Psychodynamic Therapy
Most therapy teaches you to manage symptoms. Psychodynamic therapy asks a different question: why do those symptoms keep showing up in the first place?
Understanding What's Beneath the Surface
Psychodynamic therapy has roots in Freud's work, but it's evolved dramatically over the past century. The core insight remains powerful: much of what drives our behavior, emotions, and choices happens outside our awareness. Our earliest relationships—with parents, caregivers, siblings—create templates for how we expect relationships to work. These templates shape everything from who we're attracted to, to how we handle conflict, to what makes us anxious.
The problem is, most of this operates on autopilot. We keep ending up in the same kinds of relationships, feeling the same frustrations, hitting the same walls—without understanding why. Psychodynamic therapy brings these patterns into the light. Once you can see them, you're no longer trapped by them.
This isn't about blaming your parents or dwelling endlessly on the past. It's about understanding how your history lives in you now—and using that understanding to make different choices.
When Quick Fixes Haven't Worked
Cognitive approaches work well for many people—learning to catch negative thoughts, challenge distortions, build new habits. But sometimes you do all the "right" things and still feel stuck. You know the thoughts aren't rational, but you can't stop thinking them. You understand you should set boundaries, but you can't bring yourself to do it. You've read the self-help books, tried the apps, maybe even done therapy before—and something's still not shifting.
This is often a sign that the issue runs deeper than conscious thoughts. Something learned long ago, something pre-verbal or deeply ingrained, is still running the show. Psychodynamic therapy is designed for exactly this situation. It doesn't just teach you to think differently—it helps you understand why you think and feel the way you do in the first place.
Research backs this up: psychodynamic therapy creates lasting changes that actually increase after treatment ends, rather than fading.
What Happens in Psychodynamic Therapy
Free Association
Saying what comes to mind without censoring. This sounds simple, but it's surprisingly revealing. What you choose to mention, what you skip over, where you pause—all of it provides clues.
Exploring Patterns
We notice recurring themes—in your stories, your relationships, your emotional reactions. These patterns often trace back to earlier experiences and reveal deeply held beliefs about yourself and others.
Understanding Defenses
We all have ways of protecting ourselves from painful feelings—changing the subject, intellectualizing, getting angry instead of sad. These defenses served a purpose once. Understanding them helps you choose when to use them.
The Therapeutic Relationship
How you relate to me often mirrors how you relate to others. If you worry I'm judging you, avoid bringing up certain topics, or feel responsible for my feelings—these become valuable material for understanding your patterns.
When Psychodynamic Therapy Makes Sense
Repeating Relationship Patterns
You keep finding yourself in the same dynamics: attracting unavailable partners, getting walked over at work, becoming your mother in arguments with your kids. Understanding the root helps you break the cycle.
Persistent Self-Criticism
That voice telling you you're not good enough, not trying hard enough, don't deserve success. Affirmations don't quiet it because it's rooted in something deeper. Psychodynamic work explores where that voice came from—and what it's really about.
Feeling Disconnected from Yourself
Going through the motions, not sure what you actually want, performing a role but not feeling like yourself. This often comes from years of adapting to others' expectations. Therapy helps you find your own voice again.
Intergenerational & Cultural Patterns
Carrying expectations that don't fit, navigating bicultural identity, processing unspoken family trauma. Psychodynamic therapy is particularly suited for untangling these complex inheritances.
Depression That Won't Lift
Chronic low mood, numbness, loss of meaning. Sometimes depression is anger turned inward, grief that never got expressed, or disconnection from parts of yourself that need attention. Understanding the source matters.
Wanting Deeper Self-Understanding
Not everyone comes to therapy in crisis. Some want to understand themselves more fully—why they make the choices they do, what drives their fears and desires, how to live more intentionally.
A Culturally Attuned Perspective
Psychodynamic thinking is central to how I work with clients. I believe lasting change comes from understanding—not just changing behaviors on the surface, but grasping why certain patterns feel so hard to break.
As a second-generation Asian American therapist, I bring particular awareness to how culture shapes our inner worlds. Many of my clients carry unspoken family expectations, navigate bicultural tensions, or struggle with roles they never consciously chose. The model minority myth, filial piety, emotional suppression as a family norm—these aren't just abstract concepts. They're lived experiences that shape how we see ourselves and relate to others.
I integrate psychodynamic understanding with other approaches depending on what you need. Sometimes insight comes first, and behavioral change follows. Sometimes we work on both simultaneously. The goal is always the same: helping you live more freely and intentionally.
Psychodynamic Principles in My Practice
I integrate psychodynamic understanding across all my therapy services.
The couch is optional—most people sit in comfortable chairs. And while childhood may come up, psychodynamic therapy explores whatever feels relevant: your relationships now, work stress, recurring patterns you can't shake. We follow what matters to you.
The Pearly Therapy