Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

What is psychodynamic psychotherapy and how does it work?

Psychodynamic psychotherapy (interchangeable with dynamic psychotherapy) is a form of depth therapy that aims to address the psychological root of distressing symptoms. Unconscious processes including unconscious emotions, needs, anxiety, and defenses (learned patterns of avoiding triggers to anxiety) are brought to awareness, which allows people to address what they avoid, experience symptom relief, and make healthier choices. 

Contrary to common misconception, effective psychodynamic psychotherapy involves more than acknowledging that a person’s past plays a role in their present life. While it is undeniable that the past influences the present, gaining this type of intellectual self-understanding tends to have limited effect when it does not occur in the context of emotional processing work in a safe and genuine therapeutic relationship. 

Effective psychodynamic psychotherapy deals with a person’s internal, unconscious reactions to life events that are at the basis of mental health symptoms and disorders. Psychodynamic therapy explores these internal reactions in a person’s current relationships and in the here-and-now relationship with the therapist. Because these internal patterns are often unconscious and automatic, people feel stuck and unable to move forward. Psychodynamic psychotherapy can help people become aware of and change their unhelpful patterns and address the underlying anxiety provoking reactions and emotions. 

Why you might be interested in psychodynamic psychotherapy:

Much like how our lives are governed by unconscious processes like breathing, our lives are also governed by unconscious patterns. Without addressing the unconscious patterns that perpetuate suffering and resolving the underlying avoided emotions, we are at risk of continuing to engage in self-defeating patterns. 

While therapies that teach coping skills can be helpful, sometimes people’s unconscious avoidance patterns may be so entrenched that they do not benefit from coping skills or strategies. Sometimes people can see immediate benefits from learning skills but find that they unintentionally stop using the skills after ending treatment and experience a return of the problems that brought them to therapy. Psychodynamic psychotherapy helps people address the unconscious self-defeating patterns that prevent them from developing their own coping skills or using new skills. 

What does the research say?

Research shows that while all types of therapies are near equally effective in the short-term, dynamically oriented therapies tend to produce longer lasting outcomes. Neuroimaging studies have shown psychodynamic psychotherapies to generate positive changes in the neural pathways of the brain to normalize and improve brain functioning. Evidence also suggests that adding psychodynamic principles to other therapy models, like cognitive behavioural therapy, can increase the effectiveness of other treatment approaches.