What is psychodynamic therapy like?
Therapy is always an alternating sequence of interaction and reflection upon that interaction.
Irvin D. Yalom • Staring at the Sun
Are you just a list of symptoms on some diagnostic questionnaire, or does your therapist take the time to find out why you do what you do and think what you think? Therapy is a collaborative process—a mutual exploration of your self.
Bessel van der Kolk • The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
I had rejected psychodynamic theory because its focus on the past failed to provide patients a way of changing in the present. CBT recognized the need for change in the present, but it underestimated the challenge: its techniques were no match for an inner force that could overwhelm rational thinking and make change seem impossible.
Barry Michels • Coming Alive: 4 Tools to Defeat Your Inner Enemy, Ignite Creative Expression & Unleash Your Soul's Potential
Patients acquire a sense of safety in therapy in other ways as well. Weiss and Sampson’s research, and my own experience, have shown that patients actively, if unconsciously, test the therapist to see if it is safe enough for them to bring forth the most troubling parts of themselves for examination and to try out new and healthier attitudes and be
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