In brief: psychodynamic ideas help us notice feelings, expectations and ways of relating that operate partly outside awareness. By understanding how the past may still be present, you may gain more freedom in how you respond now.
I offer individual counselling and psychotherapy, and can offer Interpersonal Psychotherapy where it is appropriate and agreed.
I have undertaken further training in psychodynamic psychotherapy, with intensive personal therapy forming part of that training course. The therapy I offer is person-centred and integrative.
Psychodynamic thinking is one influence within that work, helping us consider early relationships, less conscious processes and recurring patterns when these are relevant to your experience.
You are invited to speak as freely as you can about whatever comes to mind: what has happened, what you feel, what you avoid, what seems confusing, and what appears unimportant but keeps returning. You do not need to organise it into a perfect story.
I listen not only to the subject of the conversation, but also to its emotional shape. Where does the story become uncertain? What feeling disappears behind a joke? Does the same disappointment appear in different relationships? What becomes difficult between us when a similar subject arises?
We are not searching for a hidden “correct answer”. We are allowing a fuller pattern to become visible.
Psychodynamic therapists have sometimes been described as a blank canvas. The idea is that if the therapist reveals less about their personal life and does not rush to give advice, there is more room for your own expectations and feelings to emerge.
I remain attentive, responsive and fully present. The “canvas” describes making space for your experience, allowing you to speak freely without having to look after my feelings, follow a preferred solution or seek my approval.
How you imagine I may see you can itself become useful. You may expect criticism, rejection, disappointment, control or rescue, even when I have not intended it. Rather than deciding that your reaction is wrong, we can become curious about what it may be carrying.
Some feelings, memories, wishes and fears influence us without being fully available to thought. We may know what we do, but not yet understand why it feels necessary.
For example: you repeatedly agree to things you do not want, then feel resentful, without recognising how frightening saying no has become.
We all develop ways of protecting ourselves from feelings that once seemed overwhelming or unsafe. A defence is not a flaw; it is a solution that may have outlived the situation that required it.
For example: explaining every feeling intellectually may help you remain composed, while also keeping sadness at a distance.
Sometimes a feeling that is difficult to recognise in ourselves is experienced as belonging mainly to somebody else.
For example: you may feel certain another person is angry with you while your own anger remains difficult to acknowledge. This can be explored as one possible meaning, with care and curiosity.
Expectations and feelings formed in important relationships can become active in present ones, including the relationship with a therapist.
For example: a question from me may feel like criticism, or a session ending may feel like rejection. What happens between us can offer a live opportunity to understand a familiar pattern.
The therapist also has emotional responses in the room. Used carefully, reflected on and supported by supervision, these responses may provide information about what is being communicated or repeated between us.
They are not treated as proof about you, and I remain responsible for understanding my own feelings rather than placing them onto you.
We may find ourselves recreating something familiar, even when it is painful, because familiar ways of relating can feel more predictable than unknown ones.
For example: repeatedly choosing unavailable people may protect against the different risk of being truly known by someone available.
If you become angry with me, worry about disappointing me, feel overlooked, want me to provide an answer, or imagine that I am judging you, we can talk about it. Each reaction is considered in its context. It may be a realistic response to me, to the present situation, or to a misunderstanding between us.
We think together about what belongs to now, what may feel familiar from elsewhere, and how the two may be connected. Any observation or interpretation I offer is a possibility for us to think about together, with room for you to agree, disagree or understand it differently.
Insight alone does not instantly remove a pattern. Change may also come through repeatedly experiencing a relationship in which feelings can be survived, misunderstandings discussed and familiar expectations examined rather than automatically enacted.
This plain-language explanation is grounded in established professional descriptions of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic practice.
This way of thinking may be especially useful if the same difficulties seem to repeat across relationships, your reactions sometimes feel stronger than the immediate situation, or you want to understand how earlier experiences may still shape what you expect, feel or do.
Psychodynamic ideas can offer another way of understanding patterns in your feelings, relationships and experiences within our wider person-centred and integrative work. Any ideas I offer are possibilities for us to consider together, with your experience guiding the work.