As a psychoanalyst, I adopt a relational approach to psychotherapy, which includes a strong emphasis on the relational and developmental factors behind individuals’ problems and suffering. This approach focuses on the relational patterns that are developed and then internalized and how these patterns are repeated in adult life. Exploring how patterns emerge in the therapeutic relationship can be quite valuable. A relational or interpersonal psychoanalytic model places a strong emphasis on relational patterns both in- and outside of therapy. The therapy relationship is seen as co-constructed, mutual, and interactive, and the therapist engages actively with the client in this way.

I work within a psychodynamic framework, which involves an emphasis on both here and now problems alongside curiosity and exploration into the deeper roots of these problems. The specific areas of concern that are presented are always the starting point. From there, we can come to know more about how these areas of stuckness or suffering came to be and address both the practical aspects of the problem as well as the newly uncovered aspects of the issues.

I encourage people to notice particular thoughts, feelings, images, or even bodily sensations as they occur in daily living and/or in dreams. We often discover connections to past experience but I prefer to begin with present day experiences and observations and work from that place. The idea here, is that unresolved past issues live on inside of us and, from this place, we have an opportunity to address them, reducing suffering and creating new positive experiences.