In Psychoanalytic Therapy I Help You:

The Talking Cure

As Sigmund Freud famously discovered, our conscious lives are actually shaped by  conflicts and feelings that operate outside our awareness.  Psychoanalysis is the general name given to methods of therapy which seek to help people better understand their emotional reactions and behavior in the light of the early life experiences which shaped them.  Unlike the picture of a bearded professor listening in neutral silence while the patient lies on a couch, contemporary psychoanalysis is an interactive conversation in which therapist and client collaborate together in understanding the psychological patterns which are causing the patient problems.

Psychoanalysis therapy can best be understood as an intensive as well as flexible mode of treatment which helps in resolving emotional problems, relieving psychological distress, and developing intimate relationships with others, and is a valuable avenue for self-discovery and personal growth.  As a counselor in Santa Barbara, I focus on helping the patient understand how the attachments, separations, and losses which have occurred in early life determine current-day contexts of living, working and loving.

Contemporary psychoanalysis is based on scientific research in child development and neurobiology and is an advanced method of psychotherapeutic treatment.  Focus on the here-and-now of an individual’s experiences and relationships in the context of the supportive understanding of the therapist facilitates the development of  new awareness and insight which begins to transform even long-standing  and intractable patterns of painful experience.

My psychoanalytic approach as a counselor, and the ensuing psychoanalysis therapy,  can benefit a wide range of people in and around Santa Barbara,  including adolescents, children, families, and couples as well as adult individuals.