The origins of Psychodynamic Counselling can be traced back to Sigmund Freud in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, and the psychodynamic theory has been continually developed, modified and refined over time. It is based around the philosophy that people are driven by unconscious patterns of behaviour and desires which are shaped by their past experiences. Some examples of things that form these behaviours could be an overly critical, shaming parent, a violent traumatic experience in which the person felt they had no control, or even something they may be too young to remember, like not having their basic needs met when they were an infant. Even though these things happened in the past, the person may not realise how much of an influence they have on their present day life.
The goal of Psychodynamic Counselling is to bring those unconscious patterns of behaviour (such as irrational fears, unwanted sexual desires, immoral urges) and the events that created them out of the unconscious mind (literally the things we don’t consciously remember or can’t think about) and into the pre-conscious level (the part of the mind which doesn’t deal in the here-and-now, but stores our memories and knowledge), and then explore them with the conscious mind (this is where our awareness exists, where we think our thoughts and feel our emotions).
Freud developed an abstract construct that divided the mind into three parts:
• Id – This is the instinctual, primal part that is driven by self-gratification. It does not consider morals, ethics or danger when communicating its desires.
• Superego – Also known as your conscience, this part of the construct wants to keep you safe and is based on the voices of your parents and other authority figures.
• Ego – This part tries to balance the desires of the other two parts by coming up with a compromise that appeases both parties.
The Id and Superego are in constant conflict, and sometimes the Ego cannot cope with the mediation. This is when Ego defences are created – and these can often manifest into the unconscious patterns of behaviour mentioned earlier. These unconscious patterns of behaviour could be things like people cutting themselves off from their emotions to deny the pain they cause, stealing things from shops but then justifying it in various ways, or being violent and controlling towards a partner – a behaviour unconsciously copied from their parents. Identifying and dynamically exploring a client’s unconscious processes can undo the Ego defences that were created, and give the Ego more power to successfully mediate the conflict between the Id and Superego.
A Psychodynamic Counsellor should present themselves as a blank slate for the client, to not only limit the amount of influence they have over the clients, but also to serve as a conduit for transference. This is when a client’s thoughts, feelings and personas are projected onto the counsellor to help the client work through the issues they have with them.
