Dr Rupert Nieboer

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is an open exploration of your thoughts and feelings, which leads into an uncovering of the unconscious factors that lie behind your difficulties.  What we cannot face knowing about often becomes something "unconscious", which means left out of awareness, but remaining active beneath the surface, influencing our personality, so leading to intractable problems.  The psychoanalytic exploration provides an opportunity, and support, for learning about our whole selves at a greater depth, so freeing up our mind to address our situation more honestly, and so more effectively.

　

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy has a broad remit and is not a symptom-focussed approach, nor a form of psychological coaching. The scope is more profound and the process is more searching, slower and longer lasting. In brief, the aim is to deepen self-understanding and self-acceptance in a lasting way, by entering into a particular kind of relationship with a therapist. This relationship is often long lasting and comes to involve a level of openness and honesty that is not possible elsewhere in our daily lives. Unconscious beliefs and feelings inevitably find an expression in the therapy, and in the evolving  relationship with the therapist, providing an opportunity for learning.  The raw material I work with is your day to day concerns, your dreams, and the spontaneous thoughts that occur as you are present within the session.  

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I work at a range of frequencies, depending on need and the therapeutic aim.  I work on a one session per week basis, but often the sessions are more frequent (e.g. 2 to 3 sessions per week). With more sessions there is more space to open things up, and deeper levels of contact and understanding become more possible. In some cases, it may be appropriate to meet for consultations less frequently, such as once per month. 

 

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy can help with a range of difficulties but will be more applicable to those looking to understand and develop something within their personality in a longer term process of exploration. Psychotherapy might also be helpful to those who have found counselling useful, but who are now looking to go "deeper" into things. The approach may frustrate those look that are looking for direct advice, or to learn specific coping strategies.

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I only work in person for psychotherapy sessions.

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Click to learn more about psychoanalytic psychotherapy.