Introduction
On this site, I set out some features of how I work as a therapist. But what is a psychodynamic therapist? On this page, I will give you a quick overview of how the role of therapist in psychodynamic therapy extends each of these features. And how you can make use of the psychodynamic relationship between you as client and your therapist.
Table of contents
1. Psychodynamic therapy and the unconscious mind
On my ‘How I work‘ page, I set out the importance of noticing and changing feelings, patterns of behaviour and relationships that are hidden from yourself. Why? Because they are often the ones that keep you stuck or repeating the same old patterns. So, how does a psychodynamic therapist work with these?
The unconscious
Some bunches of feelings and thoughts can be very deeply buried in our minds. And they are not readily accessible, even when we go looking for them! They operate outside of our conscious awareness every time they are triggered. As a shorthand, these are called ‘the unconscious’. This is the same for everyone and perfectly normal.
But what if something you can’t see or consciously feel is, say, pushing up your anxiety or leaving you feeling not in control? Or unconscious feelings are driving you to behave in ways you don’t like or understand? If you don’t know about these, how can you make things better for yourself ?
It is often the unconscious parts of your mind – the ones you have completely lost touch with – that cause the most enduring problems and distress. They can be driving just about anything that troubles us: anxiety, depression, difficult relationships, everything! Nothing we do seems to work. And that sometimes adds another worry: “There is something wrong with me that I can’t fix.”
Psychodynamic therapists help you access your unconscious mind
Do you feel stuck in a some pattern of living or relating to people that you just can’t break? Or act in ways that aren’t what you want or need? This is probably some part of your unconscious mind being triggered. And you can’t change your behaviour because you don’t know what’s causing it. In that case, even therapy won’t bring this to light – unless you are helped to access the unconscious mind. Doing exactly that is central to psychodynamic therapy.
As a psychodynamic therapist, working with the unconscious is central to my approach.
How are you going to tell me about these unconscious factors if you don’t know they’re there? Psychodynamic therapy is designed to help you find these most deeply buried feelings and patterns that are affecting you every day. As you will see below, working with the unconscious adds another layer of depth to other aspects of therapy too.
2. Psychodynamic therapists: working with your past
In my ‘How I work’ page, I mention how the past shapes us in the present. And how talking about your past – if you want to – can help improve your future. But how can you talk about aspects of your past that remain unconscious?
The past builds the unconscious into your present
The people looking after us as children may not always have responded to us sensitively. This is not necessarily ‘bad parenting’. Parents and caregivers maybe overworked, tired, stressed or ill. That may have left them less able to engage with your needs as a child. (And, yes, they may have also been cruel or neglectful at times.)
While you as a child were busy adapting to how people around you expected you to behave, your mind was busy protecting you from the painful feelings of not being fully understood or cared for. It can bury these deeply. Or split them off into another part of the mind altogether. They become part of the ‘unconscious’ mind. That is helpful – at the time.
But what happens when something triggers these buried feelings and ways of relating to people again in adulthood? They can make you feel and behave just as you did in childhood! Without you realising this has happened. You may not know why you are feeling and behaving like you do, because it is your unconscious mind working. You may not realise you are feeling that at all!
Psychodynamic therapists help you use your past to change your future
Talking about your past, if you choose to, can help you access unconscious feelings. They, in turn, help you understand what is making you feel and behave like you do today. These can be quite complex and layered. The role of therapist in psychodynamic therapy is to help you work through these. And when you bring them into awareness, you can start making changes.
There is no need to be a prisoner of your upbringing. A psychodynamic therapist will help you understand how your past is affecting you now, so that you can leave it behind.
Psychodynamic therapy helps you access hard-to-reach parts of your mind that are driving your hard-to-break patterns.
3. The relationship with your psychodynamic therapist
My ‘How I work‘ page explains how your relationship with your therapist can be healing and can be used to make deeper changes. And earlier on this page, I say that our unconscious minds are working all of the time. In fact, much of the way we relate to people takes place outside of our conscious awareness. This applies in therapy too, both to you and to me. What if you could learn to make good use of this psychodynamic relationship between you as client and me as therapist? Well, you can!
As a psychodynamic therapist, I have also trained to notice unconscious communication and patterns of relating between you and me. This adds another layer of depth and offers the possibility of towards deeper transformation.
Changing yourself by using the psychodynamic therapy relationship
When you bring your unconscious patterns clearly into your awareness, you will find it easier to make the changes you want. Gradually, as you become more confident, you may find yourself using the therapy relationship to make changes for yourself. It can be quite exciting to find that this works. And that you can do this outside of therapy too!
4. Dealing with trauma and dissociation
I have a special interest in working with adults who faced trauma in childhood. This affects us in many ways, including dissociation. I work with dissociation up to and including its more difficult forms. These include depersonalisation, derealisation and alternative personalities (sometimes called multiple personalities or Dissociative Identity Disorder.) But how much or little you faced isn’t what’s important here. Or what you call it. If you are struggling to deal with the effects of your past, please talk to me about it.
There is also an overlap between the unconscious and dissociation, but that is a step too far for this page.
Find out more about how I work
To find out more about how I work, you can contact me easily here.
- Go back to the parent page of this one: How I work
- For the overview of my therapy practice, please go to About Juline Counselling
- For more about my training and experience, see About Juline
- For frequently asked questions, try the Your Questions page.
- You can also check out my policies here.
© Copyright, Julian Mauger 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Photo by Cata.