Crash Course: What is ISTDP?

I practice Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). See the bottom of this page for a definition of each term in the name.

What is this therapy?

Basically, it’s a treatment designed to help you address the internal causes of your symptoms and suffering. With your permission, I will help you see unconscious anxiety and defenses and how they cause your problems, while also inviting you to actively turn against these forces in session on behalf of your healthy longings, feelings, and impulses.

As we do this, you may notice an internal crisis developing between your wish to heal and a pull to maintain the familiar status quo. When you start to see and choose health, you will experience growth, insight, and emotional healing.

One of the things that sets this therapy apart is the methodical way we’ll help you differentiate your true self from the false self created by your defenses. Many therapies are reluctant to talk about defenses because addressing them can trigger shame and anxiety. That’s understandable, and true.

That’s why in ISTDP we use a careful step-wise approach to help you free yourself from these old avoidance strategies (read: defenses) while also keeping a close eye on your physical anxiety signals and bolstering your healthy side to rise up and replace outmoded reactions. Together we will keep your anxiety well-regulated and carefully observe the ways your body and mind are adjusting. Ultimately, we will be working together to help you feel old feelings so you can end the cycle of avoidance.

I: ISTDP is an intensive treatment. We will both work hard to get to the core of your presenting problems in a compassionate but efficient manner.

ST: This intensity allows ISTDP to be relatively short-term compared to other therapies designed to resolve internal conflict.* This can still be a prolonged process for many — but we won’t waste time.

D: ISTDP is psycho-dynamic and experiential, which means that it works by addressing the lively or dynamic interplay between distinct unconscious processes such as feelings/impulses, anxiety, and defenses.

P: It is psychotherapy in that it focuses on the internal psychological causes of your symptoms and problems. For example, in this therapy we will avoid exploring other people’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors or broader social issues that affect your life. We also won’t be treating your biology. Instead, i’ll invite you to hold an internal focus and pay close careful attention to things only you can control: your will, your desires, your feelings, your anxiety, and your life.

*ISTDP is shorter than most dynamic, psychoanalytic, or even emotionally focused or experiential therapies. That being said, there is no easy cure and every case is unique, so treatment length is determined by a number of variables. For example, many individuals require a period of capacity building before they can consciously tolerate their unconscious feelings. Other folks may need to gradually build their ability to tolerate feelings and anxiety while also getting help seeing and restructuring defenses that keep their anxiety and destructive behavior very high. Finally, other folks can tolerate their feelings, but aren’t sure they’re ready to give up certain defenses. The key is to allow yourself the time you need for your process, so you can achieve your goals in a sustainable way.

Resources.