What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is the treatment of psychological and interpersonal difficulties through psychological means.

Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are largely opened ended, holistic approaches that explores how and why a person’s unconscious beliefs, thoughts, and feelings impact conscious ways of being. In these approaches, the therapist aims to help the person gain a clearer understanding of themselves, while reworking any underlying patterns that problematic symptoms may stem from and deconstructing psychological blocks that prevent a fulfilled life.

To do this, the psychotherapist typically encourages patients to talk freely about whatever is on their minds and how they are feeling during the session. This enables various patterns of behaviour, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings to emerge, allowing the dyad to discover the different ways the patient organises their psychic and how this affects how they interact with their environment. In doing so, this process generally:

• deconstructs maladaptive coping mechanisms

• enables people to grieve what may have been lost and possible traumatic experiences

• grows people’s capacity to regulate and manage emotions

• reworks their attachment style, as well as different developmental processes that may have been impinged

• helps people to learn from experience, as well as to handle their social environment more effectively

Effectiveness / Research

Research into psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy has shown that it

• Grows self-esteem,

• Fosters the ability to have more satisfying relationships,

• Increases understanding of self and others.

• Grows ones recognition and tolerance of a wider range of emotions.

• Is effective for a wild range of mental health illnesses and difficulties to a similar degree of other widely used approaches

A significant amount of these studies have also shown that unlike other more manualised, solution focused, and skill based treatments, the improvements from psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy continue to occur after termination. In other words, psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy seems to set a range of psychological processes in motion that lead to ongoing change after treatment.

For more information about this research see https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-65-2-98.pdf

Psychotherapy in Aotearoa New Zealand

In Aotearoa New Zealand, registered Psychotherapists are bound by an ethical code of conduct that has been set out by the Psychotherapist’s Board of Aotearoa New Zealand (PBANZ). This code of conduct incorporates the following principles (as defined by PBANZ):

• Mana Motuhake | Autonomy; To freely make judgements and act on decisions which are grounded in values of the profession and respect the right of each person, family or community to make decisions based on self-sufficiency and the ability to control their own destiny.

• Whakahonorētanga | Respect

• Tiaki | Duty of care; To actively regard and nurture the welfare of others, responding with compassion to their misfortune or suffering.

• Mana Tangata | Integrity; To strive to integrate expertise, care and respect in one’s professional self so as to demonstrate adherence to the values of the profession.

• Mahi Pono | Justice; To treat people fairly and appropriately in light of what is their due.

• Whānaunga | Community; To strengthen the bonds of those with a shared heritage or some shared common purpose.

• Ūkaipō | Nurture and sustenance; promoting a person’s well-being take full account of the people, places and traditions which nurture that person’s well-being.

• Manaakitanga | The process of showing respect

• Wairutanga | Spirituality; To respect the spiritual as well as the physical presence of people.

• Pūkenga | Expertise; To maintain and develop all aspects of psychotherapeutic expertise for the betterment of client, self and profession.

For more information about the Psychotherapist’s Board of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ethical code of conduct, click here.