Clinical Expertise and Clinical Specialties

At Soileau Partners Psychotherapy, we provide in-depth treatment influenced by Jung, Winnicott, Adlerian, Fromm, Kohut, McWilliams, Shedler, Benjamin, and Ogden. This depth approach pulls from the following theoretical lenses:

• Relational Psychology
• Object Relations
• Self Psychology
• Ego Psychology
• Attachment Theory

Individuals experiencing repeated failures brought about by self-destructive behavior patterns often seek out help to address them. Others come because of how they are; their character substantially limits their freedom and pleasures. Still, many want to definitively resolve psychological problems that were only temporarily or partially resolved by other forms of treatment.

"Psychoanalytic psychotherapy relies on collaboration, in which the patient and therapist work together to explore unconscious feelings, thoughts, and conflicts through talk. Sessions are typically one to three times a week but can be customized to the patient's needs. During psychotherapy, the patient can sit facing the therapist or lie on the couch. 

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy can involve free association to emphasize the unconscious and the centrality of the patient-therapist relationship. This treatment is especially suited for those who need to address the root of long-term problems and patterns that continually crop up and prevent them from living fulfilled lives. 

Some people seek help because of repeated failures brought about by self-destructive patterns of behavior. Others come because of how they are; their character substantially limits their freedom and pleasures. Still, others want to definitively resolve psychological problems that were only temporarily or partially resolved by other forms of treatment.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy can help people with a wide variety of psychological problems, including phobias, obsessions, compulsions, anxiety, depression, sexual dysfunctions, personality disorders, and traumatic injuries.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy is a practical, evidence-based treatment rooted in psychoanalytic principles; this treatment technique is helpful for a wide variety of mental health concerns. It is especially helpful for problems or concerns that don't respond to other therapeutic modalities, therapeutic interventions, or medications alone. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy has also been shown to be effective for children, adolescents, and adults, providing relief from distressing symptoms and emotional suffering, and leading to profound and long-lasting changes."

-American Psychoanalytic Association

"Psychodynamic or psychoanalytic psychotherapy refers to a range of treatments based on psychoanalytic concepts and methods that involve less frequent meetings and may be considerably briefer than psychoanalysis proper. Session frequency is typically once or twice weekly, and the treatment may be time-limited or open-ended. The essence of psychodynamic therapy is exploring those aspects of self that are not fully known, especially as they are manifested and potentially influenced in the therapy relationship."

-Jonathan Shedler, PhD 

During couples psychotherapy and counseling, couples will gain insight into the relational dynamics creating struggles, and the therapist will help uncover and talk through both individuals' roles in the unhealthy relational patterns. This greater insight into relationship challenges and distress will help the individuals in the relationship change how they perceive the relationship and each other. 

"A couple's relationship rests not only on conscious compatibility of cultural, personal, and sexual ideals but also on the complementarity of repressed parts of each personality where unconscious communication determines the quality of the couple's intimacy and capacity for sustained emotional and sexual closeness over time. 

Intimacy is not only a feature of long-term relationships. It is a function of the amount of unconscious communication between people in any situation that supports it.

Problems within intimacy show up when a courting couple, enjoying a sense of closeness, commits to each other, only to find that this is the moment of withdrawal for one or both. The withdrawal is not the actual separation and breakup of the courting couple but partial withdrawal into the self, a retreat from the intimacy occasioned by the sudden finding of new and unwelcome features in the partner, characteristics that have burgeoned inexplicably.

Marital therapy recognizes that the self and others are inextricably intertwined. Furthermore, the marriage relationship and the sexual functioning of the couple are closely connected."

-David E. Scharff, M.D. & Jill Savege Scharff, M.D.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy and counseling help family members solve relational problems by understanding better how emotional processes influence the perceptions, feelings, and actions of those involved. 

To understand how one family member acts in relation to other family members, psychodynamic family therapy focuses on motivations, conflicts, defenses, and past relationships that influence the present. Family interactions are explained in terms of internal processes within individual family members. Therapeutic change is sought through family members gaining conscious insight into previously unconscious processes generating problems in family relationships.