This approach explores how past experiences — particularly early relationships — continue to influence your thoughts, feelings and relationship patterns in the present, often outside conscious awareness.
Psychodynamic therapy assumes that much of what drives us is not immediately visible, and that recurring difficulties — in relationships, self-worth, mood — make sense once their origins are understood. The relationship with the practitioner is itself a source of insight: patterns tend to show up in the room. It suits complex or long-standing issues where insight and the therapeutic relationship drive change, and it is often integrated with evidence-based focused strategies rather than used alone.
Sessions are less structured than CBT-based approaches, unfolding more like an open conversation that gradually builds insight over time. There is no homework in the CBT sense. The work is usually longer-term, and depth builds with continuity.
People who want to understand the roots of recurring patterns rather than only manage symptoms, and who value a reflective, exploratory space.
Further reading: Australian Psychological Society.
No. Modern psychodynamic and relational therapy is a conversation, face-to-face or by telehealth, typically weekly or fortnightly.
Longer than brief structured therapies — often months to a year or more — because it works on deep patterns. Shorter, focused psychodynamic work also exists.
Yes. Psychodynamic therapy has a solid research base, particularly for depression, anxiety and complex, long-standing difficulties, and its benefits tend to continue growing after therapy ends.
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