Psychodynamic psychotherapy

Psychodynamic psychotherapy

• Psychodynamic psychotherapy focuses on the feelings patients have about other people, especially their family, and the people they are close to. The treatment involves discussing past experiences and how these may have led to their present predicament. It also helps them to see how these affect their lives now and how they may express these feelings to the therapist. The understanding gained frees the person to make choices about what happens in the future
• NICE depression guideline defined psychodynamic interventions as being derived from a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic model
  • therapist and patient explore and gain insight into conflicts and how these are represented in current situations and relationships including the therapy relationship (e.g. transference and counter-transference). This leads to patients being given an opportunity to explore feelings, and conscious and unconscious conflicts, originating in the past, with a technical focus on interpreting and working though conflicts
  • therapy is non-directive and recipients are not taught specific skills (e.g. thought monitoring, re-evaluating, or problem-solving)

Reference:

1. MeReC Bulletin 2005;16(1): non-drug therapies for depression in primary care.