Psychodynamic Counselling

A brief over view of psychodynamic counselling as follows - the roots come from the founding  Father of Psychotherapy – Freud.  The client can project onto the Counsellor main caretakers or significant figures in their lives such as Father, Mother etc.  The Counsellor can use this ‘projection’ to help the client work through issues.  Psychodynamic boundaries can be quite rigid.  The Counsellor reveals nothing of themselves.  The Counsellor reflects back to the client and uses interpretation of everything in and out of the session, for example, on the way to the room, the client may talk about the weather. The Counsellor might interpret this as anxiety and will bring this to the clients attention, or if the client is carrying many bags or is late, all this can be noted and interpreted.  In other words the clients ‘inner world’ is interpreted from the way they greet you to the way they sit in the room.  Behaviour is noted and reflected back.  If the client holds back and cannot speak freely the counsellor can look at childhood issues – was the client allowed to speak freely as a child, were they taught to comply and ‘fit-in’.  Is their behaviour in the session a continuation of their childhood.  Most of the work is based in childhood.  It would be significant to the Counsellor to know about the clients bonding or not bonding to carers and of any periods of separation about the clients  needs being met or not met.  The Counsellor may also ‘with hold’ (not fulfil the clients needs) this can bring about ‘old’ feelings in the client hopefully leading to client and Counsellor working through these issues at a deeper level.