Psychodynamic Therapy

What is Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic Therapy focusses on an old unconscious pattern you repeatedly act out in your life, which may be causing sabotage. Therapy may involve changing parts of your behaviour so that certain impulses or actions become more adaptive or positive responses.

For instance you may have poor personal boundaries so you passively accept whatever behaviour is directed at you and stay silent. Perhaps in childhood you were told to be quiet, be obedient and feared further punishment if you asserted yourself.

As an adult you now need to set boundaries, have an authentic “NO” and stand up for yourself. Psychodynamic therapy allows you to make your infantile approach conscious. Using your body and emotional expression, you then try a new response to enact an organic “NO”.  This is one of many examples of Psychodynamic Therapy and how it can help you change deeply embedded behavioural patterns.

How can Psychodynamic Therapy Help You

You came through childhood where you learnt through mirroring and modelling by adults and peers, how to be and do. If there was dysfunction and trauma in your family, you learned to survive or get the love and resources needed.  As a result, you may have felt you were unlovable, or you felt shame and self-hatred. These feelings developed from the wrong conclusions your limited consciousness could conclude back then. These toxic and negative states of self may still today cause you to self-sabotage as an adult. What you consciously learnt became second nature and receded into your background nature and personality. These may create issues, conflict and poor social outcomes which you express in your conscious life.

With Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, you can put an end to any inappropriate actions, reaction and strategies in life. Psychodynamic therapy is effective in helping you “shed the skin of childhood” and grow up emotionally.

What Strategies are Used in Psychodynamic Therapy

Our Psychodynamic Therapists at Energetics Institute in Perth use a wholistic, embodied and emotionally expressive psychodynamic approach. At first there is a counselling stage where the therapist explores your history, with particular focus on your family. That helps establish patterns and dynamics in your personality which stemmed from your formative childhood period.

The Psychodynamic Psychotherapist will also look at how you adapted and the role you played within your family system. The therapist will also examine the beliefs, strategies, conclusions, and defences you adopted growing up. Your current self-limiting or self-sabotaging behaviours are directly related to those aspects of yourself.

The therapist will help re-create your original dynamics and get you to stand in that scenario manifesting your unconscious in the moment. This will help your old beliefs and feelings be felt as though you are a child once more. The therapist may act as the pivotal parental or authority figure or may somehow mirror your childhood dynamics.

Your therapist will help you so your emotions and impulses emerge and are released safely. The therapist may protect you in the scenario or help with re-parenting your child. You will be supported to enact a skilful challenge, response or new strategy that is adult appropriate. This helps to breakdown your old unconscious stance towards the dynamic.

Finally, the therapist directs you into an adult grounded stance to confront the dynamic and stand up for yourself. This enables you to integrate the new experience and feel the new freedom and joy created.

Repeated application of this approach dissolves your unconscious and rewires you into your new adaptive positive state which is adult appropriate.