Why Many People Seek Something Deeper in Therapy

You may have heard about depth-oriented therapy, long-term therapy, or psychoanalysis, but not really understood what they are about. Perhaps you think of them as things of the past or something for other people. Or perhaps you are reading this because you have tried other approaches and still feel that you have not found the depth of healing and change you are looking for. 

What Depth-Oriented Therapy Focuses On

From a depth-oriented perspective, people suffer, struggle, or experience symptoms because there are layers of their mind they have not yet discovered and made peace with (like the layers of an onion).  As a psychoanalyst, I pay as much attention to what is not being said and what is not being felt as I do to what people consciously focus on.  This deeper work and unfolding is a sensitive and delicate process that doesn’t always feel easy. But, if both therapist and client can be patient and curious, real healing, relief, and growth can occur.

Many treatment modalities emphasize what is happening on a conscious level and things that are immediately happening in a person’s life. These treatments may offer practical solutions, challenge one’s conscious anxious thoughts or teach coping strategies in an effort to diminish suffering and reduce symptoms. These can all be helpful and have an important place in the field of psychotherapy. 

Listening to What’s Beneath the Surface

But some people are interested in “getting to the roots” of their issues right away. And others come to depth-oriented work because other approaches have not provided the relief or the understanding they are looking for. In my experience, many people want to understand why they engage in the certain patterns of behaviors they do, or more simply, why they are the way they are. Many people, in fact, want to know and understand themselves. 

Understanding Patterns, Not Just Managing Symptoms

You may be reading this because you see that you keep getting involved with people who seem nice at first, but eventually become very critical or even abusive. You may notice that you experience very little joy, but can’t explain that from the current circumstance of your life. You may have certain fears that can be disabling no matter how “irrational” you know them to be. These and many more are circumstances in which depth-oriented psychotherapy can be very helpful and illuminating. 

Know Thyself!

A depth-oriented clinician aims to provide you a space and place that can facilitate a deeper, exploratory, introspective process. When you feel safe enough with your therapist, you will be free to be ever more curious about yourself, and together you can start to peel back the layers of your Self’s onion. You will begin to see how your own “defenses” work in ways that contribute to repeating dysfunctional patterns (that we are all subject to). Understanding is empowerment. Once you understand how you got stuck, you have the beginnings of a blueprint for how to get unstuck. 

Why Insight Alone Is Not Enough: Emotional Knowing

It is not a therapist’s or a psychoanalyst’s job to figure you out or interpret you to yourself. It is our job to listen deeply to you so that you can really listen to yourself on all levels: intellectual, emotional, and even spiritual. Therefore, insight is not just intellectual; it should also be emotional. You should have moments of “aha” that are accompanied by deeper self-compassion. Depth-oriented approaches help you become more aware of your feelings, your triggers, the impact of your history on the present, the possibility of repeating the old, and a sense of choice and agency in creating new patterns and new possibilities. 

The Role of Safety and Trust in Deep Therapeutic Work

Although doing deeper work and processing and making room for difficult feelings may seem scary, it’s also really liberating. But it’s important to work with a clinician you trust and feel safe with. Together you enter this therapeutic journey of uncovering the source of your suffering, tackling the deeper, core feelings and conflicts, and targeting the root causes. 

Depth-Oriented Therapy in a Fast-Paced, Anxious World

Depth-oriented therapists know that this kind of healing and growth cannot be rushed.  Inner conflicts and symptoms take time, and often repeated experiences, to develop. They are creative ways in which we psychically survive. They don’t give up the keys too easily, and certainly not before trust is developed in the relationship.  We are constantly being asked to invest in someone’s guaranteed quick-fix in this fast-paced world. And we often come out disappointed in those investments. The time, commitment, and sometimes hard work of deep therapy on behalf of yourself always pays off.