APRIL STRONGARONE, LCSW
Providing LGBTQIA+ online therapy across California and in-person services located in Davis, accessible to Woodland, Dixon, and Sacramento areas.
Psychodynamic Therapy
in Davis, CA
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Provides A Path To Lasting Change
Many forms of therapy provide a promise of short-term relief from symptoms of mental health challenges like depression and anxiety, and while temporary relief from distress or emotional pain is appealing, it doesn’t provide deep lasting change. The inner work involved in uncovering the root or contributing factors requires a more in-depth approach.
Psychodynamic therapy can help with common mental health concerns, including those with a history of complex trauma, relational trauma, as well as childhood abuse or neglect. Allowing for a comprehensive understanding of behavioral and emotional patterns, this treatment provides insight into why the same things keep repeating over and over in various situations and relationships.
A Treatment Method For Clients Of All Ages And Circumstances
This form of therapy can be the right choice for those hoping to resolve old wounds from long ago, those in the midst of life changes and transitions, or those experiencing challenges faced in adulthood. If someone is facing a difficult decision and needs help sorting through their emotions, perhaps while also dealing with complicated family or social dynamics, psychodynamic psychotherapy can provide much-needed insight and meaningful change.
As clients begin to understand themselves at a deeper level, they can better visualize and identify their wants and needs. The conflicts and difficulties that arise in the outside world often come up in the therapeutic setting. Instead of avoiding these conversations, therapy becomes a safe container to lean into and explore them, working through challenges and allowing for lasting change and a steadier sense of self.
The therapeutic relationship often provides a window into the other relationships in the clients’ lives, as well as a practice ground for making changes, with those experiences transferring outside of the therapy room.
Have a question or want to schedule a session? Reach out!
How Does Psychodynamic Therapy Work?
Psychodynamic theory is a framework that draws on the premise that suffering arises from patterns in thinking, feeling, and relationships that are often unconscious and developed in childhood, beyond our immediate awareness. Looking within and uncovering the roots of these thoughts, while experiencing emotions and symptoms in the safety of the therapeutic space, allows for experimentation with more helpful patterns of thinking.
There is a growing body of research showing that psychodynamic therapy reduces symptoms, and in some cases, the evidence suggests that the benefits are more durable than those of other treatments.
Therapy provides the opportunity to understand the "whys" of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, while building the internal strength to tolerate the ups and downs of life instead of simply reacting to life's challenges.
What To Expect In Our Collaborative Work Together
During sessions, we will work together to help you gain a deeper sense of self-awareness, helping you decide what is working and what changes you would like to make. With a better understanding of who you are, what you like, what you want, and why you feel the way you feel, together we will come up with the outcomes you would like to see, such as:
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Gain confidence, self-acceptance, and tolerance of the harder emotions that arise in life.
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Learn skills to better manage conflict and communicate with people around them.
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Enrich relationships through healthy communication and the ability to trust themselves and their unique experiences within those relationships.
Because Psychodynamic therapy is generally a longer-term treatment, the dynamics we develop in sessions will positively impact progress. Getting to know my clients well allows me to establish a lived emotional experience with them and a relationship that allows for deeper understanding. This allows for better insights, associations, and interpretations that will ultimately help lead to meaningful and lasting change.
Why Deep Change Takes Time
Psychodynamic therapy can unlock progress and encourage a deeper understanding that more surface-symptom-focused therapies may miss. By slowing habitual patterns of thinking, behaving, and feeling, and using the safety of our relationship, clients are better able to understand what is happening in their bodily systems, so they can respond rather than react or emote.
My role isn’t to tell clients what they should think or do. Instead, I join with them to explore the origins of recurring emotions and patterns, understand how those experiences continue to shape their lives, and make sense of their impact in the present. As insight grows, people often experience more clarity, confidence, and freedom in how they move through life. My clients would say that I help them think and feel more deeply into themselves.
My Professional Journey With Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
As a psychodynamic therapist, I am interested in the parts of ourselves that often remain outside of awareness but continue to shape how we feel, think, and relate to others. I approach this work as a partnership, working alongside clients to understand their individual stories and the unique factors that make them who they are.
Working within this modality for the past few decades has helped me personally and professionally, and I have witnessed profound changes with my clients. I started my graduate training at New York University’s School of Social Work, focusing on Psychodynamic Theory and Person-in-Environment & Systems Theory (PIE). PIE framework looks at how individuals are impacted by their environment (Society, Community, and Family).
These modalities are rooted in Psychoanalytic Theory, originating with the work of Sigmund Freud and further established with the work of Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, D. Winnicott, and others. Psychoanalytic Theory was introduced to
the US in the early 20th century from Europe.
There is lasting relief from suffering and constant struggling in this process, in which we gain an understanding of the patterns and structures in place that once provided the guise of safety.
What once served someone as a coping strategy or survival skill in childhood may no longer be necessary or helpful for living a peaceful, full life in adulthood.
Finding Wonder In The Power Of The Human Mind
I find the psychodynamic framework not only incredibly helpful but also fascinating in that it allows me as a practitioner to use creativity, intuition, personal experiences, and authenticity in counseling. With a fully engaging creative process, learning how to connect with each and every client is both rewarding and impactful.
I combine psychodynamic therapy and relational approaches with sensitivity, attunement, and authenticity to help clients understand themselves, navigate challenges, and live more authentically. As therapy is an art as much as it is a science, I have a unique relationship with every client I work with. I genuinely care about my clients and the work we do, and feel incredibly privileged that they allow me to know them and be with them as they grow from discomfort to ease, which often comes with the work of deep change.
I look forward to joining you on your therapy journey as well.
Learn More About My Practice
Please reach out for a free, 15-to 30-minute consultation to learn more about my approach, expertise, and enthusiasm for psychodynamic therapy and how it can help clients bring meaningful and lasting change into their lives.