Joy's Clinical Approach
Mindfulness-Based
Psychodynamic Therapy
Article by M. Joy Young, Advanced Doctoral Candidate, LCSW, and ACSW | Portland, Oregon
In psychodynamic psychotherapy we explore memories, childhood experiences, and unconscious thoughts and feelings that contribute to present day emotional struggles and challenges. Together we form a psychotherapy relationship that can uncover hidden patterns outside of awareness, problematic emotional defense strategies that inhibit mature connection, and unconscious projections that keep you from experiencing greater mutuality.
Mindfulness is your conscious attention or awareness of the present moment. It is the non-judging awareness that recognizes the moment by moment experience and allows it without trying to change, fix, alter, judge, avoid, or escape it. As defined by Tara Brach, Ph.D., it is recognizing the present moment experience and allowing it.
Mindfulness practice by its nature fosters a sense of “okayness” about yourself and life in general. However, mindfulness helps you to cultivate greater tolerance and compassion for what is happening in the present moment rather than trying to judge, change, avoid, or fix it.
Within Joy’s psychodynamic approach, mindfulness is not a standalone technique but a foundational capacity. It is what allows you to slow down, be present to your inner world, and do the deeper work of exploring the patterns, emotions, and experiences that have shaped who you are.
Understanding the Mind
Human Nature & The Flinch Response
Breaking the Fight/Flight/Freeze
When we encounter something that frightens us, our automatic response is to pull away, judge, or go numb. Mindfulness helps us see this as a natural bodily response that comes and goes - not something we have to get rid of.
Breaking Misidentification
We often define ourselves as a "depressed person" or a "sad person." Mindfulness helps break this up, allowing you to move from identifying with emotions to viewing them as events happening with you in the moment.
Disengaging Internal Dialog
Many of us are lost in internal dialog filled with criticism and fear. Mindfulness helps us return to the present moment and stay connected to what is real, rather than the stories our minds create.
The Skillset
Key Concepts & Clinical Skills
Psychodynamic Exploration
Delving into early life experiences, unconscious patterns, and relational dynamics to uncover the root causes of present-day emotional challenges. By bringing the unconscious into awareness, you gain the power to break deeply ingrained defense mechanisms and foster mature, authentic connections.
Breathing Meditation
Using the breath as a focus point for your attention—connecting you to your body and inner-emotional world in the present moment.
Compassion
Cultivating positive regard and wishing well for yourself and others. It is the sincere desire to lessen suffering because we too know pain.
Acceptance
As Carl Rogers stated, it is not until we accept ourselves just as we are that we feel free to change. Acceptance is the precondition to freedom.
Allowing
The ability to expand awareness to include that which we previously avoided, allowing freedom to experience reality as it is.
Forgiveness
Remembering the pain of being remorseful and not receiving forgiveness, helping us find the capacity to offer it to others and ourselves.
Loving Kindness
A soft and gentle responsive action, similar to the care one would give a newborn or an injured animal.
Core or Center
An internal state of inner presence where your inner truth and knowing flows from—often referred to as the heart or soul.
Recommended Resources
- Ӣ Tara Brach Ph.D. - Mindfulness and Psychotherapy
- Ӣ Jongsma & Peterson - Adult Treatment Planner
- Ӣ Forsyth & Eifert - Mindfulness for Anxiety
The Life You Deserve
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