One of the most popular forms of treatment for depression, anxiety, and related concerns has traditionally been that of psychotherapy, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, which borrows from many schools of thought and places a particular emphasis on exploring emotions and patterns of behavior, is among the most popular types of therapy administered to clients. Still, there are many critics of psychodynamic treatment who have voiced their preference for other approaches to psychological concerns, and the quest to address these objections with clear and in-depth scientific research has been slow yet earnest. Recently, the journal American Psychologist published a study that incorporates the work of several other studies performed on psychodynamic psychotherapy, and which provides significant evidence for the efficacy of this treatment both during session periods and in the long term.

The study was met with significant zeal from professionals hoping for a greater attention to scientific research within the field, and the work may help therapists reach a greater number of people with their work through increased awareness of the potential benefits of treatment. Dubbed a “meta-study,” the research examined the results of other projects aimed at ascertaining whether treatment had a positive effect, and for how long; comparing the results and placing them within a unified context yielded the conclusion that psychodynamic psychotherapy is a viable response to some psychological concerns, and may prove beneficial well into the future –up to three years of follow-up results were tracked.

As the scientific momentum picks up in relation to psychodynamic treatment and other therapies, researchers are exploring the experience of empathy in sessions and delving into challenging like the client-therapist relationship, all of which are bound to help shed more light on what has long been held by some as a promising source of help for many of those in need.

It’s no secret that a lot of modern insurance companies harbor a preference for what they view as the most cost-effective measures when it comes to addressing emotional well-being and health in general. In relation to therapy, this attitude has often lead to a hasty endorsement of short-term therapies, especially in conjunction with various medicines. But Falk Leichsenring, a professor of Psychotherapy Research at the University of Giessen in Germany, has long suspected that this hasty endorsement is a departure from understanding which types of therapy are most effective.

Based on the extensive review of a collection of twenty three in-depth studies involving over a thousand participants, Leichsenring set out to pinpoint the therapies that clients found most beneficial, and with which therapists themselves were most satisfied. What he found was that while short term therapies usually had some degree of impact on the lives and prosperity of clients, in-depth courses of therapy involving psychodynamic elements and techniques were responsible for greater rates of achievement. Over the course of several months or even a few years, long term therapy embracing the person as a whole and taking the time to look at their backgrounds, memories, relationships, and personal observations is capable of serving as the foundation for profound change, the study suggests, while less involved treatments can fail to address deep-rooted feelings and ideas.

Leichsenring’s work, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in the fall, goes a long way toward helping the mental health professions underscore the importance of effective and meaningful technique in the face of insurance plans and common myths tied to the false superiority of short-term therapy. As more professionals open their work to the principles of psychodynamic care, the great ability and potential of this method may experience a rightful rise.

A review of 23 studies that looked at the results of long-term, psychodynamic talk therapy concluded that such therapy improved the symptoms of chronic mental problems, including anxiety and borderline personality disorder, better than some shorter-term therapies.

The studies included a total of 1,053 clients undergoing weekly, twice weekly, or three times weekly session for at least a year and often much longer. Most of the clients had 50 or more sessions, and all were followed closely by researchers in the original studies.

The authors, writing in the October 1 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, recommended that researchers focus more on psychodynamic therapy, noting that the managed care system has been loathe to pay for such treatment, citing other studies that seemed to show the superiority of cognitive behavioral, short term therapy.

This new study is the first modern literature review of the results of psychodynamic work, and the studies it examined were not widely known.

“This review certainly does seem to contradict the notion that cognitive or other short-term therapies are better than any others,” said Bruce E. Wampold, chairman of the department of counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin. “When it’s done well, psychodynamic therapy appears to be just as effective as any other for some patients, and this strikes me as a turning point” for such intensive therapy.

Psychodynamic therapy, one researcher told the New York Times by email, “showed significant, large and stable treatment effects which even significantly increased between the end of treatment and follow-up assessment.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the review found no correlation between patients’ improvement and the length of treatment.

Dr. Barbara L. Milrod, a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and a psychodynamic therapist, said further research was desperately needed.

“Let’s be real,” Dr. Milrod told the Times. “Major medical centers have been shutting down psychodynamic training programs because there isn’t an adequate evidence base.”

Now the foundation of such a base of evidence has been laid, with more, hopefully, to follow.

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Therapist Seattle

Bioenergetics is a form of psychodynamic psychotherapy that combines work with the body and mind to help people result their emotional problems and realize more of their potential for pleasure injoy in living.

Bioenergetics psychotherapists believe that there is a correlation between the mind in the body.  What affects the body affects the mind; in what affects the mind affects the body.  The psychological defenses when uses to handle pain and stress of life are also anchored in the body.  They appear in the body as unique muscular patterns that inhibit self expression.  These patterns can be identified and understood by bioenergetics psychotherapists who knows how to look the structure, movement and breathing patterns in a person’s body.

Bioenergetics psychotherapists, like other psychotherapists, focus special attention on the muscular patterns and person’s body.  They are interested in these patterns and their relationship to movement, breath, posture and emotional expression.  Every physical expression of the body has meaning.

The bioenergetics psychotherapist studies muscular patterns and introduces the client to physical expressions or exercises to help them experience in present time these patterns of constriction in the body.  The therapist explores with the client what it would feel like to began to release these patterns and recover some of the feelings they have repressed during childhood and continue to repress in their adult life.  The bioenergetics psychotherapist also helps their clients come to understand how and why patterns of constriction and developed; how these very defenses hindering during their life today allowed them to survive an early environment that was not supportive of their being.

As these repressed emotions emerge, clients begin to realize that these patterns inhibit their capacity for spontaneity and creativity in self expression.  They begin to understand that as these defenses became chronic, so have the muscular patterns in their body.  As clients progress in bioenergetics psychotherapy, old ineffective patterns which block connection, pleasure, spontaneity and joy slowly dissolve.  Through the physical and emotional release of body work in the experience of a safe, healthy, supportive connection with his/herself and others in new more satisfying ways.

©Copyright 2007 Sandra M. Wolf, M.A., LMFT, All Rights Reserved. Permission to publish granted to GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment to this blog entry. The article was solely written and edited by the author named above. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org.