Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are two forms of treatment that share the same foundation: that our experiences in early life unconsciously shape who we are and how we think, and that when we start to notice the shape of it, something shifts within us.
Psychoanalysis is not about receiving helpful advice or being told how to behave or think differently. It is an exploration into your inner world, into your patterns, wishes, and fears. It is an empathic and nonjudgmental inquiry into the stories you may not even know that you carry about who you are. This work aims to create the conditions for those unseen forces to come up to the surface and for those patterns or stories we are stuck in to weaken their grip.
Relational Psychoanalysis
My theoretical orientation is what the field of psychoanalysis calls “relational.” What this means is that I do not think of myself as a blank canvas and do not believe in an objective observer. I am a person in the room with you, affected by you, curious about you, and changed by the encounter just as you are. Relational psychoanalysis takes into account that our histories and our relational patterns naturally emerge through relationships and that this interaction is also the site of transformation.
While I may bring to the work my own history and my own reactions, this remains your space and the focus remains on you.
