SERVICES
Online Psychoanalysis
Online psychoanalysis for nonspiritual atheists, with a particular focus on childfree adults.
The approach behind the work
Psychoanalysis brings together psychological theories and conversational methods for understanding and influencing mental life. Its ideas inform therapy and counseling, as well as coaching and professional development; they also have applications in education and philosophical inquiry. The purpose of our work depends on what you want to address. You may want help with difficulties that keep returning, or with questions about how you want to live. As a neuropsychoanalyst, I draw on psychoanalytic thinking informed by contemporary neuroscience.
Working from the bottom up
We begin with your experience and examine how a difficulty developed and what keeps it going. A reaction you cannot make sense of, or a problem that follows you from one situation to another, gives us somewhere to start. By working from the bottom up, I mean investigating the psychological processes contributing to recurring problems, including unconscious expectations and conflicts, and bringing them into awareness so we can work on changing them. That work can be demanding and may temporarily increase your distress. The aim is lasting change in what sustains your difficulties, even when this conflicts with feeling better in the short term.
Change over time
When we use this approach for sustained personal change, the work is generally long term. A difference that initially seems small can become more consequential as it influences later decisions and relationships. James Clear’s flight-path analogy in Atomic Habits offers a useful image: a small adjustment in direction can eventually take a plane somewhere very different. In your life, a change in how you respond to a familiar situation can make different experiences possible, and those experiences can influence how you develop. Some benefits may be apparent early; the broader significance of change often takes longer to become clear.
Individual psychoanalysis
Regular, confidential video sessions give you time to work on the concerns that bring you. You might be struggling in a relationship, for example, or keep encountering a difficulty you thought you had resolved. You can begin with whatever is on your mind, including what feels contradictory or difficult to explain. I ask questions and offer interpretations that help us examine the connections between what you are experiencing now and patterns that have developed over time.
Meeting regularly gives us continuity, so we can follow a difficulty across different situations and work with it as your understanding develops. We also consider what is changing in your life between sessions and what remains difficult. Before beginning, we agree on how often we will meet and discuss fees and practical arrangements.
Online · 50-minute sessions or 90-minute double sessions
Small groups
I offer ongoing online analytic groups of up to eight people, with a particular focus on nonspiritual atheists who are childfree. Members join when a place opens, and there is no set topic or course of lessons. You can bring your thoughts, feelings, relationships, and experiences into the group. We also work with what happens between members as people speak, listen, disagree, or discover that someone has understood them differently from how they intended.
I help the group examine those exchanges as part of the analytic work. Familiar expectations and ways of relating may become apparent in your responses to other members. Meeting regularly gives these relationships time to develop and allows us to return to what emerges. Our shared outlook gives us common ground, with room for different opinions and ways of living.
Online · 120-minute meetings
Education
Lectures, workshops, and courses offer a structured way to understand mental life through psychoanalysis and affective science. You might learn how emotions influence decisions, for example, or how expectations developed through past experience continue to shape what you notice and how you respond. We examine concepts in ordinary language and connect them to situations you can recognize, giving you ideas you can use when thinking about your own experience.
The balance between teaching and discussion depends on the format. You can contact me about current educational offerings or to discuss a workshop for your group or organization.
Getting started
See session fees and practical information, or contact me with a question.
If you are unsure which format would suit you, get in touch and tell me what you have in mind.