Psychodynamic therapy is a depth-oriented approach that helps you explore the unconscious patterns that influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. By examining how your past experiences—particularly those from childhood—continue to shape your present life, this therapeutic approach creates opportunities for profound self-awareness and meaningful change.
At Hisparadise Therapy, our psychodynamic approach goes beyond addressing immediate symptoms to uncover and resolve the underlying causes of emotional challenges. This creates lasting transformation rather than temporary relief.
This powerful form of therapy is particularly effective for individuals who want to understand themselves more deeply, who find themselves repeating unhelpful patterns in relationships or life choices, or who struggle with persistent emotional difficulties that haven't responded well to more symptom-focused approaches.
Our approach to psychodynamic therapy integrates classical psychoanalytic insights with contemporary research and techniques. This creates a therapeutic experience that is both deeply insightful and practically effective for today's challenges.
Central to our practice is the therapeutic relationship itself—a safe, non-judgmental space where unconscious patterns can emerge and be explored. Your therapist serves as a compassionate guide in this process, helping you recognize patterns as they appear in your thoughts, feelings, and the therapeutic relationship itself.
Key elements of our psychodynamic approach include:
We begin by establishing a secure therapeutic relationship where you feel comfortable exploring vulnerable areas without judgment.
Together we identify recurring themes and patterns in your life, relationships, and emotional experiences that may have unconscious origins.
We examine how early experiences and relationships have shaped your internal world, defense mechanisms, and attachment patterns.
With new awareness, you can make more conscious choices, develop healthier patterns, and create meaningful change in your life and relationships.
Gain profound insights into your inner world, motivations, and the unconscious patterns that shape your experiences and choices.
Identify and transform recurring patterns in relationships and behaviors that have been holding you back from fulfillment.
Process and integrate difficult past experiences that continue to impact your emotional well-being and relationships.
Develop more adaptive ways of protecting yourself emotionally without limiting your capacity for connection and authenticity.
Create more fulfilling connections by understanding how your attachment history influences your current relationship dynamics.
Experience enduring change that continues to unfold and deepen even after therapy ends, rather than temporary symptom relief.
Many people experience emotional challenges that persist despite their best efforts to overcome them. Psychodynamic therapy is particularly effective at addressing these deep-seated emotional patterns by exploring their unconscious roots.
We commonly work with clients experiencing:
Through psychodynamic exploration, you can discover the deeper meanings and origins of these emotional patterns, allowing for healing at their source rather than just managing symptoms.
If you find yourself repeatedly encountering the same difficulties in relationships despite your conscious intentions to change, psychodynamic therapy can help you understand and transform these patterns.
Common relationship patterns we address include:
By examining how early attachment experiences create templates for current relationships, psychodynamic therapy helps you develop more secure and satisfying connections with others.
Questions of who you are, what you truly want, and your inherent value are deeply influenced by unconscious factors. Psychodynamic therapy provides a powerful framework for exploring and resolving identity and self-worth challenges.
We often work with individuals facing:
Through psychodynamic work, you can develop a more integrated sense of self and recognize your inherent worth beyond external validation or achievement.
Traumatic experiences can continue to affect your emotional life, relationships, and sense of self long after the events have passed. Psychodynamic therapy offers a gentle yet thorough approach to processing and integrating these experiences.
Our trauma-informed psychodynamic work addresses:
We create a safe, containing space where traumatic experiences can be gradually approached, understood in their full context, and integrated into your life narrative in a way that allows for healing and growth.
Dr. Johnny Ukeme N., our founder and lead therapist, specializes in psychodynamic therapy. With over 15 years of experience and extensive training in depth psychology, he brings exceptional insight and compassion to this profound therapeutic approach.
50-minute psychodynamic therapy session
5 sessions (10% discount)
10 sessions (20% discount)
* Psychodynamic therapy is often most effective as an ongoing process. Long-term work (6+ months) is available at additional discounted rates.
Psychodynamic therapy differs from other approaches in several key ways:
Rather than focusing solely on symptom reduction, psychodynamic therapy aims for deeper structural change in how you experience yourself and relate to others. While it may take longer than some approaches, research shows it often leads to changes that continue to deepen after therapy ends.
The duration of psychodynamic therapy varies widely depending on your specific needs, goals, and the depth of the issues being addressed. Generally:
What distinguishes psychodynamic therapy is that meaningful change often continues and even accelerates after therapy ends, as the insights and new patterns of relating continue to integrate and develop.
We'll discuss timeframe expectations based on your specific situation during the assessment phase, and regularly review progress to ensure the therapy is meeting your needs. Some clients also choose to move from more intensive weekly sessions to less frequent "maintenance" sessions as they progress.
No, psychodynamic therapy does not focus exclusively on childhood, though early experiences are recognized as formative. The therapy involves a dynamic interplay between past and present, examining how historical patterns manifest in your current life.
A typical psychodynamic therapy session might include:
The goal is not to dwell in the past, but to understand how the past continues to influence the present in ways that may limit your fulfillment and choices. This understanding creates the freedom to respond differently in the present.
Yes, psychodynamic therapy has a strong evidence base supporting its effectiveness. While earlier research focused more on other therapy approaches, recent decades have seen substantial high-quality research validating psychodynamic methods:
Modern psychodynamic practice continues to evolve based on research findings, integrating neurobiological understanding and attachment theory with traditional psychodynamic insights.
While psychodynamic therapy focuses on deeper patterns and lasting change, we recognize that immediate symptom relief is sometimes necessary. We take a flexible approach that can address both immediate needs and underlying issues:
Our primary goal is to meet you where you are and provide the type of support that best addresses your current needs. We'll discuss options for balancing immediate relief with longer-term resolution during your assessment.
Take the first step toward deeper self-understanding and lasting transformation. Our psychodynamic approach offers a path to meaningful change that continues to unfold long after therapy ends.