As a psychoanalyst I believe that an individual’s feelings and behaviors are motivated by a variety of unconscious factors often occurring when people “feel stuck.” Psychoanalysis helps individuals to begin understanding those factors in themselves and to finally break free of the habits associated with those factors by first discovering their root causes and then to build up significant changes at the very core of their emotional responses. The analytic experience gently leads the patient to essentially re-experience the factors that initiated their ineffective responses. Using these experiences, I help the patient gain insight about their unproductive and destructive patterns of behavior.  

Adults who undergo psychoanalysis are generally individuals who may well have experienced successes in life, yet at the same time feel impaired by long-standing depression, anxiety, relationship conflicts, sexual incapacity or inexplicably physical symptoms. Some people come to analysis because, regardless of apparent success in life, things just don’t seem to “work” for them. Anyone considering psychoanalysis will undergo a thorough evaluation before the analytic process ever begins.

Another type of treatment I offer is Psychotherapy. Most people view their lives as a series of experiences: some good, some bad. Often, they don’t see or hide the patterns of behavior or repeated responses that create problems, or underscore stress.  In some cases, people blame their experiences on causes outside themselves, or refuse to accept that some of the things that happen to them might be as the result of things that they themselves do. A key element of my approach is to enable patients to develop a good sense of self awareness. Training and experience have taught that helping patients to become more aware of their unconscious habits and reactions to stressors or problems is the first step toward facilitating permanent changes and adjustments in the individual’s world view and the entire flavor of how they reacted and felt in situations that previously impaired them. Recognizing habitual defenses gives a person the first tool toward choosing a different response in challenging situations. Awareness of sensitivity to certain lines of thinking gives an individual the option of responding in more productive ways. In any event, a person cannot change a behavior until he or she first recognizes it in him or herself. Being open to the differences among others in our lives allows more acceptance of one’s own self. Confronting all these matters can result in happier, less stressful, more satisfying relationships and life. My approach is to gently help the patient discover his/her attitudes, habits and behaviors that are not serving their best interests. Together, the patient and I discuss and assess options that can indeed present more life satisfying results.