Psychoanalysis

What is psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is a psychotherapy treatment consisting of 3 to 4 therapy sessions per week, often on consecutive days. It started with the earliest practitioners of psychotherapy, including Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. But it’s not old fashioned! It is an always evolving practice rooted in close human relationships, with more than 100 years of evidence for its efficacy.

Why psychoanalysis?

Because it increases conscious awareness of unconscious forces that may influence you throughout your life. Difficulties arising from unconscious forces can show up as struggles like depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, compulsions, and relationship issues. The frequency of sessions can allow for more depth. Psychoanalysis also allows a close emotional relationship to develop between you and your analyst, which can lead to enactments of relational dynamics that exist in other places in your life. Exploring these enactments can help you understand why you are the way that you are. With this understanding, you can begin to make changes in order to become the person that you want to be,

I’m curious about psychoanalysis — what now?

Contact Dr. Smith! She provides psychoanalysis as a part of her training and candidacy at the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Study.