Relational & Attachment
Psychoanalytic Therapy as an Integration within the ShiftGrit Core Method™
Overview
Psychoanalytic therapy is a depth-oriented form of talk therapy premised on the idea that unconscious mental processes, early developmental experiences, and unresolved internal conflicts shape current emotions, relationships, and behaviour. It is the clinical foundation from which the broader family of psychodynamic therapies derives, and in its traditional form it is intensive and longer-term, aiming at lasting personality and structural change rather than only symptom relief.
How it works
Through methods such as free association, exploration of dreams and fantasies, and close attention to the therapeutic relationship, the therapist helps bring unconscious material, defence mechanisms, and recurring relational patterns into conscious awareness. Central to the work is the interpretation of transference, in which feelings tied to significant past figures are re-experienced toward the therapist, allowing patterns to be examined and gradually worked through in the present.
What it is used for
It is used for depression, several anxiety disorders, and personality disorders, with the most established evidence for longer-term treatment of certain personality disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder; it is also applied to somatic symptom and interpersonal difficulties. Evidence is more limited for post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, where other approaches are typically preferred.
Origins and evidence base
Psychoanalysis was developed by Sigmund Freud in Vienna from the 1890s onward, with foundational concepts such as the dynamic unconscious, defence mechanisms, and transference later extended by figures including Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, and Heinz Kohut. Although classical psychoanalytic theory has long been criticized for limited testability, contemporary randomized trials and meta-analyses, including a 2023 World Psychiatry umbrella review, support the efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy for common mental disorders, with effects broadly comparable to other established treatments and some evidence that gains are sustained after treatment ends.
Within the ShiftGrit Core Method™
At the centre of our work is the ShiftGrit Core Method™, which is evidence-informed and brings together Pattern Theory™, the way it is delivered, and a reconditioning step that is designed to ease the limiting belief sitting underneath a pattern. Psychoanalytic therapy is an evidence-based approach a clinician may draw on alongside that work. It is a depth-oriented way of understanding how unconscious processes and early experiences can keep a belief tucked well below everyday awareness, sometimes because holding it directly would feel too painful, which is part of why a person cannot simply think their way down to it. We treat it as a deeper map of the terrain, one that can help our clinicians sense where a belief is buried and why it stays out of view, so the work has somewhere clear to aim. As the Core Method™ and psychoanalytic understanding are brought together, the reconditioning step and the modality can each contribute, the one working to ease the belief and the other helping make sense of what is held below the surface. Our clinicians reach for psychoanalytic therapy selectively, as one of several ways they may understand the patterns a person carries.
Illustrative example
Imagine someone carrying the limiting belief "I am unacceptable" without ever feeling it directly. This way of understanding can help explain why a belief like that stays buried and out of reach, so the person mostly notices the tension and the constant effort to prove themselves rather than the belief at the root. It can inform where our clinicians look, while the reconditioning step is designed to gently surface the belief and ease it, the two working together through the Core Method™ as a whole, alongside the modalities a clinician may bring.
Based on: Leichsenring F, Rabung S. Effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2008 Oct 1;300(13):1551-65. DOI: 10.1001/jama.300.13.1551 (https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.300.13.1551) [source]
If Psychoanalytic Therapy is specifically what you are looking for, tell us during matching and we will pair you with a clinician who carries that training. See how we integrate evidence-based modalities within the ShiftGrit Core Method™.
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Find Your PatternTrusted by Leading Psychology & Mental Health Organizations Across Canada
ShiftGrit Psychology & Counselling is professionally regulated, certified, and recognized by leading psychology and mental-health organizations across Canada. These associations reflect our commitment to ethical practice, clinical standards, and evidence-informed therapy through Identity-Level Therapy and Reconditioning.
Trusted By Alberta’s Leading Psychology & Mental Health Organizations
ShiftGrit Psychology & Counselling is professionally regulated, certified, and recognized by leading psychology and mental-health organizations across Alberta and Canada. These associations reflect our commitment to ethical practice, clinical standards, and evidence-informed therapy through Identity-Level Therapy and Reconditioning.
Regulated and affiliated across Alberta’s leading psychology, counselling, and mental-health organizations.
Regulated and affiliated across Canada’s leading psychology, counselling, and mental-health organizations.
The descriptions and examples on this page are provided for general educational and illustrative purposes only. They explain how this approach may be integrated within the ShiftGrit Core Method™ and do not describe a specific client, represent a testimonial, or promise any particular result. Integrated modalities are offered at the discretion of individual clinicians, and whether any approach is appropriate for you is determined together with your clinician, within their professional judgement and scope of practice.
