Who Are Psychoanalysts and What Do They Do?

Psychoanalysts are experienced and licensed mental health professionals, including MD, PhD, PsyD, DMH, MSW, MFT and others, who have undertaken more than five years additional, intensive training in the practice and theory of psychoanalysis, and apply this understanding in a treatment process.  Psychoanalysts also consult to and collaborate with community professionals such as educators, business executives, physicians and attorneys.

What is Psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is a treatment based on the observation that individuals are often unaware of many of the factors that determine their emotions and behavior. These unconscious factors may create unhappiness, sometimes in the form of recognizable symptoms and at other times as troubling personality traits, difficulties in work or in love relationships, or disturbances in mood and self-esteem. Psychoanalysis provides a way of understanding these unconscious conflicts and beliefs that leads to the resolution of symptoms, and increased happiness and productivity in life.

Psychoanalytic treatment usually involves meeting four times weekly with a psychoanalyst and attempting to talk freely about one's thoughts. This frequency of sessions is important for a person to become aware of the underlying sources of his or her difficulties not simply intellectually, but emotionally - by re-experiencing them with the analyst. Through this process the analyst and the analysand are gradually able to see the ways the person relates to the analyst, areas of life about which the patient is hesitant to talk, or patterns that emerge in dreams, memories or behaviors. Through this process change occurs.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a similar form of treatment, less intense but also effective, in which a patient and therapist meet once to three times weekly. Both psychoanalysis and psychotherapy can be combined with psychoactive medication if it becomes appropriate to alleviate anxiety or depression.