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PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY |
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Psychodynamic therapy, also known as
insight-oriented therapy, focuses on unconscious
processes as they are manifested in a person’s
present behaviour. The goals of psychodynamic
therapy are a client’s self-awareness and
understanding of the influence of the past on
present behaviour. In its brief form, a
psychodynamic approach enables the client to examine
unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from
past dysfunctional relationships and manifest
themselves in the need and desire to abuse
substances.
Several different approaches to brief psychodynamic
psychotherapy have evolved from psychoanalytic
theory and have been clinically applied to a wide
range of psychological disorders. There is a body of
research that generally supports the efficacy of
these approaches.
Psychodynamic therapy is the oldest of the modern
therapies. The healing and change process envisioned
in long-term psychodynamic therapy typically
requires at least 2 years of sessions. This is
because the goal of therapy is often to change an
aspect of one’s identity or personality or to
integrate key developmental learning missed while
the client was stuck at an earlier stage of
emotional development.
Practitioners of brief psychodynamic therapy believe
that some changes can happen through a more rapid
process or that an initial short intervention will
start an ongoing process of change that does not
need the constant involvement of the therapist.
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