Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a unique and powerful approach to emotional healing.

ISTDP techniques are designed to free patients from the grip of anxiety, tension, and other and harmful symptoms defense mechanisms.

Letting go of the defense mechanism allows previously avoided feelings and insights to rise to the surface, where they can be integrated into conscious awareness.

ISTDP can help treat a wide range of mental health problems, from relatively straightforward ones to complex, treatment-resistant conditions such as complex PTSD, personality disorders, and medically unexplained physical symtpoms.

It is a model custom-tailored to each patient's tolerance of anxiety. This means that the care you receive will match your desire and capacity to face core feelings.

Most therapy approaches shy away from directly addressing defense mechanisms. ISTDP does not.

The fact is, we cannot change what we cannot see. Only seeing and letting go of our defense mechanisms can end the suffering they cause.

ISTDP sessions are more focused, structured, and intensive than most depth-oriented approaches. For those accustomed to more open-ended, free-flowing sessions, this can feel a bit strange.

Many patients, however, appreciate the directness and sense of focus that characterized the ISTDP approach.

Intensive, in this case, does not mean overwhelming.

What makes ISTDP an intensive approach is simply the sustained focus on emotional experience

ISTDP therapists are trained to re-route the therapy when things get too intellectual. As one patient said, “I thought my way through my first therapy. Now I am feeling my way through it.