What is psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is the most in-depth, comprehensive therapy available, for those with the motivation to resolve long-standing problems in the realms of love, work, and play. The goal is to make manifest our individual potential... to make the most of this life.  

Who we are, our sense of our selves and the world, and how we relate to others, is a product of our genetic history, our basic temperament, and our upbringing. We first learn how to relate to others from our primary caretakers... mother, father, siblings, grandparents, daycare workers, nannies, babysitters, and then friends and teachers. From the day we are born, we are hard-wired for attachment. Our experiences with people in the earliest years of our lives form a way of relating that is fundamental and persistent. If we experienced our caretakers as unreliable or unsafe, we may experience most people in that way, especially those we get closest to. Psychoanalysis is a conscious relationship with an analyst: someone who is reliable, safe, and caring, and who has some understanding of how to help people with a variety of personalities, disorders, or problematic relationships. It is a journey of discovery, learning new things every day, about oneself and others. 

We would meet several days a week for a number of years, with the client lying on the couch and the analyst out of view. This allows for free association, for saying whatever comes to mind. We discuss fantasies, dreams, relationships, thoughts and feelings about self and others, with the intention of living a happier, more fulfilling life.