Benefits of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

You may feel relief from the suffering that brought you to treatment. You may also experience greater fulfillment in your life, through more security and a sure sense of your own goodness and your capacity for love and work.

I believe this comes about through the deep connection established between patient and analyst as they face pain and suffering that is made bearable by the support and containment achieved in the analytic relationship. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are not generally short-term treatments. It takes time to establish the deep trust and intimacy with the analyst that allows us to face the most difficult and painful parts of ourselves with the honesty and courage that will help us change and become stronger and more whole in ourselves.

For empirical research on the benefits of psychotherapy, see Shedler:

pdfs/Shedler (2010) Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy.pdf

...and a cartoon about depression and psychoanalysis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNaj8HSGDCE