Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Understanding the Patterns Beneath the Surface
Something keeps happening that you can’t quite explain. You know the pattern — you’ve probably described it clearly to friends, maybe even to a previous therapist. You understand it intellectually. But understanding hasn’t stopped it.
Maybe it’s the way conflict makes you disappear. The way closeness triggers something that looks like sabotage but feels like survival. The shame that arrives without warning and reorganizes everything. The relationships that start with promise and end the same way, or the feeling that you’re performing a version of yourself that doesn’t quite belong to you.
These aren’t signs of failure. They’re patterns — and they carry meaning. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is built around the idea that the difficulties you keep running into aren’t random. They developed for a reason, usually a very good one. And they can be understood, not just managed.
This is the kind of work I find most compelling as a therapist. Not because it’s fashionable, but because it reaches the places where real change actually happens — beneath the surface, where the logic of your emotional life has been quietly running the show.
Wondering whether psychodynamic therapy might help? A free 15-minute consultation is a good place to start.
Schedule your free consult →What Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Is
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth-oriented therapy rooted in the idea that much of what drives our emotional life operates outside of full awareness. It takes seriously the possibility that your symptoms, your stuck places, your relational patterns — all of it — have an internal logic worth understanding.
Where some approaches focus primarily on changing thoughts or behaviors, psychodynamic work is more interested in why. Why does the pattern keep repeating? What feeling is being avoided, and what happens when it surfaces? What did this defense protect you from when it first developed — and what is it costing you now?
This isn’t therapy as self-improvement checklist. It’s therapy as serious inquiry into the mind — yours specifically. The goal is not just relief, though relief often comes. The goal is a different kind of relationship with yourself: less automatic, more honest, more free.
In my practice, psychodynamic thinking forms one of the foundational lenses I work from. It shapes how I listen, what I notice, and what I think matters. It also intersects naturally with my training in Buddhist psychology, emotionally focused therapy, and work with personality and relational patterns — each of which brings something different to the table, but all of which share a respect for depth.
Who This Work May Help
Psychodynamic therapy isn’t only for people in crisis. It’s often the right fit for people who sense that something deeper is going on — people who are tired of surface-level explanations for problems that clearly have deeper roots.
You might be drawn to this kind of work if:
- You keep ending up in the same kinds of relationships or conflicts, even though you can see it happening
- You understand your patterns intellectually but still repeat them
- Shame or self-criticism runs your inner life more than you’d like
- You’ve done therapy before and found it helpful but not quite deep enough
- You feel stuck in ways that don’t respond to willpower, advice, or coping strategies
- You’re drawn to self-understanding — not just symptom relief
- You sense that your current difficulties are connected to older emotional experiences, even if you can’t quite trace the line
- There’s a gap between who you present to the world and what you actually feel inside
This work also has particular value for people dealing with longstanding relational and personality patterns — not because there’s something wrong with them, but because those patterns often carry the deepest emotional logic and respond best to a therapy that takes that logic seriously.
How I Work
In psychodynamic therapy, I’m listening for the story beneath the story. Not just what happened, but what it meant — and what it still means, emotionally, in ways that may not be fully conscious.
That means I pay close attention to patterns: the situations you keep finding yourself in, the feelings that arrive uninvited, the ways you protect yourself that once made sense but now create their own kind of suffering. I’m interested in defenses — not to dismantle them, but to understand what they’re guarding. And I’m interested in what happens between us in the room, because the therapeutic relationship itself often becomes one of the most important places where old patterns show up and new possibilities emerge.
This work is collaborative, not interpretive in the old-fashioned sense. I’m not sitting silently behind a couch delivering pronouncements about your childhood. I’m engaged, present, sometimes direct — and always trying to help you develop a more honest, less automatic relationship with your own inner life.
Sometimes that means sitting with difficulty rather than rushing to fix it. Sometimes it means noticing what just happened in the conversation — a shift in tone, a moment of withdrawal, a flash of feeling that disappeared as quickly as it arrived. These moments matter. They’re often where the real work lives.
Ready to explore what's beneath the surface? Book a free 15-minute consultation to see if this work is the right fit.
Schedule your free consult →How This Connects to My Broader Approach
Psychodynamic thinking doesn’t exist in isolation in my work. It’s one of several depth-oriented frameworks I draw from, and in practice, these lenses often inform each other.
Buddhist psychology brings a quality of attention and a framework for understanding suffering that deepens the psychodynamic work — particularly around attachment, impermanence, and the ways we construct a self that can sometimes become its own prison. Where psychodynamic thinking asks what is being defended against, Buddhist psychology asks what happens when we stop defending.
Individual therapy in my practice is the broader umbrella. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is one of the deeper currents within it — available to anyone who wants that level of work, but not imposed on people who are looking for something different.
And my work with personality and relational patterns draws heavily on psychodynamic ideas about early adaptation, defensive structures, and the ways people organize their inner worlds around core emotional experiences. That page speaks to more specific clinical presentations; this one speaks to the treatment framework itself.
How This Work Is Often Structured
Psychodynamic psychotherapy can look different depending on the person, the goals, and the depth of work that feels right. Some people come once a week and find that sufficient. Others find that meeting more frequently — twice a week, sometimes more — creates a different kind of therapeutic experience altogether.
