Psychodynamic 

Psychodynamic therapy is therapeutic practice that seeks to help clients investigate and understand the full range of their emotions, including unconscious thoughts and feelings. Although less intense than psychoanalytic therapy, psychodynamic therapy also stems from Freudian theory. The primary focus of the psychodynamic approach is to reveal a client’s unconscious conflicts in an effort to alleviate problems. Psychodynamic therapy sessions are generally loosely structured and a client is encouraged to talk about whatever is on their mind, using a free association method. Some of the most common problems treated with psychodynamic therapy include anxiety, depression, panic disorders and stress.

Local experts in Psychodynamic 

Zach Wendell (He/Him)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW

The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy – 2-Year Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program New York, NY (09/2017 – 05/2019) Prelude to Psychodynamic Training – Institute for Psychoanalytic Education, NYU School of Medicine – New York, NY (2016-2017)

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Ray Nelson (He/Him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, CCMHC

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Glenn Goldman, MA, LPC (he/him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

We all carry old wounds from the past. We all suffer from inner conflict. When we unconsciously and repeatedly play out old painful dramas, it causes us problems. Exploring the sources of old wounds and the causes of inner conflict is the essence of psychodynamic therapy.

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Aaron Buchholz

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

My three years of post-graduate training in psychodynamic oriented psychotherapy (The Psychotherapy Institute, Berkeley) helped me to develop my attention to support my clients to work through unconscious content and make real and lasting changes.

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Brad Creel (he/him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

I have had training in Psychodynamic Psychology at my Depth Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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Joaquin Lopez (he/him)

Professional Counselor Associate

MS, NCC

A Jungian orientation offers a warm, creative, and inviting space for the exploration of personal stories, dreams, and myths. The counselor and the client observe aspects of personality, patterns of behavior, the use of language, and creative imagination. A soulful approach allows the client to feel and explore their inner world. The client gains emotional insight and develops an understanding of the experience called life. The client identifies their values and forges a new identity.

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Margaret McNeal (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA

Unlike symptom-focused, brief therapeutic modalities, psychodynamic therapy is proven to create sustained, lasting change. Psychodynamic therapy facilitates self-exploration, understanding relationship patterns, and examining emotional blind spots; by addressing root cause, symptoms can shift. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/01/psychodynamic-therapy#:~:text=Psychodynamic%20therapy%20focuses%20on%20the,patterns%20in%20the%20patient's%20life.

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C.J. Sanders (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

OR #T2235

My education and training is in Psychodynamic theory and clinical practice. I get curious about your early relationships and patterns of relating insofar as it impacts and repeats with your current relationship. I am adept at identifying "triggers" from your past that are blocking connection and wreaking havoc in your communication. I help my couples become experts at learning each others internal world and all that they carry into the relationship which increases empathy and bonding.

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Stacey Vallas (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MS

I believe relationships, including one's relationship to oneself, are the foundation of mental health and well being. I will support you in exploring the ways your past relationships have shaped your sense of self and how you relate to others now. I value creating a strong, collaborative relationship that fosters fresh perspectives, exploration, healing, and growth.

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emily bilbao (she/they)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

I was trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy at Smith College School for social work. I build on these theories and support them with additional approaches, such at cbt & dbt

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Gregory Kaplan (he/him)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA, PhD

My education at Northwestern University was centered on psychodynamic psychotherapy. It was incorporated into multiple skills courses. In addition, I have trained extensively in psychodynamic group therapy. My practice centers around insight-based therapy, which means we are trying to uncover the roots of feelings, behaviors, and beliefs that are fed by unconscious sources, not exclusively memories but also fantasies and, most of all, unmet or over-met needs.

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Mary Bruce-Owenby (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

LGBTQIA-affirmative couples therapist

This approach is a form of depth psychology that explores and works through the often initially hidden impacts that early patterns have had on current functioning. I have completed five years of specific training in psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theoretical frameworks under the supervision of contemporary psychoanalysts and psychologists.

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Kelly Reams MSW, BCD Psychoanalyst (She/her)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Lcsw, bcd

I've been practicing psychotherapy from a psychodynamic orientation for over 30 years. I selected my graduate program due to a strong psychodynamic emphasis at the time, and have consistently sought out psychodynamic teachers, supervisors, continuing education classes, and conferences throughout my professional career.

