Psychoanalysis, to my mind, is one of the most expansive practices for personal transformation that has been developed in the field of psychology. It traces its roots to the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud at the turn of the century. Over the last one hundred years an international community of psychoanalysts, working with a wide range of patients, have integrated Freud’s seminal work with more modern findings from the fields of child development, attachment theory, and neuroscience. The rigour of contemporary psychoanalysis springs from this marriage between tradition and innovation.

Psychoanalysis begins with the understanding that key elements of emotional expression and relational patterns are formed during our early life. These structures, then, carry forward into adulthood and shape how we encounter the world of our present. Psychoanalysis offers a method for accessing these underlying structures of emotion and relationship that allows for change to radiate from the inside out, rather than being veneered over the outside. Psychoanalysis allows patients to sink into the less guarded aspects of themselves. The analyst, then, has a chance to bring attention to the connections between the patient’s past and current life. Over time, many of the patient’s characteristic ways of approaching relationships will begin to reveal themselves in how he or she responds to the presence of the analyst. This is what psychoanalysis calls “the transference.” By paying attention to the transference, the analyst and patient have a chance to see how problematic patterns take shape in real time and begin to find new ways of relating to the world. As the analysis progresses, patients can feel greater freedom and confidence in their relationships. Troubling emotions become less dominant and there is an increasing sense of creativity and spontaneity.