About Therapy & ISTDP

Therapy for meaningful change

We are wired for feelings and connection with others. The research shows that attachment as an affectional bond plays a central role in our development. Stable and emotionally safe connections with others are vital for our healthy sense of being. In that expression of experiences and feelings is essential to good mental health.

From a young age, we learn to adapt to our environment. When expressing emotions is not safe, we protect ourselves from overwhelming conflicts and trauma by avoiding emotional experiences and supressing them. These adaptive strategies are initially helpful in coping with painful or anxiety provoking feelings but with time they form emotional barriers and become unconscious habits of relating that operate automatically outside of our awareness.

As we rely on them in adult life; they block experience of our true self and feelings that prevents us from being in touch with them and being emotionally close. Defences become maladaptive strategies that contribute to anxiety, depression, self -destruction and interpersonal difficulty. In therapy when people overcome their internal conflicts and barriers, they no longer need to be stuck in the past.

Attachment Based - ISTDP integrates attachment theory and neuroscience. It is an experiential and emotion focused therapy aiming to identify and resolve unconscious emotional conflicts that often manifest through psychological symptoms. As a result, clients overcome repetitive self-defeating patterns and develop healthier emotional regulations skills. This process leads effectively to a lasting change and improved well-being.

Short term therapy refers to a focused and interactive therapeutic approach for rapid and effective change. ISTDP works with emotional and somatic experience to bring transformation rather than intellectual insights into difficulties alone. Clients are helped to remove symptomatic suffering, achieve inner peace and restore freedom to create a meaningful life.