FAQ/Blog

Q: Is psychoanalytic therapy evidence-based?
A: Yes. Although it is harder to measure long-term and open-ended therapy effectiveness using randomised controlled trials, there is growing evidence for its effectiveness in addressing some difficulties - informed by decades of clinical practice, meta-reviews, and dialogue with other disciplines such as neuropsychology and social psychology. Psychoanalytic therapy is also evaluated on a basis which does not only focus on diagnosis and symptomatology. Of course, not every approach will be effective for everyone. Many people report gradual, non-linear progress and benefits that were unexpected, while the therapy develops, as well as sometimes feeling a bit worse before they feel better.

Q: Does psychoanalytic therapy focus only on childhood trauma?
A: It can focus as much on the past as it does on the present, regardless of the presence or absence of any trauma. 

Q: Will I learn coping strategies, or gain additional tools?
A: Perhaps – coping strategies may emerge naturally in the course of the work as a secondary effect, but the work focuses on setting the kind of questions that make lasting change possible.

Q: If I understand the root cause of my problem, will it then be resolved?
A: Insight and knowledge alone does not necessarily drive or maintain change. Although a fresh insight about an old problem might feel and be revolutionary, new thoughts about old patterns do not in themselves become whole new patterns. If you are trying to only say the "proper" things and contain your whole life experience in a box or a label, then you run the risk of intellectualising your difficulties. There needs to be a “working through”, where new perspectives and positions are tested out gradually – and therapy offers a space where new paths forward can be tested out until something “sticks”.

Q: What is the unconscious, and why is it important?
A: The unconscious refers to aspects of ourselves we are not fully aware of (desires, beliefs, values, conflicts) and which may shape us in ways we don't fully grasp. The term unconscious is an abstraction that may help account for why we suffer the way we do. It might be helpful to be open to the possibility that one does not know everything about themselves and that we may embellish our truths in order to keep ourselves consistent, loved, secure, and safe.