Depth Therapy

I practice depth psychotherapy, drawing from both psychodynamic and Jungian traditions. I’m interested in the patterns that shape our lives, the parts of ourselves we don't always understand, and the ways our past can continue to influence the present.

Therapy gives us room to slow down and get curious about those things. We might explore patterns in your relationships, work with dreams, or notice what keeps showing up even when you wish it wouldn't.

Jungian ideas can be especially interesting when the life you've built no longer feels quite like the life you want. Midlife transitions, relationship changes, questions of purpose, and shifts in identity can bring old assumptions to the surface and make us wonder what comes next. 

Depth therapy doesn't look the same for everyone. The work is shaped by what brings you to therapy, what you need, and how you naturally make sense of your experience.

For some people, that may mean developing practical skills for managing anxiety, regulating emotions, and feeling more steady. For others, it may mean slowing down enough to notice patterns in relationships, emotions, or thoughts that have become so familiar they are difficult to see.

We don't have to choose between practical help and deeper exploration. Sometimes you need both.

Relationships have a way of bringing our most tender patterns right to the surface. We may know intellectually that our partner isn't our parent, that the current disagreement isn't the same as an old one, or that we're reacting more strongly than the situation seems to warrant. And yet, in the moment, those old patterns can feel very real.

In depth therapy with couples, we pay attention not only to what partners are arguing about, but to what is happening underneath the argument: what each person fears, longs for, protects, or expects from the other.

Couples who feel stuck in the same argument, or who can't quite understand why they keep getting triggered by one another, may find this kind of exploration particularly useful.

Read more about how I work with couples, and for even more theory read Jungian Relationship Counseling.

Dreams can be a surprisingly interesting window into our inner lives. In depth therapy, you're invited to bring your dreams into the room and explore what they might reveal about your waking life. 

I bring both your personal associations and my knowledge of symbols and stories into the conversation, and we see what becomes possible when we put them together 

Read more about Dream Interpretation in therapy.  For ways to work with common dream themes, see my Dreams section of my blog.

Depth psychotherapy has roots in the work of Freud and Jung, who both recognized that much of what shapes our thoughts, feelings, relationships, and behavior lies outside conscious awareness. While Freud and Jung eventually took different paths, both were interested in looking beneath the surface of our experience. Contemporary depth therapy draws from this tradition while continuing to evolve.

From a depth perspective, anxiety, relationship difficulties, perfectionism, or feeling stuck aren't simply problems to eliminate. They can also offer clues about patterns that are ready to be understood differently.

Curious how psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and Jungian approaches relate to one another?  Read more.