Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy stems out of Psychoanalysis and is guided by the same theories.

Psychoanalytic treatment is based on the belief that all emotions, thoughts and behaviours are expressions of the inner self. Everything we feel, think and do, shows a part of our history. The ways we have developed through, and in order to achieve, an understanding of the world and ourselves within it.

Feelings, thoughts and behaviours that may be felt as problematic by the individual are seen as internal stories, needing to be told and possibly untangled.

The therapist, in a safe, trusting and confidential setting, facilitates the client in accessing the areas inside, causing the unrest.

Although our conscious understanding of time is linear, our unconscious is built constantly, influenced by all places and times and influencing us in all places and times.  Contrary to common impressions psychoanalytic therapies do not ignore the present circumstances of the person nor do they indulge with the past. Our past is realised in the present moment with all its circumstances; it is only through the present space and time that we can work with the deposits of the past.

In general if we can think of the self as a house, the foundations of that house are built when we are too young and too dependent on others, to make decisions for its make up. Therefore our foundations are in their majority dependent, on whatever interaction we are enabled towards and allowed to, by the adults that raised us.

The opportunity to revisit all that makes us who we are,  as adults, gives us the chance to make decisions on how we want ourselves and our lives to be.