AIMS OF THE NWIDP
• To promote public and professional awareness of psychodynamic therapy and psychodynamic understanding.
• To promote wider access to psychodynamic therapy.
• To provide high quality training and continuing professional development in psychodynamic therapy.
• To promote high standards of practice of psychodynamic therapy by members, including requiring appropriate professional ethical standards to be met.
• To encourage education and research into the practice and application of psychodynamic therapy.
• To represent the profession of psychodynamic therapy with other professions, organisations and health care
providers in the North West of England and elsewhere when necessary.
WHAT IS PSYCHOTHERAPY?
Psychodynamic therapy is sometimes referred to as dynamic psychotherapy, or psychoanalytic therapy. (It differs from psychoanalysis in that psychoanalysis is a more intensive form of treatment, though based on the same theory of human development).
Psychodynamic approaches aim to reach the
underlying, often unconscious, causes of
distress and difficulty. They recognise that
problems in the present may have their roots
in past experience, and that current
behaviour may be motivated by feelings
derived from that experience.
Psychodynamic therapists work on the
assumption that such problems will emerge
within the relationship with the therapist.
Thus the therapeutic relationship is a central
focus of therapy. The treatment consists of
developing a conversation focusing on the"here and now" experience of both patient
and therapist.
Psychodynamic therapy is sometimes used as a
brief therapy with a focus on a defined area
of difficulty. It is also used as a longer term
therapy, aimed at helping people increase
their understanding of themselves generally,
and enabling them to make changes in many
areas of their lives. It can be an individual or
a group therapy.