ISTDP (acronym for Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy) is an emotion-focused therapy method that is characterized by a strong focus on making the client aware of their own feelings, thought patterns, bodily signals, and behaviour/actions. In this article you can read more about when and for which problems this approach is suitable.
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a form of short-term psychotherapy that focuses on helping the person resolve unconscious conflicting emotions and traumas that can lead to mental health problems. ISTDP is an intensive form of therapy that usually involves several sessions per week over a period of a few weeks or months.
The therapist uses techniques to help the patient become aware of and understand their unconscious conflicting feelings, and works to give them the opportunity to process and resolve these feelings.
ISTDP emphasizes helping you develop a deeper understanding of yourself, and how your history affects your current behavior and emotions. The psychologist will always use the first meeting to assess whether ISTDP might be a good option for you. It is common for psychologists to use video recordings to optimize therapy, but this is completely voluntary. The vast majority of psychologists who use ISTDP are either trained specialists in the method, or are in a specialist training course.
Typical problems that ISTDP can help to treat are, for example:
A very demanding but effective method that allows me as a therapist to help the patient get to know their own feelings better and the patterns they use to avoid them. The method is an active and participatory therapy - useful for many.
