Psychoanalytic therapy involves a process of exploration undertaken by the therapist and the patient together. You are invited to talk freely about whatever is on your mind – feelings, thoughts, fears, dreams, memories, your relationships with other people and your current and past environments (home, work, family, friends). Your therapist will listen carefully to what you say; over time, paying particular attention to your unconscious life, psychoanalytic therapy can help you to understand what you are struggling with and support deep-seated change in your relationship with yourself and others.

People come into psychoanalytic therapy for a wide variety of reasons; you may be experiencing particular symptoms – anxiety, depression, phobias, traumatising thoughts – or more general feelings of hopelessness or malaise (‘Everything is going well, but …’). You may be struggling with a loss of creativity or fulfilment. Talking in an uncensored way in your sessions enables a deeper exploration of the meaning of these experiences, helping to shift what can become entrenched, and inhibited, ways of living.

This is a gradual process which takes considerable time and commitment, as well as an interest in your own mind – both conscious and unconscious. The more frequently you are able to attend sessions, the more intensively you are able to work. Psychoanalytic therapy requires a minimum of once-weekly sessions for 50 minutes; it is important to consider working more frequently if that is possible for you. Being invited to say whatever we want to say, or whatever is uppermost in our minds, is an unfamiliar experience. Especially if you are new to psychoanalytic therapy, our first sessions are likely to be more structured as we explore how we might work together.

What is psychoanalytic therapy? – British Psychoanalytic Council