What Is Psychodynamic Therapy?
Psychodynamic therapy can sound more complicated than it is. At its heart, psychodynamic therapy is about getting curious about your inner world and how your past, present, and relationships all fit together.
Psychodynamic therapy in plain language
This style of therapy looks at what’s happening beneath the surface. This includes the feelings, patterns, and needs that shape how you think, feel, and relate to others. I think of it as keeping one foot in the past and one in the present. We make sense of what’s showing up now by understanding where it may have come from.
In practice, that often means:
Being curious about your inner world. What you feel, what you avoid, and what’s hard to put into words.
Looking at relational patterns. How you connect with others, and how that shows up both inside and outside of therapy.
Exploring the emotions that keep resurfacing. Noticing what keeps coming up and getting curious about why.
Gently exploring what feels hard to talk about. At a safe pace, we look at the things you feel resistant to bringing in.
Understanding unmet emotional needs. What you needed then, and how it impacts what you need now.
Making sense of hurt and repair. We get hurt in relationships, and we also heal in relationships.
I work primarily from this approach, and I weave in elements of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), always leading with the emotions that are present.
My favourite way to describe this style of therapy is untangling a knotted ball of yarn. We won’t know which threads are connected to which until we start gently pulling at them. Some threads loosen quickly, while others take time and are connected to other pieces in surprising ways. We go where the threads pull us.
Think of it like untangling a knot of yarn
“It’s all about blaming your caregivers.”
Not at all. We look at your experience of your relationships. The goal is not to blame, but to create understanding and validation.
“It takes forever.”
It depends. I work long-term, and that’s because it can take time to get beneath the surface and work on what’s really there. How we’re pacing things is something we will check in on together.
“It’s only about the past.”
The past matters because of how it shows up in the present. And in how you feel, relate, and manage challenges today.
Common myths about Psychodynamic Therapy
In every session, including the earliest ones, we will work with whatever emotions are present and jump off from there. You don’t need to arrive with an agenda or the right words. I aim to lead our sessions with empathy and attunement so you have a steady and safe space to be yourself.
Is Psychodynamic Therapy right for you?
If you’d like to understand yourself more deeply, notice patterns in your relationships, or make sense of feelings that are hard to name, then this approach may work for you. You don’t need to know exactly what you’re looking for to begin. We’ll find what works best for you together.
Learn more about individual therapy or couples therapy.
