This kind of psychological therapy allows you to understand feelings and improve close relationships. The word "dynamic" describes the relationship between your conscious self and the pressures of impulses and conscience of which you are less aware.
In this psychological therapy the therapist does not give active direction, but gives reflection of your feelings and interpretation. An interpretation is a suggestion about a link between feelings in different relationships. Links between three types of relationships are:
Current - Past - Transference
The most important past relationships are those with your mother and father.
Brothers, grandparents and others may also be relevant.
Transference describes the feelings you develop to the therapist. These may include a longing to be understood, trust or mistrust, and gratitude or resentment. Such feelings may be related to the personality of the therapist, but are probably more to do with relationships with parents. The therapist will attempt to make these connections. The therapist will try not bring too much of his or her personality to the sessions, so that it is clear what takes places comes from within you.
Good and Bad feelings. The main problem with close relationships is how to deal with negative emotions. These may include irritation at the other person's habits in the bathroom or time-keeping, or your reluctance to make commitments. Therapy should help you express the negative feelings in your relationships in an acceptable way.
Therapeutic hour. It will benefit you to try to attend all sessions at the agreed time. Appointments are usually for an "hour", of 50 minutes. This time is for you to use for your own benefit. Being late or early, or tending to overrun after 50 minutes, may be relevant ways of stating feelings. You should consider any feelings of reluctance to attend in terms of your past relationships.
Commitment and Dropout. Clients in dynamic therapy often find the first two or three sessions rewarding, but frustrations start to creep in. Pressure on your time and money may start to seem more important. At this time the urge to miss a session becomes stronger. It is important to attend and put this urge into words, rather than act on it by staying away.
Termination. You may agree a definite number of sessions, e.g. 16, with your therapist. As the prospect of leaving therapy looms closer, feelings of anxiety or resentment about being abandoned. These feelings will compete with gratitude for the changes you have been able to make. Again it is important to attend and put this mixture of feelings into words. Research on dynamic psychotherapy has not found any particular set of symptoms which are amenable to therapy, but has found it to be effective if the following are true:
- The client is "psychologically-minded". This might mean that churning stomach is correctly identified as occurring before awkward social situations, rather than to do with food or illness. Considerable education and intelligence help psychological-mindedness.
- Therapeutic alliance. Mutual understanding is best when client and therapist can empathise through similar values. This might mean both being artistic or technical, or both being agnostic or Jewish. Sex and age can be relevant, but often are not.
- Use of interpretation. The main way therapy is useful is if the client can use the therapist's suggestions to improve relationships in the real world.