Unraveling Anxiety in Relationships through Psychodynamic Therapy

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Psychodynamic therapy explores the unconscious mind and the internal conflict one experiences daily in life. This type of therapy can assist Jim to gain insight into why he feels anxious around women and why he has chosen a less ambitious and risky path. Also, as he gains more insight into his motives and unconscious drives, he may be able to understand why he chooses certain women in a relationship, and why he maintains certain patterns. Once he gains insight, he can move forward to reject these unconscious patterns and choose more wisely and move away from behaviors that are self-defeating. Once he gains insight, the benefits can last a lifetime. The psychodynamic therapist and Jim would gain a long-term and trusting relationship and Jim …show more content…

The CBT therapist is less concerned about the unconscious mind and how the unconscious mind motivates the patient in the direction he has gone in the past. The CBT therapist is examining what are those thoughts and how can the patient change those thought patterns and behaviors that limit the patient’s potential. This is a great option for Jim because, as he is attending school, and experiencing various interactions with both women and men, he will be open to a huge playing field in which he can practice feeling anxious and uncomfortable and still stay in the moment and move through those situations and encounters without running away. The CBT therapist can assist him with this process and discourage maladaptive behaviors from his past. The CBT therapist can also provide him with tools and new coping mechanisms along to journey, ultimately leading to a successful moment in his life to boost his self-confidence and self-esteem, thus leading to further accomplishments. Because CBT is time-limited, it is shorter in duration and possibly ultimately less costly. Because CBT is less focused on Jim’s unconscious mind and conflicts, he may still not be able to gain insight into why he has maladaptive relationships and behaviors. He may fall back into those same behaviors due to having poor insight and awareness into these suppressed conflicts. A study performed by Leichsenring et al., examined the efficacy of CBT versus psychodynamic therapy for patients with social anxiety disorder. They have found that both approaches are effective. However, they found “significant differences in favor of CBT for remission, and secondary measures of social phobia and interpersonal problems. For response rates and improvements in depressive symptoms, they observed no significant differences between CBT and psychodynamic

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