Services
Psychoanalysis
It is difficult, if not impossible, to define psychoanalysis in a few paragraphs. At one level it can be described as a method of treating emotional disorders developed by Freud and his followers, based on the notion that mental life operates on both conscious and unconscious levels and that early life events, and how we interpret them, exert a powerful influence throughout life. Accurate as this is, it doesn’t say anything about the experience of analysis, which is generally what people want to know when they ask—what is psychoanalysis?
This question is not easy to answer for several reasons. First, the analytic method involves attention to spontaneously occurring emotional experience in the analytic hour, the nature of which cannot be known in advance by either party. Second, we live in a culture that tends to privilege rational thought and conscious cognition over unconscious thought processes (reverie and dreaming) without understanding how they’re linked. Nevertheless, the analytic method is designed to create an environment in which the connection between these two realms of experience can be observed and meaningfully interpreted by the analyst and patient working together.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term used to describe the treatment of emotional disorders by psychological methods. Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy are related forms of treatment aimed at addressing the present day causes of emotional distress and fostering healthy development. Both are based on psychoanalytic principles, including an appreciation of the role unconscious mental forces play in shaping how we perceive ourselves and relate to others. Both employ the medium of the therapeutic relationship to investigate patterns of relating that obstruct wellbeing, nurturing omnipresent possibilities for emotional growth.
Consultation & Supervision
Consultation refers to the process of a psychotherapist or psychoanalyst conferring with a senior colleague identified as having expertise in a specialized area of clinical practice or in a particular theoretical orientation, or both. Supervision is a form of consultation with the added implication of legal responsibility on the part of the supervisor for the supervisee’s clinical work. For example, if a therapist is post-graduate and accruing hours toward licensure, he or she will need to obtain consultation from a Washington State approved supervisor. In either case, information shared with the consultant/supervisor is privileged and confidential, just as with any mental health treatment relationship.