My approach

What is psychoanalysis?

In the initial sessions, you will be invited to tell me about yourself and to share with me what is ailing or stymying you. The session content will be open-ended and exploratory in nature. I will encourage you to speak your mind to the best of your ability without censorship; something most of us find quite challenging. What emerges as we talk together—in particular the most difficult things; sometimes the moments when you cannot find words—will help guide our work.

The discoveries made in psychoanalytic work may challenge the structures and understandings by which you have shaped your life, most likely because they were at one point valuable or even vital but may no longer be serving you in the ways they used to. That shift may be why you have come for treatment or why you are having symptoms. Because these kinds of realizations can at first be as upending as they are vitalizing, psychoanalytic work requires a certain degree of stability and commitment, and a willingness to entertain the idea that there are parts of ourselves that we do not know very well and would do well to explore and know better. It is the unknown in us that often surprises or perplexes us. It is that unknown that often trips us up and gets in our way, possibly leading to repetitions that harm us.

Through increased understanding of yourself through gradual integration of parts previously unknown or disavowed, facilitated by the therapeutic relationship that develops between us, you will develop a new level of flexibility and comfort with yourself, and in turn increased freedom to enjoy your life.