Chicago Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology |
WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY?
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy assumes that many of the problems that we experience in life, including problems that we create for ourselves and problems we have in responding to the opportunities and challenges of life, originate in parts of our mind that we are unaware of; that is, in unconscious processes.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a unique form of intensive psychotherapy in which a therapist and patient work together in close collaboration to understand the meaning of the patient's emotional reactions, thoughts, memories, fantasies, dreams, images, and sensations. Through conversation and relationship, psychoanalytic therapists seek to help their clients become more aware of their thoughts and feelings, actions and choices. Improved awareness of self and others are the keys to emotional healing and personal fulfillment in psychoanalytic therapy. Self-awareness connects us with feelings and assumptions that we had not been aware of, or been only partially but incompletely aware of; too incompletely to be useful. Self-awareness also involves revising the story of our lives to include a more complete comprehension of important parts of our personal history.
WHAT KINDS OF PROBLEMS ARE BEST ADDRESSED THOUGH PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY?
People seek psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy for many reasons. Some want help with specific emotional problems like depression, anxiety or stress or are seeking to come to terms with a painful or traumatic personal history. Others may feel stuck in distressing patterns that prevent them from feeling satisfied, from connecting with others, or from finding meaning in their lives. Many people simply desire a deeper self-understanding or greater creativity in their personal lives.
WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS?
In psychoanalytic psychotherapy, decisions about the frequency of sessions needed to sustain the therapeutic process are reached jointly between the therapist and the patient. Psychoanalysis requires three to five sessions a week and typically takes several years or longer. Not all patients are best served by participating in a psychoanalytic process. While psychoanalysis must be conducted by a graduate of a psychoanalytic institute, psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a therapeutic approach used by a variety of licensed mental health professionals with training in the basic principles of psychoanalytic theory and process, including psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. Psychoanalytic psychotherapists may work with couples, families, and groups, as well as with individual children, adolescents, and adults.
DO ALL PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPISTS WORK IN THE SAME WAY?
There is a very wide range of diversity among psychoanalytic therapists. One important variable, indicated in the question above, is the theory of human nature that the therapist holds. While all psychoanalytic therapists agree that unconscious processes can be at the root of much human suffering and underachievement, psychoanalytic therapists differ very much among themselves about the nature of unconscious processes, and also about the nature of the human mind in which they occur, and of which they form a part. A second important variable is the personality and personal style of the therapist. Some therapists talk a lot, others say little. Some are very supportive while others are very challenging. Some disclose significant amounts of information about themselves, while others are far more reserved. Some are quite directive, others leave the direction much more up to the client. There is no single therapeutic style that will work equally well for all clients. For therapy to be effective, a client needs to be working with a therapist whom she feels is able to understand, support, challenge and relate to her in a way that helps her to become more self-aware and effective in her life.
HOW DO I FIND THE RIGHT THERAPIST FOR ME?
Sometimes a client is lucky with the first therapist he or she interviews. In other cases he or she may need to meet with several different therapists before being able to select the most comfortable match. It is perfectly acceptable for a prospective patient to meet with a therapist for one or even several sessions to see how it feels to talk to that individual before deciding whether to begin working with that therapist or to continue to try out others. The CAPP therapist finder service maintains a list of names of therapists who can be contacted by prospective clients.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
The cost of psychoanalytic therapy varies with the therapist. Some therapists are on insurance panels and may even bill insurance companies for clients, while others do not. Some therapists may negotiate fees with a patient, while others do not. It is important to have a clear understanding about the financial arrangement at the beginning of therapy.
WILL INSURANCE PAY?
Many people who seek psychoanalytic therapy have diagnosable conditions, such as anxiety or depression, which most insurance programs cover for treatment. Not all insurance plans cover mental health treatment, and most therapists are providers for a limited number of insurance plans. The frequency of sessions covered by most insurance plans is once a week or less, and usually the patient must pay for some portion of the cost of these sessions out of pocket.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
Psychoanalytic therapy is generally not a short-term process. There are elements of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in some short term treatments, and even popular television "life coaches" use elements of psychoanalytic ideas, by linking the present problems of people they coach with past experiences in their lives of which they are not fully aware. But psychoanalytic therapy generally needs time for the therapist and client to form their therapeutic partnership and to go about their work of studying the issues that the client brings to therapy. Six to twelve months would be a general minimum expectation for therapy, and two to three years is not uncommon.
WHEN IS THERAPY OVER?
Usually, client and therapist discuss their impressions of how the client is doing and how the therapy is going, and decide together about when it makes sense to stop. Sometimes the frequency of sessions is gradually reduced, for example, from twice weekly to once weekly, or from once weekly to bimonthly, before stopping altogether.
