What is Psychodynamic Therapy?
In brief, it is a talking therapy where the relationship between client and therapist fosters talking openly about feelings. The therapist assists with accessing thoughts and processes and interprets how they may be affecting you today. By doing this it is possible to reprocess these thoughts and feelings and improve our current situation. It has been found to be a very effective method of therapy.
When you first start looking for a counsellor you will be looking through numerous profiles where the therapist explains how they work. You might see things like, CBT, Person Centred, or Integrative. These are the methods (or modalities) that the therapist uses to help you. They are based on lots of different theories about how the mind works. In many ways they are often similar and the way that the therapist applies them to you will change depending on these ‘modalities’.
I was trained in Psychodynamic Counselling at the University of Essex and obtained a Masters Degree. This took 4 hard years of training to achieve, and yet anyone can currently set themselves up as a therapist.
Psychodynamic Counselling is derived from the original form of Psychoanalysis, pioneered by Sigmund Freud and Karl Gustav Jung. Over time the theory has evolved into the complex and fascinating subject that it is today.
From your point of view as a client, you certainly don’t need to know all of the theories. But as a basic explanation, maybe it would help to think of yourself as an Iceberg bobbing around in the sea.
Icebergs are much bigger than we often think. As we know, they can sink ships. But only a small part is visible above the water. The majority of the ice is under the sea.
This is similar to your mind. You will be aware of some of the things going on. For example, the anger you feel, or sadness. This is ‘the Conscious’ or the things you are aware of.
Under the sea is the ice you cannot see. But often you can observe what it does. It pushes other bergs away, it causes damage to vessels etc.
In many ways this mirrors what goes on in your life. The hidden ice causes damage to relationships and can push others away, causing sadness or other emotions.
We call this hidden ice, ‘the Subconscious’.

The aim of Psychodynamic therapy is to dig down into the Subconscious and bring to light, thoughts, patterns and behaviours that you may have been completely unaware of and to examine experiences that may have led to them.
By examining all of these things it is possible to process those thoughts and correct things that are not right in the present day.
For more information on Psychodynamic Therapy, click here to go to the BACP website.
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