F.A.Q

Psychoanalytic therapy is a form of talk therapy based on Sigmund Freud's theories of psychoanalysis. The approach explores how the unconscious mind influences your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Specifically, it examines how your experiences (often from childhood) may be contributing to your current experience and actions. Psychoanalytic approaches to emotional disorders have advanced a great deal since Freud's time.
Freud described the unconscious as the reservoir of desires, thoughts, and memories that are below the surface of conscious awareness. He believed that these unconscious influences could often lead to psychological distress and disturbances.

What makes psychoanalytic therapy different from other forms of treatment? A review of the research comparing psychoanalytic approaches to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) identified seven features that set the psychoanalytic approach apart.2
  • Focuses on emotions. Where CBT is centered on cognition and behaviors, psychoanalytic therapy explores the full range of emotions that a patient is experiencing.
  • Explores avoidance. People often avoid certain feelings, thoughts, and situations they find distressing. Understanding what a client is avoiding can help both the psychoanalyst and the client understand why such avoidance comes into play.
  • Identifies recurring themes. Some people may be aware of their self-destructive behaviors but unable to stop them. Others may not be aware of these patterns and how they influence their behaviors.
  • Exploration of past experienced. Other therapies often focus more on the here-and-now, or how current thoughts and behaviors influence how a person functions. The psychoanalytic approach helps people explore their pasts and understand how it affects their present psychological difficulties. It can help patients shed the bonds of past experience to live more fully in the present.
  • Explores interpersonal relationships. Through the therapy process, people are able to explore their relationships with others, both current and past.
  • Emphasizes the therapeutic relationship. Because psychoanalytic therapy is so personal, the relationship between the psychoanalyst and the patient provides a unique opportunity to explore and reword relational patterns that emerge in the treatment relationship.
  • Free-flowing. Where other therapies are often highly structured and goal-oriented, psychoanalytic therapy allows the patient to explore freely. Patients are free to talk about fears, fantasies, desires, and dreams.
As with any approach to mental health treatment, psychoanalytic therapy can have its pluses and minuses. Before deciding on this approach, it's important to take these factors into account.
  • Psychoanalytic therapy may be used to treat a number of different psychological conditions, including:
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Emotion struggles or trauma
  • Identity problems
  • Self-esteem issues
  • Self-assertion
  • Psychosomatic disorders
  • Relationship issues
  • Self-destructive behavior
  • Sexual problems
People undergoing psychoanalytic therapy often meet with their psychoanalyst at least once a week. They can remain in therapy for months or even years.
Psychoanalysts use a variety of techniques to gain insight into your behavior. Some of the more popular techniques include:
  • Dream interpretation: According to Freud, dream analysis is by far the most important psychoanalytic technique. He often referred to dreams as "the royal road to the unconscious." 1 Psychoanalysts may interpret dreams to get insight into the workings of your unconscious mind.
  • Free association: Free association is an exercise during which the psychoanalyst encourages you to freely share your thoughts. This can lead to the emergence of unexpected connections and memories.
  • Transference: Transference occurs when you project your feelings about another person onto the psychoanalyst. You'll then interact with them as if they were that other person. This technique can help your psychoanalyst understand how you interact with others.
Psychoanalysts spend a lot of time listening to people talk about their lives, which is why this method is often referred to as "the talking cure."

One review of the effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic therapies found moderate to large success rates for reducing symptoms of a variety of psychopathologies.
A 2021 review of studies found that short-term psychoanalytic therapy led to lasting improvements in somatic symptoms, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms.

People who receive psychoanalytic treatment tend to retain these gains. Most continue to improve even after therapy ends. On the other hand, the benefits of other evidence-based therapies tend to diminish over time.
A 2010 review published in the American Psychologist suggested that psychoanalytic therapy was as effective as other evidence-based therapies.


Success often hinges on the ability to confront potentially stressful or triggering experiences. While some critics have derided the success rates of psychoanalytic therapy, research suggests that both long- and short-term psychoanalytic therapy can effectively treat a range of conditions.3
Long-term psychoanalytic therapy is usually defined as lasting one year or 50 sessions. Short-term psychoanalytic therapy, on the other hand, is defined as fewer than 40 sessions or less than one year of treatment.


If you think you or someone you love would benefit from psychoanalytic therapy, the first step is to book a session with me by email through this website.

I committed myself to provide an affordable fee for all of the Farsi/Persian speakers all around the world.