Individual Psychodynamic and/or Existential Therapy
Connect for a complimentary initial conversation.
Psychodynamic Therapy
As a psychodynamic psychotherapist, my approach is rooted in understanding the deep, often unconscious processes that shape your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours.
We will explore not just your present concerns but how past experiences, especially early relationships, continue to influence your current life.
This form of therapy looks at patterns in your relationships, ways you defend against painful feelings, and unconscious conflicts. The goal is to bring these into awareness, which can help you gain insight into yourself and make meaningful changes.
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The first few sessions will include a structured history taking. Once I have a basic overview of your life, you will take the lead and speak about what comes to mind and what is important to you at the moment (including current problems, relationships, feelings, memories, and experiences).
I will pay attention to feelings you may avoid, ways you protect yourself from emotional pain, and how past experiences may influence your present life.
Sometimes these patterns appear in your relationship with the therapist and can be explored together.
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Key interventions include interpreting unconscious conflicts, examining how these manifest in our therapeutic relationship, and addressing defenses that block painful emotions. We work through these insights repeatedly, allowing you to slowly shift away from ingrained patterns. The therapeutic relationship itself is also a tool, as dynamics between us often mirror patterns in your life, offering valuable insights into how you relate to others.
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Change in psychodynamic therapy comes from deepening awareness of unconscious patterns, integrating conflicted parts of yourself, and resolving core emotional issues. This leads to greater freedom in your choices, symptom reduction, and improved emotional resilience, allowing for healthier, more adaptive ways of relating to yourself and others.
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While the frequency and number of sessions often depend on clients’ personal circumstances, I liken psychodynamic therapy to learning a new skill such as a musical instrument or going to the gym. If you wish to master the instrument or fundamentally reshape your body, you would want to invest the required time and effort. Therapy is not that different. You would ideally start with a minimum of one session a week and be prepared to invest time and dedication to reach your goal.
Existential Therapy
Applying an existential lens to therapy is not a technique. It means that I pay attention to certain themes in your narrative related to existential issues including the meaning of life, death, freedom, and isolation.
Those issues can cause us great anxiety and impact our decision making e.g., remaining in an unhealthy relationship or employment situation rather than breaking old patterns and seeking fulfillment.
In our sessions we will explore the underlying anxieties with the goal of helping you make choices rooted not in avoidance or fear, but in a clearer sense of your freedom, responsibility, and personal meaning.
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Four major issues that concern each of us and can cause significant anxiety are fear of death, meaning of life, freedom, and isolation.
Most of our day-to-day problems can be traced back to one of these questions.
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Change begins when individuals turn towards their particular existential concerns, bringing unconscious anxieties into awareness, and taking responsibility for their choices.
Clients are encouraged to live more authentically, recognizing where they have conformed, self-deceived, or denied their freedom. Change happens when they reclaim their agency and make choices aligned with their true values.
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Sessions are typically centred around your experiences, values, and choices.
Rather than focusing solely on symptoms or pathology and aiming for quick resolution, I will hold space for sustained reflection on how you wish to live and support you in exploring those existential questions most important to you.
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Psychodynamic therapy focuses on how unconscious feelings, internal conflicts, past experiences, and established patterns of relating shape a your present life.
While both approaches encourage self-understanding, existential therapy emphasizes how people face the conditions and choices of life, whereas psychodynamic therapy emphasizes the psychological processes that influence how they experience themselves and others.
When applying an existential lens, I will help you explore what matters to you, how you make choices, and how you find meaning in your circumstances. I will pay attention to how you relate to yourself, other people, and the realities of being human. The aim is to help you live with greater awareness, authenticity, and personal responsibility.
Get in Touch
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Someone from our team will get back to your questions, comments, or thoughts.