Psychoanalytic

I practice psychoanalytically-informed psychotherapy, primarily in the traditions of British Object Relations and relational psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic means my attention leans towards the world of inner emotional experience; the nature of one's pain and one's relationship to it; patterns of relating to self/other; early formative experience and impact; and a respect for the unconscious as a creative canvas of emotional expression (e.g. dreams).

We approach therapy through a contemporary psychoanalytic lens to understand what is being communicated through one's behaviors and understand how past experiences are influencing current relationships. As we form our relationships we have found that individuals develop deeper insight, aiding with a deeper understanding of themselves, and experiencing more lasting and sustainable relief.

Psychoanalysis is an intense and life changing type of therapy that will help you get a deeper sense of who you are. Psychoanalysis will help you uncover and explore inner conflicts and coping mechanisms that are out of your awareness. This emotional knowledge will help create long- lasting personal transformation. Psychoanalysis requires a commitment of at least three sessions per week for a long term.

At Michelle Harwell Therapy, our practice is based in Psychoanalytic therapy. Psychoanalytic therapy explores the unconscious and how it is impacting the way we interact with other, have relationships, your thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We will dive into your childhood to gain a deeper understanding of why you are the way you are and through processing and meaning making, emerge with a new sense and better understanding of yourself.

We cannot help but be shaped by our past experiences, and oftentimes, we are unaware of how those effects are showing up in our patterns of behavior and thinking. I focus on connecting dots between past and present experiences to offer you possible answers to questions you may ask yourself such as, "why am I like this?"

Carefully listening to the conflicts and desires hidden within your story, through which we can establish new ways for you to live and thrive.

I am a 4th year candidate in a psychoanalytic training program.

Psychoanalytic approach explores how the unconscious mind influences your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Specifically, it examines how your experiences (often from childhood) may be contributing to your current experience and actions.

Attachment Theory and Relational psychology has its roots in Kleinian, Winnicottian, Lacanian, Intersubjective psychologies and the sciences of neurobiology and neuropsychology. Attachment and Relational work explores development in early and important relationships, how that influences our perception of self and others in relationships, and it's impacts. (See John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, Mary Main, Donald Winnicott, and more recently, Philip M. Bromberg, Thomas Ogden, Christopher Bollas.)

The psychoanalytic theory says that our childhood experiences and unconscious desires influence behavior. In essence, personalities have memories, beliefs, urges drives, and instincts that we are not always aware of and that make up this unconscious. SoulPath what we are experiencing in the moment has less to do with what is happening and more to do with what has happened that causes us to think, feel, react and respond. The psychoanalytic approach is key to our treatment of our clients.

Why psychodynamic/analytic therapy? The here and now psychotherapy relationship opens a stunning window into past, present, and future; into the deep wisdom of the unconscious; and into a creative flexibility that brings more and more wholesomeness, freedom, intimacy, and flourishing of the soul. I have doctoral and postdoctoral training in various contemporary analytic approaches, and I practice from a liberatory, feminist, relational stance.

I am currently a student of Jungian psychoanalysis through the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. Psychoanalytic therapy aims to understand processes of our unconscious and how they impact our functioning in our daily lives. Psychoanalytic therapy is a deep dive into your complexes and personal history. Psychoanalytic theories used in conjunction with other experiential and somatic types of therapy can assist us in bringing our unconscious threads to consciousness.

Psychoanalytic therapy focuses on understanding your are formed by both your past, and your unconscious processes. This type of therapy puts the patient at the center, and focuses on empathic atunement and listening. Through understanding who we are and how we got here, we can better understand the issues that plague us in our everyday lives. And we can learn to mourn the losses of the past and move forward, choosing a better future.

I approach therapy through a Contemporary Psychoanalytic Lens to understand what is being communicated through one's behaviors and understand how past experiences influence current relationships. As we form a relationship, I have found individuals develop stronger insight, aiding with a deeper understanding of self, and experiencing more lasting and sustainable relief.

While many psychoanalytic concepts can feel dated, psychoanalysis has grown up and can be incredibly helpful. For example, psychoanalysis has great respect for the influence that our past has on our present and on our future. It gives us tools for thinking about how our minds take in information and how we make use of it. Perhaps most importantly, psychoanalysis has great respect for our unconscious minds and seeks to help us understand what might be going on "underneath the surface."

I practice psychoanalytically-informed psychotherapy, primarily in the traditions of British Object Relations and relational psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic means my attention leans towards the world of inner experience; the nature of one's pain and one's relationship to it; early formative experience and impact; patterns of relating to self/other; the therapeutic relationship as a valuable relational canvas, and a regard for the unconscious world of emotional expression (e.g. dreams).

I practice contemporary psychoanalytic therapy. This means I pay attention to how your past relationships affect the way you learn to regulate and manage emotions in your day-to-day life. Our brains are built through repeated interactions with our earliest relationships and environments, and can be changed through the experience of a new relationship: therapy. This means I consider our work in session as a chance to learn new ways of experiencing your emotions that lead to joy-filled life.