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UNDERSTANDING
DYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
Article from "To Your Health Magazine"
DYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
A New Approach for Quick Progress
by Dr. Jeffrey S. Shaw, Ph.D
A new approach to Psychotherapy, which is currently becoming more and more popular, is known as Dynamic Psychotherapy. Dynamic Psychotherapy utilizes some techniques of traditional psychotherapies; however, the therapist is supportive and may provide advice as opposed to being detached and not giving advice, as in many traditional psychotherapies. Dynamic Psychotherapy also focuses much more specifically on present problems rather than delving into the past and re-examining past conflicts. Because of its orientation, Dynamic Psychotherapy has provided substantial improvement to most patients in a relatively short period of time, such as months, and even weeks. This quick progress is also in contrast to many traditional psychotherapies, which may go on for years with little or no progress.
In addition, Dynamic Psychotherapy has often been successful for persons who had been in therapy before but had not received help from these other treatments. Dynamic Psychotherapy also appeals to those who wish to go into therapy but are reluctant because of their fear of investing large amounts of money on their therapy or their being in therapy for a very long time before seeing progress.
Dynamic Psychotherapy has been very successful in treating a number of common problems, including anxiety, relationship problems, work and school difficulties, career decisions, and lack of self-esteem and other identity problems. To illustrate how some situations are handled in Dynamic Psychotherapy as opposed to traditional psychotherapies, we can look at two examples.
In the first example, a woman in therapy had been considering returning to school but had doubts about her ability to concentrate and handle the course material. In fact, other therapists told her she would not be able to be successful in the Master’s program she chose. I asked her whether the program permitted a student to attend on a part-time basis. The woman said that part-time study was permitted, so I advised her to take one or two courses the first semester and see how she felt with this limited course work before determining whether she wished to attend full-time. The woman took two courses the first semester, three courses the second semester, and completed her Master’s degree in two years.
Of course, it is important when giving guidance or advice that the Dynamic Psychotherapist be clearly focused on the goals and needs of the person in treatment rather than imposing the values of the therapist. As opposed to Dynamic Psychotherapy, in traditional psychotherapies, this situation would likely have been handled quite differently by the therapist. The therapist likely would have thrown the ball back into the court of the person in therapy and asked him or her to explore in some detail their feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy with respect to returning to school. This may be helpful in the long run but may also take many sessions, cost a lot of money, and may not even be necessary.
A second example is the case of a man who came to Dynamic Psychotherapy after having been in traditional psychotherapy for a few years. On of the problems he had been struggling with was masculinity and "being a man" . The Dynamic Psychotherapist said, in their first discussion of this topic, "A man is a person of the male gender with all of his feelings, and, also, a woman is a person of the female gender with all of her feelings."
After this explanation, the man in treatment never felt the need to discuss this topic again in therapy; it was a resolved issue. In addition, this man stopped treatment after he was in Dynamic Psychotherapy for approximately six months (on a once a week basis) because he felt so much better and that he no longer needed the therapy. Previously, he had been in traditional psychotherapy for approximately three years on a twice a week basis, plus group. He said he had improved only slightly from all of that traditional psychotherapy. In this example, Dynamic Psychotherapy and most traditional psychotherapies share the belief that a person should have "all of his or her feelings." However, that this belief would emerge from the therapist in response to the question of what it is to be a man is probably much more likely to have occurred in Dynamic rather than traditional psychotherapy. In Dynamic Psychotherapy, the willingness of the therapist to readily express viewpoints and opinions can often substantially speed up the treatment process.
Dynamic Psychotherapy sessions are usually held on a once a week basis, as this is all that is usually necessary to bring about quick progress. Sometimes sessions are even held less frequently. Dynamic Psychotherapy has been successful in treating many problems including anxiety, relationship difficulties, lack of self-esteem, and work and school problems.
Dr. Jeffrey Shaw has extensive experience as a Dynamic Psychotherapist, and is a licensed Ph.D. Psychologist, eligible for insurance coverage. If you wish to find out more about Dynamic Psychotherapy, you may call Dr. Shaw on (212) 986-5571.
