Psychodynamic Couples Therapy in South East London
I offer psychodynamic couples therapy in Peckham and Camberwell, South East London, working with couples experiencing recurring conflict, emotional distance, communication difficulties and patterns in their relationship that may feel difficult to change.
Relationships can bring us into contact with parts of ourselves that might otherwise remain hidden. What draws us towards another person may also bring us face to face with difference; different ways of seeing, feeling, wanting and making sense of the world. At times, what is most difficult between two people is not simply a failure to communicate, but the tension between two inner worlds that cannot easily be reconciled.
In couples therapy, we can become curious about what is happening not only between you, but within the relationship itself. The patterns that emerge between two people begin to take on a life of their own: familiar arguments, recurring misunderstandings, moments of distance or intense closeness, and reactions that can seem disproportionate to what is actually taking place. These patterns reveal something about the inner worlds each person brings to the relationship, as well as something about the relationship being created between you.
Rather than focusing only on who is right, or on how one person might change, we can explore what each of you encounters in the other. We might look at the expectations, projections and assumptions that shape how you see your partner and consider what becomes possible when these are brought into awareness. Learning to witness and relate to differences, rather than simply trying to overcome them, can open up a deeper way of knowing both the other person and ourselves.
As these patterns become more conscious, the relationship itself begins to transform. What once felt frustrating, threatening or incomprehensible may begin to make a different kind of sense. In this way, greater understanding can create space for a deeper and more intimate way of relating.
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Psychodynamic couples therapy explores not only what happens between two people, but what may lie beneath it. Difficulties in a relationship can be shaped by unconscious expectations, past experiences and patterns of relating that each person brings to the couple. By becoming more aware of these patterns, couples can begin to understand one another differently and find new ways of relating.
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Couples come to therapy for many different reasons, including recurring arguments, communication difficulties, emotional or sexual distance, loss of trust, affairs, major life changes, becoming parents, separation, or simply a sense of having become stuck. You do not need to be in crisis to begin couples therapy; it can also provide a space to understand your relationship more deeply.
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The first session is an opportunity for us to think together about what has brought you to therapy and what each of you hopes might change. I will be interested in the difficulties you are experiencing now, but also in the history of your relationship and the individual experiences you each bring to it. It is also a chance for you both to get a sense of how I work and whether the approach feels right for you.
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I offer face-to-face couples therapy in Peckham and Camberwell, South East London, as well as online sessions. My practice is convenient for couples living or working in Peckham, Camberwell, Dulwich, East Dulwich, Nunhead, New Cross and the surrounding areas of South East London.
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Couples therapy sessions are £130 and last 50 minutes. Sessions usually take place at the same time each week, providing a regular and consistent space in which we can think together about the relationship.