Psychoanalytic Therapy Services

Psychoanalytic therapy is, in part, a treatment rooted in Freudian thought. To quote neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, “I know it is obligatory to dump on Freud, and some of it is deserved, but there is much he still has to offer.”²

Beneath the Surface

One of Freud’s most basic assumptions was that there is more to us than meets the eye. Certainly, we have conscious wishes and ideas and plans. But there are many experiences outside our immediate awareness, including thoughts, desires, relational patterns and ways of protecting our vulnerability.

The unconscious is still a radical concept, in part because it questions the belief that insight, intention and effort are sufficient to produce long-lasting change. This fuller version of being human means we are not reducible to symptom checklists or diagnostic labels. Nor are we algorithms to be optimized. We are people, multifaceted and idiosyncratic, with all sorts of hidden motivations and contradictory beliefs. That is the beauty but also the difficulty of being truly alive.

Psychoanalytic or depth therapy is a way to be in contact with those underlying forces and blind spots and to understand their impact on your emotions and relationships, here, in the present.

People come here for a number of reasons. Sometimes life events can throw off our emotional equilibrium. There are the obvious culprits: death, divorce, illness, job loss. But even a positive life change can, at times, have unexpected emotional consequences. Birth, marriage, a promotion. All of these are a departure from the ordinary, with new feelings and new expectations, and they can evoke something unexpected inside us. In these situations, depth therapy can be useful to understand the internal repercussions of an external change.

And then there are longer-standing or more established difficulties. Anxiety that feels woven into the texture of life. Depression that may wax and wane but never quite abate. A general feeling of sensitivity or sensory overwhelm, as though the world itself is too loud or too sharp. An internal critic that refuses to be quiet. Repetitive relationship patterns that prove maddeningly hard to change. Psychoanalytic therapy helps shed light on old symptoms and entrenched ways of being, not through intellectual explanations but by listening more closely to what might be happening beneath the surface.

I am in-network for all Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO plans. For all other insurance plans, I am out-of-network. Benefits can vary by specific plan, so I encourage you to find out more by calling the number on the back of your insurance card. If your plan is out-of-network, I can provide an itemized receipt so you may seek reimbursement from your insurance company. I am happy to answer specific questions about insurance or fees.