’re not alone. Many of us struggle to understand why we find ourselves in similar situations time and again.
Here at Thrive for the People, we specialize in psychodynamic psychotherapy, an evidence-based therapeutic approach focused on building insight into why we do what we do. This insight can be key to breaking cycles and moving toward change. Our therapists have supported countless individuals in the Seattle area to dig deeper into themselves and uncover their inner strength and resiliency.
Schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation to learn more about our services, which are available in Seattle and online across Washington. You aren’t alone. With the right therapist, you can uncover those foundational insights that propel you toward empowered changes.
What is Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is an evidence-based approach that builds insight into yourself and your perceptions of the world. Through self-reflection, you can identify aspects of yourself that were previously unknown or not fully understood. These aspects of yourself are the gateway to understanding why you're stuck in specific patterns and what it will take to move toward a healthier, more balanced life.
During treatment, your therapist will use your increased insight to uncover the root of your emotional suffering. Identifying the root of emotional suffering is achieved by examining three areas of your experience. First, you will explore your relationship patterns and expand your awareness of how you show up with others and how you let others treat you. Second, you will identify your inner contradictions or areas where you desire one thing but behave in ways that achieve the opposite. Third, you will look at ways you can improve your relationship with yourself and others so that you can make healthier choices in the future.
As you progress through psychodynamic treatment, you will notice that self-examination is focused on unconscious processes and how these influence current behavior and perpetuate emotional suffering. Directing your attention to the unconscious builds a more profound awareness of yourself. This awareness can be used in real-time to change how you react in situations that once promoted previous cycles of suffering.
What is the Goal of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?
The power of psychodynamic psychotherapy lies in its ability to help you gain insight into yourself. You uncover how your patterns developed, what protective strategies you are using to maintain these patterns, and whether or not these strategies are serving your life. Building these insights leads to more lasting change because, rather than just changing behaviors or thoughts, your worldview begins to transform.
Psychodynamic treatment isn’t only focused on getting rid of problematic behaviors or achieving symptom reduction. Instead, it builds a foundation capable of maintaining lasting change.
Lasting change can be defined in many different ways depending on the person.
Here is a list of a few examples:
Engage in more fulfilling relationships
Make more effective use of your talents and abilities
Maintain a realistic sense of self-esteem
Tolerate a broader range of emotions
Face life’s challenges with greater freedom and flexibility
As you participate in self-reflection and self-examination, you can identify what stories and beliefs you’re holding onto. By identifying these beliefs, you hold the power to edit the narratives so they better align with your goals for your future.
How Does Your Therapist Help You Reach Lasting Change?
Psychodynamic psychotherapy involves key strategies that lead to healing. Below, we will discuss each strategy by giving a brief overview of what it is, why it matters, and how it will appear in sessions.
Express Emotions
In psychodynamic treatment, you will be encouraged to explore and discuss a full range of emotions, especially ones that are uncomfortable or difficult to name. Your therapist will help you find words for what you’re feeling, even when your emotions feel contradictory. Examples of contradictory experiences could include falling out of love with your partner but not wishing to leave them, feeling drained by your occupation but fulfilled by its demanding roles, or grieving the loss of a friend while feeling unable to reach out to the friends you still have.
Expressing your emotions gives us rich information about yourself, the world, and the relationship between the two. Understanding and expressing your emotions leads to a deeper understanding of yourself. It also gives you wisdom for responding to the world around us.
Get Curious About Avoidance of Distressing Thoughts and Feelings
It is natural to avoid distressing things. However, avoidance isn’t compatible with change. You need to confront what you’re avoiding to build confidence in your ability to navigate difficult experiences.
In psychodynamic psychotherapy, your therapist will be curious about the thoughts and feelings that your conversations suggest but you don’t directly address. You could be unconsciously avoiding things that you need to confront. Your therapist will gently return your attention to the core of your issues.
It can be uncomfortable but be prepared for your therapist to lean into these observations and ask you to explore what you may be avoiding. The purpose of directing your attention to your avoidance is to help you develop the inner strength to manage difficult topics and the accompanying emotions.
Identify Recurring Themes and Patterns
Another tool used in psychodynamic psychotherapy is the identification of recurring themes and patterns that are present in your thoughts, feelings, relationships, life experiences, and how you think about yourself. Your therapist can help you recognize and understand the function of these patterns.
When you can identify and understand how you behave and what you believe about yourself, you uncover the function of the cycles you’re trapped inside. Knowing the function empowers you to redirect your coping mechanisms toward thoughts and behaviors that cultivate healing and growth.
Discussion of Past Experiences
Psychodynamic treatment encourages the exploration of early life experiences. Psychodynamic psychotherapy focuses on how the past affects the present. For this reason, psychodynamic therapists facilitate the exploration of early memories because these experiences influence how you show up later in life. For example, your relationship with your mom can impact how you respond to authority figures at work or your experiences in school may determine who you choose as friends.
Your past shaped who you are and your worldview. By acknowledging and identifying how your past experiences, traumas, and relationships have influenced you, you can break free from old patterns that no longer serve you. You can have the agency to make different choices in how you think, feel, and act.
Looking at Interpersonal Relationships
Psychodynamic therapy emphasizes exploring your relationships. Relationships are essential for your emotional health. After all, we are social beings who need to connect with others to thrive. Psychological difficulties arise when you get stuck in relationship patterns that don’t fulfill your emotional needs. By analyzing how you show up in relationships and how others treat you, you build insight into your relationship patterns. This gives you the agency to make new choices in the future.
By exploring these parts of your experience, you can identify the stories you hold onto about yourself and others. In turn, you can edit the script to reach more empowering conclusions.
Is Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Right for Me?
Conditions psychodynamic psychotherapy can treat
Psychodynamic therapy can be used to treat a wide range of mental health disorders, including but not limited to:
Depression
Anxiety
PTSD
Eating disorders
It can also be an effective treatment option if you’ve:
Lost direction in your life
Struggle with romantic relationships
Feel lonely or isolated
Find the past is impacting your present life
Have difficulty forming and maintaining relationships
Who is a Good Candidate for Psychodynamic Treatment?
Are you feeling stuck in your life? Are you struggling in your relationships? Do you feel like you’re not living a fulfilling life? Psychodynamic psychotherapy can support you in making changes that not only last but feel fulfilling. It gives you tools and strategies that move you toward change while also helping you gain important insight and wisdom into yourself.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is about depth and transformation. It isn’t just a bandaid for your pain. Instead, it helps you dig deep inside yourself to understand why you do what you do. When you transform how you relate to yourself and the world, it becomes natural to take action and make changes.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Therapy in Seattle, WA
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is an effective form of treatment that can help you build insight into yourself and move toward lasting change. If you’re in the Seattle area and are looking for a way to break out of your old ways and build a more meaningful life, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at Thrive for the People may be a good place to start. We have a team of therapists accepting clients for in-person sessions at our office in Ballard or online across Washington.
In-Person and Online Therapy
Our office is located in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.
5306 Ballard Ave NW,
Seattle, WA
Can’t make it into the office? We also offer online therapy for your convenience.
Schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation to see if we are a good fit.
We are excited to welcome Maricor Coquia, LMHC, as the newest member of our team. Mari has openings for individual and couples therapy.
