My approach to psychotherapy is grounded in analytical psychology – which focuses on understanding the deeper layers of the psyche beyond symptoms alone.
What is analytical psychology and how can it help?
Sometimes the standard explanations for why we suffer don’t quite fit. Jungian analysis starts from the idea that symptoms have meaning – that anxiety, depression, or feeling stuck may be pointing towards something that deserves to be understood.
Analytical psychology is a form of depth psychology developed by the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung. Jung proposed that the psyche is not only shaped by the past, but also oriented towards future development. The Jungian approach is concerned with understanding emotional experience in depth. It treats psychological struggles not only as problems to relieve, but as meaningful expressions of a psyche seeking balance, integration, and future growth. It offers space to reflect on thoughts, feelings, and relationships, and to consider how past experiences may be influencing present ways of being.
A central developmental aim in Jungian psychotherapy is to become psychologically whole by integrating conscious and unconscious aspects of your personality, a journey in which dreams are approached as meaningful, symbolic communications from the unconscious that gently orient and inform the conscious attitude.
Analytical psychology can be helpful at many different points in life. It can help with specific difficulties or crises, or when feeling that something is not quite right.
Further information can be found on the Further reading page.
What Jungian psychotherapy involves
Jungian psychotherapy offers a space to engage with the psyche. Sessions take place at a regular time and provide a consistent and confidential space for reflection. There is no set agenda, and therapy is shaped by what the individual brings.
Over time, Jungian psychotherapy may help to bring greater awareness to emotional patterns and unconscious processes, allowing for change to emerge gradually. The work is collaborative and develops at a pace that is individual to each person.
Issues I work with
People come to psychotherapy for many different reasons. You may be experiencing a specific difficulty, or a more general sense that something does not feel quite right. I work with adults who are seeking to explore emotional and relational concerns in depth: including:
- Anxiety and feelings of unease
- Depression and low mood
- Relationship difficulties, including patterns that feel hard to change
- Experiences of loss, change, or transition
- Difficulties with self-esteem or identity
- Recurrent emotional or relational struggles
- A sense of feeling stuck, overwhelmed or disconnected
- A wish for deeper self-understanding
- Trauma and difficult past experiences
- Life meaning and existential concerns
- Creative blocks or unfulfilled potential
Some people come to psychotherapy at a time of crisis, while others arrive with a quieter but persistent sense that something needs attention. You do not have to have a clear problem in mind – we can take time to think together about what has led you to seek therapy.
For more detail, please see the Issues I work with page, or contact me for a free informal conversation.
Danielle Berry 