Essential Techniques for the Beginning Psychodynamic Psychotherapist

The process of learning to conduct psychotherapy is extremely challenging, especially in the initial stages. It is not inappropriate for the novice to seek concrete guidance as to how to proceed in the initial work with the patient. Unfortunately, however, the therapist in training may he daunted by the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic literature, which is highly theoretical and bewildering in its diversity. The following material is a compilation of psychotherapy “pearls” that the authors have distilled from the psychotherapy literature, supervision with senior colleagues, and their own clinical experience.¹ This article is intended as a primer of some technical aspects of psychodynamic work. An attempt has been made to select facets of technique that seem surprising to the inexperienced, as they are different from other types of conventional discourse. The authors have chosen to use “he” instead of “he/she” or “them” to make the paper stylistically more palatable. A bibliography is presented at the end as a guide for the beginning reader.