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Martha Blake, MBA, NCPsyA

Clinical Psychologist

Psychologist, Jungian Analyst

Psychodynamic therapy dips back to the beginning of a pattern of feelings, reactions, or strategies of coping with one's environment that confine, limit, or constrict possibility.

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Doug Chapman (he/his)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, CADC3, Approved Clinical Supervisor

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Terri Mishler, PsyD

Clinical Psychologist

My training and supervision focused on treating people from a psychodynamic orientation. Understanding the patterns people develop in their early relationships can enable them to make different choices in their current relationships.

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Casey Black (he/him)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW

Therapy through a psychodynamic lens recognizes that 1 - painful patterns and experiences in the present likely have roots in past experiences. 2 - These past events inform our present selves outside of our awareness. 3 - It can be healing to bring these past events into awareness.

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Carl Jensen

Licensed Professional Counselor

MS, LPC

I am a student of Jung. See above description under transpersonal.

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Savannah Torkelsen

Professional Counselor Associate

OR license # R7416, WA license # MC61259505

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Donna Prinzmetal (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

As a psychodynamic psychotherapist, I am always striving to understand the situations and experiences, including early familial relationships, that have shaped my clients' lives. Therapy can illuminate the origins of conscious and unconscious choices, giving us the opportunity for healing and change.

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Bonnie Lambert (she/her)

Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

PMHNP-BC, LPC

Past informs, present and how we can have a more autonomous future.

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Grace Carter (She/Her)

Professional Counselor Associate

In psychodynamic therapy, therapists help people gain insight into their lives and present-day problems. They also evaluate patterns people develop over time. To do this, therapists review certain life factors with a person in therapy: emotions, thoughts, early life experiences and beliefs. Recognizing recurring patterns can help people see how they avoid distress or develop defense mechanisms to cope. This insight may allow them to begin changing those patterns.

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Beth Bloom (she/her)

Clinical Psychologist

Psy.D.

I have advanced training and experience working from a psychodynamic approach, including my postdoctoral fellowship at the William Alanson White Institute, a prominent psychoanalytic clinic in New York City.

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Riva Stoudt

Licensed Professional Counselor

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Kathy Hardie-Williams M.Ed MS DC LPC LMFT

Licensed Professional Counselor

M.Ed MS DC LPC LMFT

I facilitate you in identifying and communicating your needs and wants to each other. Conducive to this process is the ability to experience a reasonable degree of conflict in your relationships and the willingness to believe that your relationships can improve. You are responsible for articulating what you need and want to your partner and others from a direct and non-judgmental perspective that includes self awareness and the desire to know yourself.

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Nancy Pounds

Licensed Professional Counselor

LMHC, LPC

I naturally lean toward this orientation, and have studied it for many, many years. It’s based on past affecting the present, personality traits, and subconscious influences.

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Magdalena Avila Echenique (She/ Ella)

Professional Counselor Associate

Psy. M. LPC Associate

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Andrea Mize (she/her)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

My graduate training program was based in psychodynamic teachings. I continue to seek out continuing educational opportunities to support this foundational understanding of human behavior. I combine elements of each of the treatment approaches I listed to create a foundation that addresses your particular needs.

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Darin Bergen (he/him)

Clinical Psychologist

PsyD

My primary approach is Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). This is a newer approach to therapy that focuses on the transformation of painful emotions, and this healing is done in relationship. We believe that painful aloneness is core to the experience of human suffering and undoing that aloneness is a main focus of the therapy. I believe in this approach because of the science, but also because it is the kind of therapy I have found most helpful for me, as a client.

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Zachary Newman, LPC, LMFT (he/him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

M.A., LPC, LMFT

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DeShawn Williams

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW

I often integrate psychodynamic approach into my sessions to assist with bringing awareness to clients who are often stuck. I believe many things are revealed during a session which is unconscious to the client but is very telling to the therapist. Through careful examination the recognition of these unconscious acts can be very liberating and bring enlightment to client and or family.

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Gracie Dilley-Bucciarelli (They/Them)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

MA

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Amy Hughes (She/Her)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW

I completed my graduate work in a program that emphasized psychodynamic training (NYU).

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Courtney Burns

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

I believe that viewing our feelings from outside in as well as inside out can provide us with the most insight into ourselves. My graduate training was focused in psychodynamic and attachment schools of thought.

