Psychodynamic Therapy

Understanding the Roots of Present Experience

Psychodynamic therapy takes a different approach from more structured, skills-focused treatments. It explores the deeper layers of psychological life - how early experiences, unconscious processes, and patterns developed over a lifetime continue to influence who you are and how you relate to others.

The Psychodynamic Perspective

This approach is grounded in several key ideas:

The past shapes the present: Early relationships, particularly with caregivers, create templates for how we expect relationships to work, how we see ourselves, and how we manage emotions. These patterns don’t just disappear - they continue operating, often outside our awareness.

The unconscious matters: Not everything that influences our behaviour is conscious. Feelings, wishes, fears, and conflicts can operate below the surface, revealing themselves through dreams, slips of the tongue, repetitive patterns, or emotional reactions that seem out of proportion.

Insight enables change: By bringing unconscious material into awareness - understanding the roots of patterns and the feelings connected to them - we gain greater freedom to choose how we respond.

The therapeutic relationship is central: How you relate to your therapist often mirrors how you relate to others. These patterns, when noticed and explored, become a window into your inner world.

What Psychodynamic Therapy Explores

Sessions may touch on:

• Early experiences and their lasting effects
• Recurring patterns in relationships
• Dreams and their possible meanings
• Conflicting feelings or wishes
• How you relate to your therapist (the “transference”)
• Defences - the ways you protect yourself from painful feelings
• Losses, disappointments, and unresolved grief
• Your sense of identity and how it developed

What to Expect

Unlike CBT or other structured approaches, psychodynamic therapy is relatively open-ended. Sessions don’t typically follow a set agenda. Instead, you might start with whatever is most present for you, and follow where the conversation leads.

The therapist listens carefully, not just to the content of what you say but to themes, patterns, emotions, and what might lie beneath the surface. They may offer interpretations - observations about possible meanings or connections - which you can consider and explore together.

The pace tends to be unhurried. Change happens through deepening understanding and the experience of being truly heard and accepted.

Psychodynamic therapy can be short-term (focused on a specific issue) or longer-term (more open exploration of personality and patterns). The duration depends on what you’re hoping to achieve.

Who Benefits from Psychodynamic Therapy

This approach may suit you if:

• You want to understand yourself at a deeper level
• The same patterns keep repeating in your life despite efforts to change
• You’re interested in exploring the meaning behind your experiences
• You value the therapeutic relationship and the process of being understood
• Previous, more structured approaches haven’t fully addressed your difficulties
• You’re dealing with questions of identity, meaning, or long-standing relational issues

A Different Kind of Change

Psychodynamic therapy doesn’t promise quick fixes or specific techniques to apply. Instead, it offers something different: deeper self-knowledge, greater freedom from patterns that have constrained you, and a richer understanding of your inner life.

Get in touch to discuss whether this approach might suit you.