Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy

ISTDP London

I use Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), a form of psychodynamic therapy that works with feelings, anxiety and relationship patterns as they arise in the session. I offer it face to face near Earl’s Court in Kensington and online, in English and Greek.

I am an IEDTA-accredited practitioner of ISTDP and an HCPC-registered Counselling Psychologist. You can read more about my background and training on my About page.

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)

In ISTDP, “intensive” means working carefully and collaboratively to help you make progress as efficiently and safely as possible; it does not mean being pushed into overwhelming emotion.

+ ISTDP is based on what I call the Power of Precise Attention. We learn to pay attention to ourselves with ‘love, care, and precision’. When we know ourselves we are in a position of strength to deal with our relationships, manage difficulties, and live fulfilling lives.

ISTDP draws on psychoanalytic ideas and focuses on what happens in the session: feelings, anxiety and the ways we protect ourselves from difficult emotional experiences.

+ ISTDP is informed by neurobiology with its emphasis on emotions and the body. 

I practise Attachment Based ISTDP using a graded approach. We work collaboratively, discuss what we are doing and pay close attention to your responses so that the pace can be adjusted to you.

We aim to understand what you want to change and what gets in the way. Some patterns happen automatically and can be difficult to notice alone; we explore them together as they appear in the session.

The aim is to help you recognise and make sense of your feelings, alongside your thoughts, so that you have more choice in how you respond. We work at a pace that supports understanding rather than pushing for emotional intensity.