In analytic therapy, the therapist does not direct what will be talked about or structure the sessions, except to invite clients to report whatever comes to mind. Agendas for individual sessions are not set, nor are detailed treatment plans specified. There are no treatment manuals delineating steps or stages of treatment, and no homework tasks are assigned. These features of so many other therapies are viewed as contrivances mostly serving to reassure therapists who are intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty that they really are doing something and getting somewhere. For analytic therapists, these props constrain clients, and interfere in the processes that are most important for therapeutic change. This does not result in sessions that amble randomly in search of a topic. Rather, it proves to be the quickest and best way to discover what most needs to be talked about in any given session.

Just as every individual is inherently valuable, every one of us has life challenges and problems. We all experience suffering. responding with judgment or criticism is a defense that shields a listener from feeling too much of another person’s distress. For therapy clients, however, this is shaming and discourages the openness and disclosure that is needed. Healing requires an atmosphere of safety that comes from non-judgmental acceptance, especially when dealing with grief and loss.

We all have values, such as beliefs about a world view, perspectives about politics, priorities about what is important in life, etc. Many people are hesitant to enter therapy out of the fear that their values will not be respected. “Respect for others” is a fundamental counselling skill, and even an ethical requirement, at least for psychologists, for whom it is codified in their Code of Ethics. That said, Dr. Crowhurst has seen too many instances over the years of therapists who pathologize views that differ from their own. Most often, it has been noted that those who have quite non-mainstream views and values, as well as those who hold mainstream-but-traditional values who are particularly likely to encounter therapists who are not respectful of their views.

Empathy is the ability to recognize and understand another person’s emotions, thoughts, and experiences. Empathy involves putting oneself in someone else’s shoes so that you can better understand their inner world. It goes beyond just feeling sympathy for someone else as it encourages understanding what another person is going through so that you can provide meaningful support.

Psychoanalytic therapies focus on relationships in a number of ways. First, relationships with significant figures during our formative years are understood to be important in shaping our personality development.

After “empathy,” perhaps no other word in the psychotherapy lexicon has been more hi-jacked than “insight.” When discovering a connection between performing a technique and a resulting therapeutic benefit, it is probably not wrong, if very limited, to call this an “insight.” Many, if not most, contemporary approaches to therapy are therapies of technique, and are their “insights” are very different from what is meant in analytic therapies. Insight in analytic therapy answers the question “why?” (e.g., Why do I have repeated bouts of depression every few years? Why do I push people away, only to be lonely–it doesn’t make sense? Why am I struggling with these life challenges now, when I always relished them in the past?) This “why?” integrates the individual’s specific life experiences to help explain why and understand how their present problems took shape and why they persist.