The psychoanalytic method, ‘the talking cure’, addresses problems of life through speaking. It strives to find singularity by investigating the intricate tapestry of one’s history, speech, and desires.

Psychoanalysts undergo rigorous training which includes many years of personal analysis of multiple times per week and weekly clinical supervision, whilst undertaking theoretical and clinical studies in psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis differs from manualised therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Whilst these modalities can teach skills that aim to correct thoughts or behaviours, symptoms and mental health difficulties are seen as mistakes to be avoided instead of as the bearers of truth.

In the lacanian orientation, the practitioner is oriented to listening deeply to each person and the words of their unique speech. Just as slips of the tongue, bodily symptoms or psychological symptoms, dreams are privileged expressions of the unconscious governed by the laws of language that reveal deeper truths.

The work begins with some preliminary sessions of speaking together about your concerns and difficulties. As the process of analysis unfolds, you are offered the opportunity to interrogate, historicise and subjectivise your distinct difficulties and symptoms that operate within the unconscious, profoundly affecting your decisions and actions. Over the course of treatment, the person can develop a deeper understanding of life-long patterns of thinking, feeling and experiencing and how these are defined and regulated by one’s unconscious.