In the soul’s images where colors blend,
a person’s treasure in silence lies.
In dream’s deep depths, magic keys suspend.
In the heart’s lock, beauty will arise.
I offer psychological counseling in the form of psychoanalytic sessions or short-term counseling services. Counseling is suitable for anyone who wishes to work on their personal development, achieve optimal self-awareness and independence, build meaningful relationships free from illusions, and develop desirable life attitudes.
Psychoanalysis
The key concepts of psychoanalysis are the unconscious, libido, the analytic relationship, and transference.
Unconscious contents manifest through symbols, and the goal of analysis is to become aware of these unconscious contents and their influence on our lives. It does not necessarily involve deep traumas and repressed wounds; in healthy individuals, it involves unconscious early conflicts and blocks. Symbolic expression helps to take a step back from the topic and see it from an unbiased perspective. Unconscious contents can be expressed using psychoanalytic methods based on the mechanism of projection:
- Psychological interpretation of dreams,
- Narrative techniques, i.e., articulation through metaphor (psychological interpretation of fairy tales and myths),
- Art therapy and other projective techniques (sandplay, drawing, collages from postcards, etc.).
Libido represents psychic energy in the broadest sense, and the desirable flow of libido manifests as a feeling of satisfaction and meaningfulness. Life dissatisfaction is a result of the fixation of libido on complexes (parental, contrasexual, power complex, etc.). The goal of analysis is the free flow of libido. Psychoanalysis distinguishes three instinctual components and their developmental modifications:
- Eros (pleasure drive, need for belonging, closeness, intimacy, homonomy, and generativity);
- Thanatos (aggression drive, self-preservation, isolation, autonomy, death drive);
- Physis (urge for growth, development, self-improvement, transcending one’s limits).
The analytic relationship is a type of professional relationship and has the following parameters:
- Healthy individuals are aware of most of their problems but cannot change them. The psychoanalytic relationship offers space for corrective experience and containment of emotionally charged topics (i.e., understanding and reliving them in a safe and accepting relationship).
- The formation of a psychoanalytic relationship requires time. The effect of psychoanalysis can be expected after approximately 40 sessions. It is similar to other types of relationships; short-term and deep self-disclosure can be hurtful, so it is good to take time and not rush.
- Like any relationship, the psychoanalytic relationship goes through certain stages – enthusiasm, resistance, deepening, and termination. Key is the interpretation of resistance and crisis moments. This involves transference and countertransference. In short, it is the dynamic where the client’s relational and internal issues are played out in sessions between the client and the analyst.
- The analytic relationship takes place within defined boundaries (regular meetings, in the agreed form – personal, telephone, via video calls).
- The psychoanalytic relationship is paid. Unlike other types of relationships (friendship, partnership, family relationships), the analyst does not burden the client with their life and complements the human and experiential aspect of the relationship with professional knowledge from psychology and psychotherapy. Payment gives the sessions value, helps break ruminations (aimless persistent thinking about a problem), and chaining in a circle. There are many ways to develop personality, analysis is just one of them.
The goal is to develop the ability of independence and self-analysis outside the analytic relationship. The danger of psychoanalysis is that it becomes a substitute meaning of life, so it must be terminated at the right time.
Topics suitable for analysis
- Recurrent relationship problems (partners, with adult children, in relation to parents and authorities, work, etc.)
- Feelings of dissatisfaction despite no objective reasons (feeling unfulfilled in a relationship, loss of meaning in work, in studies, etc.)
- Emotional discomfort – unjustified anger, fear, sadness, envy, jealousy. Feelings of insecurity, guilt, disappointment.
- Life crossroads and changes (breakups, job change, death in the family, grieving process, etc.)
- Development of one’s femininity and masculinity. Problems with finding a life partner, problematic communication with men, communication with women.
- Unanchored identity, family, culture
- LGBTIQA+ topics such as coming out, uncertainty in sexual orientation, gender identity, problems with acceptance by others, etc.
- Recurrent life patterns or scenarios that the client cannot handle and cannot change on their own.
Page content updated in February 2023.