OUR SPECIALISM

We pride ourselves in offering a discrete, confidential space to think.

Along with our assessment and consultation service, we offer psychoanalytically informed brief, medium and longer-term individual therapy.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy involves meeting on a regular basis, in the same room, for sessions that last fifty minutes. This stable, confidential structure gives you and your therapist the chance to connect with and understand what is happening at a deeper level. Rather than start sessions with questions, the therapist usually follows the client’s lead. You are encouraged to try and speak about whatever comes to your mind, without censorship on a regular basis. Feelings, thoughts, wishes, memories and dreams can be explored during the sessions. Over time, understanding builds up as the therapist and the patient develop a relationship, and the therapist is therefore likely to draw attention to this relationship as the work progresses. The work is about understanding how our unique pasts continue to influence how we think about ourselves, others and the world in the here and now. By being so generous with time, attention and thought, psychoanalytically informed work can bring about authentic and lasting change.

How does Psychoanalytically Informed Therapy Work?

There are times in all our lives when our emotions feel overwhelming, and we can even become unwell with a mental health problem. Having psychoanalytically informed therapy can help us to better understand ourselves and to work through our difficulties.

At the heart of psychoanalytically informed therapy is the conviction that we hold beliefs, attitudes and ways of relating to ourselves, the world and others, that are in a part of the mind that we have no direct access to, this is the unconscious. As a result, we can then find ourselves repeating unhelpful behaviours, feeling stuck in unhappy relationships and stunting our emotional, creative and professional development, but have no conscious idea of why this is happening.

Psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy is about discovering and understanding how our unconscious ideas affect our perception of the world and relationships. This is vital in helping us understand ourselves more deeply and to allow us to make conscious choices about how we think, feel and behave. This can alleviate psychological suffering and improve our health and wellbeing.

What About The Therapist’s Unconscious Beliefs?

One of the major areas of importance in psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the attention that the therapist is required to pay to their own unconscious thoughts, beliefs and reactions. In psychoanalytically informed work it is vital that the therapist works to provide as neutral a therapeutic space as is humanly possible, so that sessions focus on the internal world of the client. This means that the therapist is required to have enough insight into their own ingrained thoughts, beliefs and ways of relating, so they can be set aside to leave as much room as possible for the client’s material to be worked with.

At 13 the Royal Square we ensure that all our therapists are engaged in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and have psychoanalytic supervision with experienced psychoanalysts. We believe that these are essential requirements to providing the best possible practice.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy usually involves regular, 50-minute meetings. These can be weekly or more often if needed.

Is There Any Evidence?

There is a growing body of research into the effectiveness of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Researchers have demonstrated good evidence for the positive effects of psychodynamic therapies for various psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and eating disorders. There are an ever-increasing number of studies evaluating the general effectiveness of short and long term psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy. These studies have been published in eminent psychological, psychiatric and medical journals.

Large scale studies in this field have concluded that long term psychoanalytic psychotherapy is significantly better in targeting problems and general personality functioning than shorter forms of psychotherapy (Leichsenring, F., & Rabung, S. 2008). Other studies have highlighted that psychodynamic therapy has as positive an impact on patients as other therapies, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), which tend to be more readily promoted in modern healthcare. What is more, patients who had psychodynamic therapy not only saw an improvement in their psychological difficulties during treatment, but this improvement continued after treatment had ended (Shedler, J. 2010).

In people suffering with depression, researchers demonstrated that the benefits of short-term psychodynamic therapies are equivalent to those produced by antidepressants and CBT (Taylor, D. 2008).

More recent papers published in this area have concluded that psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective treatment option for a range of personality disorders, those suffering from chronic depression not helped by alternative treatments, such as antidepressants, short term counselling or CBT and in people suffering with complex mental health difficulties (Town et al 2011., Fonagy, et al 2015., Leichsenring, &  Rabung 2011). Again these studies highlighted that improvements in functioning were sustained in the longer term and were generalized to many areas of the patient’s life, as opposed to focusing on one individual symptom/problem.

  1. Leichsenring, F., Rabung, S. (2011). Long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy in complex mental disorders: Update of a meta-analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 199(1): 15-22.
  1. Leichsenring, F., & Rabung, S. (2008).  Effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300, 1151-1565.
  1. Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist 65(2): 98-109.
  1. Taylor, D. (2008).  Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapies for depression: the evidence base.  Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 14, 401-413.
  1. Town, J.M., Abbass, A., Hardy, G. (2011). Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for personality disorder: A critical review of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Personality Disorders, 25(6): 723-740.
  1. Fonagy, P., Rost, F. Carlyle, J. McPherson, S., Thomas, R., Fearon, P., Goldberg, D, Taylor, D. Pragmatic randomized controlled trial of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression: the Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS) World Psychiatry 2015;14:312–321

Is There Any Evidence?

There is a growing body of research into the effectiveness of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Researchers have demonstrated good evidence for the positive effects of psychodynamic therapies for various psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and eating disorders. There are an ever-increasing number of studies evaluating the general effectiveness of short and long term psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy. These studies have been published in eminent psychological, psychiatric and medical journals.

Large scale studies in this field have concluded that long term psychoanalytic psychotherapy is significantly better in targeting problems and general personality functioning than shorter forms of psychotherapy (Leichsenring, F., & Rabung, S. 2008). Other studies have highlighted that psychodynamic therapy has as positive an impact on patients as other therapies, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), which tend to be more readily promoted in modern healthcare. What is more, patients who had psychodynamic therapy not only saw an improvement in their psychological difficulties during treatment, but this improvement continued after treatment had ended (Shedler, J. 2010).

In people suffering with depression, researchers demonstrated that the benefits of short-term psychodynamic therapies are equivalent to those produced by antidepressants and CBT (Taylor, D. 2008).

More recent papers published in this area have concluded that psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective treatment option for a range of personality disorders, those suffering from chronic depression not helped by alternative treatments, such as antidepressants, short term counselling or CBT and in people suffering with complex mental health difficulties (Town et al 2011., Fonagy, et al 2015., Leichsenring, & Rabung 2011). Again these studies highlighted that improvements in functioning were sustained in the longer term and were generalized to many areas of the patient’s life, as opposed to focusing on one individual symptom/problem.

  1. Leichsenring, F., Rabung, S. (2011). Long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy in complex mental disorders: Update of a meta-analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 199(1): 15-22.
  2. Leichsenring, F., & Rabung, S. (2008). Effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300, 1151-1565.
  3. Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist 65(2): 98-109.
  4. Taylor, D. (2008). Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapies for depression: the evidence base. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 14, 401-413.
  5. Town, J.M., Abbass, A., Hardy, G. (2011). Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for personality disorder: A critical review of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Personality Disorders, 25(6): 723-740.
  6. Fonagy, P., Rost, F. Carlyle, J. McPherson, S., Thomas, R., Fearon, P., Goldberg, D, Taylor, D. Pragmatic randomized controlled trial of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression: the Tavis

EMDR

Dr Shelley Le Main also offers EMDR therapy where suitable. EMDR is an acronym for ‘Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing’. A vast body of research has been conducted demonstrating EMDR’s benefits in treating psychological trauma arising from experiences as diverse as war related experiences, childhood sexual and/or physical abuse or neglect, natural disaster, assault, surgical trauma, road traffic accidents and workplace accidents.

EMDR is a complex and powerful therapy that should only be given by appropriately qualified and accredited clinicians, who have undergone a bona-fide EMDR training. Accredited therapists and evidence outlining the effectiveness of this treatment can be found on the EMDR UK website on our useful links page.