INTENSIVE SHORT TERM DYNAMIC PSYCOTHERAPY - GOLD COAST

Ever heard of Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)? It’s a therapeutic approach that digs deep to find the real reasons behind your struggles. This therapy is all about emotions – it’s based on solid evidence, focuses on your feelings and is patient centred.

ISTDP developers discovered that beneath our anxieties and defences lie our true feelings and experiences. These hidden emotions can affect how we live and relate to others. In ISTDP sessions, the aim is to help you acknowledge, identify, experience, and fully express these emotions – ultimately addressing the root cause.

What do we mean by defences ?

Defences serve to psychologically protect us from emotional discomfort and pain. While these can serve as useful allies, particularly in our childhood, they can become unhelpful and cause suffering later in our lives. They often present in therapy as self-defeating patterns in our thought processes and behaviour. As we are often unaware of these defences, ISTDP treatment seeks to bring these into awareness, so you can see how they might be affecting your life. This awareness allows us the opportunity to consciously decide if we wish to retain them, or let them go in order to move towards our goals.

Once you understand your defences, we can work towards the uncovering and processing of core emotions that have been hidden to this point. We’ll also look at how early experiences with others that have shaped our current challenges, and out unconscious desire to defend against emotions. This process serves to facilitate deep emotional understanding and healing.

Who is ISTDP For?

STDP is an evidence based therapy, meaning that there is an abundance research demonstrating its effectiveness in the treatment of a range of psychological challenges. With a focus on overcoming mental health symptoms, ISTDP is suitable for most psychological challenges. This includes (but is not limited to) anxiety, depression, complex trauma, relationship challenges, grief and loss, low self-esteem, personality disorder, and work stress.

ISTDP is useful for those seeking long lasting change within themselves. By focusing on the root causes of your emotions, ISTDP fosters a deeper and profound understanding of who you are.

How long will I be in therapy for?

This is individual and dependent on a vast multitude of factors that we can’t know until we are underway within our work together. It will be conditional on individual need, the nature of the issue, and the pace at which therapy can progress. Therapy is an investment in your long term mental health and wellbeing.