Psychodynamic Perspective Paper

Two elements of the psychodynamic perspective that can offer explanations about Layla are the unconsciousness and repression. The unconsciousness is the part of our mind that stores thoughts, desires, and motives that we are not completely aware of. Repression is a defense mechanism where people unconsciously block unacceptable thoughts and feelings (Iwamoto, 2017). In Layla’s case, she received an abundance of male attention in her freshman year of college, and one specific incident reminded Layla of an event that occurred in middle school. It is possible that she was triggered by this recent experience while unconsciously repressing the impact of a previous similar experience she had in middle school. By unconsciously repressing the impact, she began to feel upset for seemingly no reason about the recent incident and ate to feel better, thereby gaining weight. If this is true, Layla’s weight gain goes back to an incident that happened in middle school she never dealt with.
Some insight that might help Layla is learning what makes her have low self-esteem which leads to her eating, which then leads her weight gain. By talking about the issues she had in college she can learn about how her

In her therapy sessions, Layla will be talking to someone whose job is to listen and support her, and since she has never had this type of relationship with her parents or friends, Layla might grow extremely attached to her therapist because they fill the void left by her family and friends. Alternatively, countertransference refers the therapist’s reactions to the client based on the therapist’s own past or present conflicts and vulnerabilities (Iwamoto, 2017). If I was Layla’s therapist I would be prone to treating her in an extremely gentle, perhaps too gentle, way because I personally relate to struggling immensely during your freshman year of