Psychoanalysis is a means of looking at the unconscious, attachment patterns, major development, and family patterns. It’s the bedrock of most therapy.

Psychodynamic is more accessible psychoanalytic therapy as psychoanalysis is usually 3-5x a week and can last years. Psychodynamic therapy can be once a week and is generally more accessible.

Therapy is a container where your relational patterns out in the real world come to life in the therapeutic sense.

I also think the relationship between the therapist and client is critical. It’s a window into the problems and even strengths you have outside of the therapy room.

Dialectical behavior therapy is a means of holding the dialectic, or two truths, or two conflicting beliefs. It’s often used to treat borderline personality or other behaviors.

DBT doesn’t need to be exclusive to treating borderline personality and is great for distress tolerance and mindfulness, and cognitive dissonance in general.

Everyone has different layers of identity.

Basically, you have many different layers: your race, your gender, mental health, class, sexuality, where you’re from, etc. These create different layers of privilege and oppression that interact.

The interaction is important to consider, and no one is simply “oppressed,” “privileged,” or “marginalized.”

I run a multicultural therapy group for mixed people, learn more here.

I do not believe most people fit cleanly within most diagnoses. I also do not work from an over-pathologizing or diagnosis first approach. Labels are incredibly limiting. Yes, sometimes they are also life saving.

What’s more important:

You are living life better, you are improving socially, relationally, existentially.

Relational therapy might work for someone with “people pleasing tendencies” but someone might be neurodivergent and need a more structured approach.

I am flexible in my treatment style when it is called for, and flexibility is often called for. Two people can be struggling with something similar and yet need two entirely different approaches. You also could have major success working with a “diagnosis” in one person - and less with the other even with the same “approach” due to an individual’s motivation level to be in therapy.

Here’s the intention:

My intention is to be less “yeah, I have the solutions for everyone, and therapy goes exactly this way for these things” (Spoiler Alert: that would be ridiculous) and more- “how can I give someone an idea of my strengths and how I think so they can best determine if they’d like to work with me?”