Phenomenal.

If you’re looking for a good introduction to the psychodynamic approach, this is as good as any.

The psychoanalytic traditions are so rich, that you could spend a lifetime studying them, let alone integrating the constructs and techniques into your therapeutic work.

Personally: it has taken me quite a while to warm up to the psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, relational and insight oriented paradigms.

My early work as a therpaist was nearly exclusively in milieu driven, residential treatment for substance use disorders.

Adopting the seemingly overly cautious, low self-disclosure, less direct, longer term, insight oriented approach with clients who were always on the verge of relapsing and dying just never felt appropriate, let alone practicable.

Although I did work with many fine clinicians who adapted psychodynamic work to that world quite effectively. For me, the third wave CBT models e.g. ACT and DBT were home base.

Over time, with exposure, and via side door experiences training in and delivering EMDR, I started to see the real value of exploring psychological content (as opposed to strictly focusing on context, behavior and skills) and early life presidents for cognitive and emotional schemata.

Also: many of the psychodynamic constructs began to spring to life for me after reading source and foundational texts.

And now, as I am focusing more on 1:1 therapy, in a private practice context, I can see that the insight and relationally oriented, psychodynamic world is supremely useful, as it was developed in this exact context, e.g. long term work with higher functioning, less acute, lass at risk clientele.

At this point, I’m really hungering for training and supervision in psychodynamic psychotherapy, and I would like to steer my practice in that direction.

I guess an old dog can learn new tricks.

Great book!

I’m hooked!

5/5 ⭐️s