It is without question that our early relational experiences establish the foundation of our personalities and carve out the basic sense of ourselves in the world. The feelings of security, competence, and hope arise from early care which is reliable and emotionally attuned. While most parents are loving, they are just people, imperfect as all people are. We are all left with unintegrated painful experiences that emerge in life as trouble spots, either in relationships, in decision making and self-direction, or in recurrent painful emotional states like depression, anxiety or apathy. Only the individual knows the degree to which these trouble spots undermine his or her satisfaction in life.
Psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy reaches toward the core of these early experiences that now reside in ones unconscious, brings them to light and offers the opportunity of a new experience in relation to the therapist that results in the healing of painful affects and the redesigning of life-long ingrained patterns. No longer a therapy where the analyst sits silently behind the couch, psychoanalysis is a deeply personal and emotionally engaged form of treatment. It provides the space to do the emotional work that channels your suffering into growth.
