Psychoanalytic (or psychodynamic) psychotherapy is a type of therapy that focuses on the unconscious movements of the mind—the way the forces of the mind motivate a person to act, think, or feel a certain way. Problems arise when parts of the mind work against other parts to obscure, deny, or distort one's experience of oneself and of their world. These internal conflicts can result in symptoms like depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, explosive bouts of anger, depersonalization, lack of identity, and other mental health suffering.

A therapist trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, through careful and attentive listening, seeks to help clients untangle and resolve these tensions of the mind. This work can involve the analysis of dreams, taking note of particular word choice, highlighting how the client relates to the therapist, exploring a client's fantasy life, unpacking oversimplified emotions, and other such techniques.

Psychoanalytic work is non-directive (e.g. there are no worksheets) but deeply engaging. Clients are encouraged to "free associate"—to name everything and anything that comes to mind in the session. The psychoanalytic psychotherapist follows the client's lead and speaks only to help the client continue to explore her mind. The goal is always deeper knowledge of one's own mind and increasing the client's ability to discern well and live more freely.

It is common for clients in psychodynamic psychotherapy to attend weekly or twice a week sessions.

Clinical psychoanalysis is an intensive, open-ended form of treatment focused on helping patients to understand the full depth of their minds—their central unconscious wishes, fears, conflicts, defenses, and identifications. Whereas psychodynamic psychotherapy focuses on more modest goals such as relieving particular symptoms, strengthening self-esteem, or reducing emotional suffering, psychoanalysis seeks to resolve problems deeply rooted in a patient’s very personality.

To this end, psychoanalytic treatment seeks to facilitate regression—that is, the ability to sit with painful, disorganized, and intense emotions characteristic of early childhood. In this state of regression, patients begin to relate to their analysts with an emotional gravity reminiscent of early caregivers. By exploring what emerges in the relationship between the analyst and the patient, the analyst helps the patient to gain deeper self-understanding and work through unconscious conflicts.

More frequent points of contact between the patient and analyst as well as the use of the analytic couch—the patient lying supine on the couch with the analyst out of sight—allow for the facilitation of regression and working through. It is common for patients in psychoanalytic treatment to work with their analysts three to five times a week.

A Kentucky licensed pastoral counselor receives both psychotherapeutic and theological training to recognize, identify, and work with spiritual, theological, and religious issues in the course of psychotherapeutic treatment. It is not a type of therapy but is rather a particular training to work with spiritual and religious issues in therapy.

Seeing a licensed pastoral counselor is not much different in terms of standards of care than seeing a licensed professional clinical counselor or licensed clinical social worker, for instance. However, similar to how a psychiatrist is additionally trained to recognize medical and physical health issues, a pastoral counselor is trained to recognize spiritual, existential, religious, and philosophical issues that arise in the course of treatment. They are trained to work with these issues within a therapeutic context.

Spiritual, religious, theological, or philosophical/existential issues emerge all the time in treatment. This is most easily seen in cases of religious trauma where emotional and/or physical abuse had a moral and eschatological element to it. However, spiritual issues are also present in more subtle ways—for instance in relationship conflict, scrupulosity, questions of vocation, sexual issues, and identity issues to name a few.

Existential questions often emerge in times of grief and loss. These are moments when people are most attuned to questions of God, the cosmos, and their own existence. Spiritual issues must also be recognized as not only a part of the client's individual mind but also her relationships, community, and world.

Knowing that spiritual issues might be at play is helpful to a clinician to work more effectively with a client. Spiritual issues must be taken just as seriously as emotional issues which means the clinician ought not to minimize them as a matter of personal preference, ought not avoid discussing them when they emerge, and ought not impose a rigid moral framework over the client. My job is not to teach theology but is rather to explore with clients the meaning of the spiritual in the conflicts of their mind.

No. I am private pay and out-of-network for all insurance companies. I can provide a superbill for clients to submit their own claims.

Yes. I do offer telehealth services when appropriate for the client.