Psychodynamic psychotherapy has been proven effective for a range of mental health diagnoses. My approach has been particularly helpful for clients experiencing complex trauma, personality disorders, as well as couples working to improve longstanding relational patterns.

Relationship Issues

Relationship difficulties often stem from unconscious emotional and relational patterns that shape how individuals experience closeness, conflict, trust, and vulnerability. I use psychodynamic psychotherapy to help identify how past relational experiences continue to influence present-day dynamics, often outside of awareness.

Within a consistent and attuned therapeutic relationship, recurring patterns—such as cycles of conflict, emotional withdrawal, insecurity, or unmet needs—can be explored as they emerge in real time. Treatment focuses on increasing insight into attachment styles, unconscious expectations, and defensive strategies that may have once been adaptive but now interfere with connection.

As emotional flexibility and self-awareness grow, clients often experience more satisfying relationships, improved communication, and a greater capacity for intimacy and authenticity.

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders involve enduring patterns of self-experience and relating that shape identity, emotional regulation, and interpersonal functioning. I use psychodynamic psychotherapy to work with these deeply ingrained patterns, which typically develop early within formative relationships and become rigid over time.

Together, we address these patterns and defensive reactions as they unfold in real time. By working at the level of personality structure rather than focusing solely on isolated symptoms, this approach supports greater flexibility, emotional stability, and a more cohesive sense of self.

PTSD

Traumatic experiences can continue to shape emotional regulation, nervous system activation, and functioning within relationships long after the original threat has passed. In my work with PTSD, I use psychodynamic psychotherapy to address trauma-related patterns of hyperarousal, shutdown, and dissociation that operate outside of conscious awareness.

Treatment focuses on restoring safety while helping traumatic experiences become more fully processed and integrated. Overwhelming or avoided emotions are approached at a pace that supports regulation and stability. I work to identify trauma-driven patterns such as reenactment, avoidance, shame, or self-blame, along with dissociative or defensive responses that once ensured survival but now restrict emotional range and connection.