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Learn more about psychodynamic therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is a form of talking therapy that explores how unconscious feelings, early relationships, and past experiences shape the way you think, feel, and behave now. It works from the idea that current difficulties often have roots below conscious awareness, and that understanding those roots can ease patterns that keep repeating. It grew out of psychoanalysis but is briefer and less intensive, usually meeting weekly rather than several times a week.
Rather than teaching specific techniques, psychodynamic therapy uses the conversation itself, and the relationship with your therapist, to bring underlying patterns into view.
Psychodynamic sessions are largely led by you. You talk relatively freely about your life, feelings, and relationships, and your therapist listens for recurring themes, contradictions, and patterns you might not notice yourself. The work is exploratory rather than structured around worksheets or set goals.
Common features of the approach include:
- Following your own train of thought. You are encouraged to speak openly rather than stick to an agenda, which can surface material you would not reach deliberately.
- Linking past and present. Your therapist helps you connect current feelings and relationship patterns to earlier experiences that may still be shaping them.
- Attending to the therapy relationship. How you relate to your therapist can mirror how you relate to others, and becomes useful material for understanding those patterns.
Psychodynamic therapy suits difficulties that feel recurring or hard to explain, where understanding the underlying pattern matters as much as managing the symptom. It is used across a range of conditions and relational difficulties.
- Depression: Psychodynamic therapy explores the underlying feelings, losses, and early experiences that can sustain low mood, rather than targeting symptoms directly. There is reasonable evidence for it in depression, and it can suit people wanting to understand the roots of how they feel.
- Attachment: Psychodynamic therapy is well suited to patterns rooted in early relationships, exploring how they continue to shape how you connect. Expect work on understanding recurring relationship dynamics rather than following a fixed programme.
- Anxiety: Rather than focusing only on managing symptoms, psychodynamic therapy looks at the underlying conflicts or fears that may drive anxiety. Expect gradual, exploratory work aimed at understanding the pattern beneath the worry.
- Anger: The approach explores what sits beneath recurring anger, such as unmet needs or earlier experiences, rather than treating it only as a behaviour to control. Expect work on understanding the feeling and where it comes from.
It's Complicated is a therapist-founded mental health platform connecting clients with verified practitioners across Europe and globally, in over 60 languages. We work with over 2,500 vetted therapists, with in-person availability in Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Vienna, and other major cities, alongside online sessions worldwide. It's Complicated is free to use, and you pay your chosen therapist directly at rates they set.
Because psychodynamic therapy relies so much on the relationship between you and your therapist, finding someone you can speak openly with matters a great deal. Our matching service is built to remove that friction. You complete a short survey, our psychologists combine data-driven insights with human judgement to identify the right therapists for your situation, and you choose from a shortlist of strong candidates. You can also browse our directory directly if you'd prefer to choose yourself, including practitioners who work online.
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