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Joyce Yuan, PhD

Clinical Psychologist

Psychodynamic therapy assumes thoughts, feelings, and motivations aren't always fully accessible to conscious awareness. However, behaviors and relationships can still be influenced by unconscious forces, sometimes in problematic ways. By exploring patterns of behavior and experiences that have shaped the way you think and feel, you can gain insight into what drives you and start making conscious changes.

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Colleen Burke-Sivers, LPC (She/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

The psychodynamic approach takes into account the influences of your childhood on your current functioning and struggles. It looks at the person as partially a product of his or her original environment and helps each person understand how those influences are helping or hurting them to function today. The psychodynamic therapist will help you unlearn those influences that are no longer useful.

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Jessi Huffman (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

A psychodynamic orientation is one that is focused on the unconscious processes that guide our behavior. Guided by whatever is coming up for you, we explore with gentle curiosity and openness anything causing pain or distress in order to examine what unconscious dynamics may be shifted in order for transformation to occur. I often describe this type of work as a marathon rather than a sprint, as it can take time, be challenging, and we may often even hit a "wall" before breaking through.

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Audra Lee

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, LMHC, LPCC

I have been studying and applying psychodynamic principals in my clinical work since 2011. I also completed 2.5 years of clinical internship training with a supervisor trained in Control Mastery Theory, an integrated cross-theoretical cognitive-psychodynamic-relational theory.

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Eric Abelow Blakeley (he/him)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic treatment is an insight-oriented approach that encourages exploration of the range of your emotions, both felt and avoided, while identifying recurring themes and patterns. There is a focus on unconscious process and the way it manifests in the present. It is a treatment that seeks to free oneself from the confines of the past in order to live more fully in the present.

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Judy Marantz-Herzberg (she/her)

Social Worker

LCSW and LSSW (Licensed School Social Worker)

People’s life stories, and past family experiences deeply affect current relationships. The therapeutic relationship is a safe place to explore interpersonal styles. My relationship with my client is central to our work.

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Allison Amo MA, LPC (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

At the core, I believe that the past influences the present, and it is important to examine some of the deep roots that may be causing you issues as you move towards healing and growth. Counseling can provide you an opportunity to recognize and resolve these blocks and develop effective tools for working through them.

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Jeremy Jones (They/them)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, CADC-II, BC-TMH

Because both the Holistic, Cognitive Behavioral, and integrated approach system I utilize-exploring how certain thoughts, behaviors, or emotions develop over a lifespan is a primary function in making lasting change.

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Miranda York

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

We will explore patterns of relating you learned in your family of origin and how these show up in your current relationships. This could take the following forms, for instance: how you expect others will receive you, what emotions and responses you automatically inhibit or express, what behaviors you typically engage in. This can illuminate unconscious programming and liberate more options.

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Tracy Bryce Farmer (she/they)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW, CADC

Psychodynamic theory started the whole field of talk therapy with the idea that repressing our feelings leads to painful symptoms in our lives. The current boom in neuroscience is validating what psychodynamic clinicians have always known: our emotional struggles stem from our history and the early relationships that impact us. I can help you approach the past that is hurting you and help you make links to improving your life in the here and now.

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Emma Stern (she/her/hers)

Professional Counselor Associate

R7893

Psychodynamic therapy explores ways in which past patterns can manifest in one's present behaviors, actions, and responses to emotional material. It encourages clients to develop deep personal insight and understanding of the ways in which their personality and patterns have been shaped by life experience. This type of therapy works to bring unconscious material into conscious awareness so clients can understand ways in which their behaviors are beneficial and/or self-sabotaging.

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Jeff Guenther (he/him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

I am a classically trained therapist and I specialize in psychodynamic theory. Psychodynamic theory was a focus of mine all through graduate school and I use this theory as a lens into understanding where behaviors, unhealthy and healthy, start from and how they have been reinforced through your lifetime. With a clear understanding of where you come from we can work together to unravel rooted behavior.

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Elena Logvinenko (she/her)

Psychiatrist

MD

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Zara Roth (she/her)

Professional Counselor

M.A., QMHP, CADC

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Sara Todd (she/they)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW

After graduate school, I completed two years of advanced clinical training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis in 2015. Prior to that, I participated in the fellowship program with the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute (2010-2011) and the fellowship program with the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis (2011-2013).

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Korina Jochim

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

LMFT

Theoretically I favor an object relations approach as popularized by psychotherapists Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winicott, and Heinz Kohut. I've also been highly influenced by existentialist psychiatrists Irvin Yalom and Viktor Frankl.

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