Form of therapy · Psychoanalytic tradition
Psychoanalytical long-term psychotherapy
The long, deep process: through a trusting therapeutic relationship we examine the patterns laid down early in life — and create room for lasting change in how you experience yourself and your relationships.
The classic tradition — modernised · Typically a year or more · Lasting change
What is it?
Therapy’s oldest tradition
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the direct heir of psychoanalysis — the origin of talking therapy. The core idea has held for over a hundred years: our early relationships and experiences shape patterns that we unconsciously repeat — in relationships, friendships, working life and in our relationship with ourselves.
The therapist is a curious, questioning partner who helps you reflect and approach themes that can be hard to recognise and meet in yourself. The ambition is not to dampen immediate symptoms or the urge to avoid. It is a gradual practice in understanding and being with yourself — your history, feelings, thoughts and fantasies. This experience-oriented practice of being with yourself builds a greater capacity to hold all sides of who you are, reduces unhelpful spontaneous reactions, and creates a more deeply felt direction in your life.
The course typically extends over a year or more, with fixed weekly sessions. The continuity and the trusting relationship are themselves part of what works — it is within them that the old patterns show themselves and can change.
How we work
Four hallmarks of the psychoanalytic process
Speak freely
You do not need to arrive with an agenda. By speaking freely about what is on your mind, the recurring themes and patterns emerge by themselves — including the ones you did not know you carried.
The relationship as a mirror
What arises between you and the therapist is used actively: the reactions in the room are often an echo of the patterns outside — and precisely there they can be examined safely.
Past meets present
We examine where the patterns come from — not for history’s sake, but because understanding their origin makes it possible to choose differently today.
Time as an instrument
Deep-seated patterns are built over years — and rarely change in weeks. The long course creates change that stays.
Who is it for?
When the problems keep coming back
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a natural choice when you recognise the patterns — the same conflicts, the same choice of partners, the same feeling of emptiness or inadequacy — but cannot change them, even though you have tried. The long course is also strong for relational difficulties, questions of identity and a wish for deeper personal development.
The research backs this up: large meta-analyses (including Shedler, 2010) show that psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy works on a par with other evidence-based methods — with an interesting addition: the effect often grows after the course ends, because you continue the inner work on your own.
Short or long course?
If you have one well-defined problem, the intensive short-term form ISTDP may be the right choice. If it concerns pervasive patterns in personality and relationships, the long-term course is the strongest tool. We help you assess what fits you.
At EGOLAB
Experienced therapists with extensive training
At EGOLAB, psychoanalytic long-term therapy is offered by practitioners who have themselves been in therapy and undergone extensive training in the method.
See also the other forms of therapy at EGOLAB — and meet our team.
Specialist at EGOLAB
Thomas Kierulff is a specialist in psychoanalytic psychotherapy (alongside CBT) and offers treatment in Copenhagen. Thomas has extensive further training in the method, has received supervision, and has himself undergone psychoanalytic analysis for several years. Meet our psychologists
Contact
Book a session
Write to us here — mention that you are interested in a psychoanalytic course, and we will match you with the right therapist. You will receive a reply within 24 hours. You are also welcome to call +45 4245-4600.