There’s a reason higher frequency is common in psychodynamic work. When sessions happen closer together, there’s more continuity. Emotional threads don’t get lost between appointments. Defenses have less time to reassemble completely. The work develops a momentum that’s harder to sustain with a full week between sessions.
This isn’t a requirement — it’s an option, and it’s something I’m always happy to discuss based on what makes sense for you. Some people start once a week and increase frequency later. Others know from the beginning that they want something more intensive. Both are fine.
When someone is interested in meeting more than once a week, I’m generally open to discussing the per-session fee to help make that frequency sustainable. This isn’t a discount or a promotion — it’s a practical conversation about making depth-oriented work possible when greater frequency is part of the treatment. We can talk about this together during a consultation or early in the work.
Practical Details
I offer psychodynamic psychotherapy both in person in Pittsburgh’s East End and online throughout Pennsylvania. Evening and Sunday appointments are available — because the people who are drawn to this kind of work tend to have full lives, and finding a therapist shouldn’t mean rearranging yours.
I’m a private-pay practice, which means I don’t bill insurance directly. You can learn more about why I work this way and what it makes possible. If you’re considering meeting more than once a week, the per-session fee is something we can discuss.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Whether you are just exploring or ready to begin, I am here to help. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if we are a good fit.
Schedule a Free ConsultationPsychodynamic Therapy in Pittsburgh & Online
My office is located in Pittsburgh’s East End, and I also see clients throughout Pennsylvania via secure telehealth. Whether you’re local or elsewhere in the state, the work itself is the same — close, sustained attention to the emotional patterns that shape your life.
If you’re looking for a therapist who takes the inner life seriously — who is genuinely interested in why, not just what — I’d welcome the chance to talk. You can book a free 15-minute consultation or schedule a full intake session to get started.
Further Reading
The Gilded Cage: When Your Success is a Defense Against Your Past
The Switchback Trail to Self: How Therapy Accesses Your Unconscious Mind
The Stories We Tell Ourselves: From Primal Defenses to Purposeful Living
Unmasking Our Inner Protectors: Understanding Your Defense Mechanisms for Greater Self-Awareness.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is psychodynamic psychotherapy?
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a depth-oriented form of talk therapy that focuses on understanding the unconscious patterns, defenses, and emotional experiences that shape how you feel and relate to others. Rather than focusing primarily on symptom management, it aims to help you understand why you struggle in the ways you do — and to create lasting change from that understanding. It has strong roots in psychoanalytic thought but has evolved considerably, and in practice it’s warm, collaborative, and grounded in the real concerns you bring to each session.
How is psychodynamic therapy different from CBT or other approaches?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) tends to focus on identifying and changing specific thought patterns and behaviors. It’s effective for many concerns. Psychodynamic therapy is more interested in the deeper emotional logic behind those patterns — why they developed, what they protect, and how they connect to your relational history. In my experience, psychodynamic work is often a better fit for people whose difficulties feel rooted in something older or more complex than a thinking error. That said, these approaches aren’t mutually exclusive, and I sometimes draw on both.
Is psychodynamic therapy only about the past?
No. While psychodynamic therapy takes your history seriously, the focus is very much on your present life — your current relationships, feelings, and patterns. The past matters because it shaped how you learned to protect yourself, relate to others, and manage difficult feelings. But the goal isn’t to endlessly excavate childhood memories. It’s to understand how those earlier experiences are still active in your life now, so that you have more freedom to choose differently.
How does psychodynamic psychotherapy fit with mindfulness or Buddhist psychology?
In my practice, they complement each other naturally. Psychodynamic work helps you understand what you’re defending against and why. Buddhist psychology brings a quality of attention and a framework for being with difficult experience without being overwhelmed by it. Together, they create a therapy that’s both psychologically deep and experientially grounded. Many of my clients find that this combination reaches places that neither approach would reach alone.
How do I know if psychodynamic therapy is right for me?
If you’re someone who wants to understand yourself more deeply — not just manage symptoms but genuinely understand why you struggle in the ways you do — psychodynamic therapy may be a good fit. It tends to work well for people who are curious about their inner life, who notice recurring patterns they can’t seem to change, or who sense that their current difficulties are connected to something older. The best way to find out is to schedule a free 15-minute consultation so we can talk about what you’re looking for and whether this approach makes sense.
Does psychodynamic psychotherapy usually happen more than once per week?
It can. Psychodynamic therapy has a long tradition of meeting more than once weekly, and there are real benefits to that frequency — more continuity, more depth, less time for defenses to fully reassemble between sessions. But it’s not a requirement. Many people do meaningful psychodynamic work once a week. Frequency is something we can discuss together based on your goals, your life, and what feels sustainable. If you’re interested in meeting more often, I’m always open to that conversation.
Can we discuss the fee if I want to meet more than once a week?
Yes. When someone is interested in higher-frequency psychodynamic work, I’m generally open to discussing the per-session fee to help make that sustainable. This is a practical conversation, not a promotion — it’s about making the depth of work possible when greater frequency is part of the treatment plan. We can talk about this during a free consultation or early in the therapy.
About Your Therapist
Jonah Taylor is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist practicing in Pittsburgh, PA. He specializes in Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples and individuals, with a particular focus on the intersection of attachment, sexuality, and shame. Jonah integrates psychodynamic understanding, mindfulness, and attachment science to help clients move beyond surface-level coping toward genuine change.