Freudian Theory

Freud was a pioneer in many aspects of understanding mental and emotional states.

Sigmund Freud, the father of the talking therapies and psychotherapy, was a giant and a pioneer.  Today, many aspects of his work are viewed as pseudoscience. However some of his ideas are now recognised as being inspired. Mainly, we still use his ideas about the importance of childhood, his understanding of the value of dreaming and the power of the unconscious.

Annie takes some of the most relevant parts of Freudian psychoanalysis and combines them with other, more modern approaches to create a listening space where whatever the client says is valid and important.

True psychoanalysis is a set of psychological and psychotherapeutic theories and associated techniques which has influenced almost every therapist for the last 120 years.  From the original Freudian basics of psychoanalysis, several fundamentals survive. These include some basic tenets of psychoanalysis such as:

*  a person’s development is determined by events in early childhood
*  human attitude, mannerism, experience, and thought is largely influenced by innate drives
*  our emotional drives are largely unconscious and primitive
*  we have a system of defence mechanisms which protect our psyche
*  our dreams are a critical part of our emotional wellbeing.

Areas where we now regard Freud as flawed were his theories that aspects of dreams have specific meanings (such as, to dream of water flowing means money coming in), his suggestion that depression is caused by turning guilt-ridden anger on the self, and his ideas about sexuality and envy, among others.  He had some pretty whacky ideas about the ego, the conscious and the unconscious mind which, although are now widely seen as dated.

Freud liked to see his clients one or twice weekly, sometimes daily, for weeks, months and years on end.  These days therapy is often a relatively quick affair with most clients only needing three or four sessions, sometimes only one.  Some clients enjoy the process and like to engage in more sessions, but like most psychotherapists these days, Annie aims to get clients back to happy, healthy living as quickly as possible.  Even if she is employing an analytical process, it is often fairly brief.  The main aspect of psychoanalysis that Annie employs is the talking, listening, reflecting and learning which so many clients find extremely valuable and healing.

The mind is

like an

iceberg: it

floats with

one-seventh

of its bulk

above water.

And mainly,

it is the

submerged

part that 

controls us.