What is integrative psychodynamic psychotherapy?
Depth therapy that takes the unconscious seriously — and draws on whatever evidence-based approach fits the person in front of us. It’s not one technique. It’s a way of listening, relating, and working together toward real change.
The short version. Integrative psychodynamic psychotherapy is a relational, depth-focused approach that attends to what is happening underneath a presenting problem — the early attachments, family rules and coping strategies that shaped a person — while drawing on techniques from several evidence-based models rather than one. Psychotherapy integration is not eclecticism: integration is systematic and research-guided, where eclecticism picks techniques because they seem to work without asking why. Norcross and Goldfried describe four established routes to integration — common factors, technical eclecticism, theoretical integration and assimilative integration. At Brooklyn Integrative Psychological Services this means a psychodynamic foundation with EMDR, IFS, AEDP, EFT, CBT, DBT and somatic work brought in where they fit, and close attention to the therapeutic relationship, which the APA task force reviews identify as one of the most consistent predictors of outcome.
Therapy that goes beneath the symptom.
Integrative psychodynamic psychotherapy is a relational, depth-focused approach to therapy that pays close attention to what’s happening underneath the presenting problem.
Anxiety, depression, burnout, relationship patterns — these are often the tip of something older. Not always trauma. Often just the accumulated shape of a life: the early attachments, the unspoken family rules, the coping strategies that once made sense and no longer do.
Psychodynamic work takes those patterns seriously. “Integrative” means we draw from multiple evidence-based approaches — EMDR, IFS, AEDP, CBT, EFT, somatic work — and choose what fits, rather than forcing every person into the same method. The common thread is the therapeutic relationship itself, which research continues to show is one of the strongest predictors of whether therapy actually helps.2
Integration is not the same as eclecticism.
This is the part most practices skip, and it is the difference between a considered approach and a grab bag.
An eclectic therapist chooses a technique because it might work, without much concern for its theoretical basis. If a client improves, the reason is not necessarily investigated.
Psychotherapy integration is systematic and research-guided. It holds the relationship between a practice and its evidence base, and it can say why a given approach was chosen for a given person at a given moment.1
Norcross and Goldfried set out four established routes to integration: common factors (the ingredients different therapies share), technical eclecticism (drawing techniques across models), theoretical integration (blending the theories themselves) and assimilative integration (a firm grounding in one model with techniques from others brought in).1 BIPS practices assimilative integration: a psychodynamic base, with other methods brought in deliberately.
Four ideas at the heart of the work.
The unconscious matters
Much of what drives our choices, reactions and relationships happens outside of awareness. Therapy helps make the invisible visible — not to “fix” you, but to give you more room to choose.
The past shapes the present
Early relationships leave templates. Not deterministic, but formative. Noticing how the past shows up in your current life is often where real change starts.
The relationship heals
How you and your therapist come to know each other — the trust, the ruptures, the repairs — is itself therapeutic. It’s not just a context for technique. It’s the medicine.
We integrate, thoughtfully
No one method works for everyone. A good clinician knows several, and chooses in response to you — not to a protocol. Evidence-based doesn’t mean one-size-fits-all.
Lectures from the experts who shaped this work.
A handful of free video lectures from some of the most respected teachers in contemporary psychodynamic and experiential psychotherapy. Useful if you’re curious, a clinician, or just want to hear the ideas in the words of the people who developed them.
What is mental health?
McWilliams moves beyond symptom checklists to describe mental health as a set of capacities on a continuum — resilience, reality-testing, affect tolerance, the capacity for intimacy. A foundational reframe of what therapy is actually for.
Picturing It With Elliot · 24 minThe psychodynamic diagnostic process
How a depth-oriented clinician actually thinks about who you are — personality structure, defense organization, the felt quality of the relationship — rather than just what category of symptoms you meet. An alternative to DSM-style diagnosis.
Picturing It With ElliotFreud, psychoanalysis & psychodynamic therapy today
Shedler — whose research helped establish psychodynamic therapy as evidence-based — cuts through caricatures of “old-fashioned analysis” and explains what contemporary psychodynamic work actually looks like. Jargon-free and refreshingly direct.
Robinson’s Podcast · 1h 25mAEDP: trusting vitality
Fosha — developer of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy — describes the core ideas of AEDP: undoing aloneness, attachment-based healing, and the transformational power of affect. A warm, lucid interview on one of the most influential experiential-dynamic models.
Psychotherapy Expert Talks · 52 minHow this shows up in our work.
Depth, with flexibility. Our clinicians work from a psychodynamic foundation, but most are trained in additional evidence-based modalities — EMDR, IFS, AEDP, EFT, somatic work, CBT — and bring those in when they fit. Integration isn’t a buzzword here; it’s how we practice.
The relationship as method. We take seriously the idea that the therapeutic relationship is itself the vehicle for change. That means slow beginnings, careful attention to fit, and a willingness to notice what’s happening between you and your therapist — not just what you bring in from outside the room.
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You are matched by a person
An intake coordinator reads your situation and pairs you with a clinician whose training and temperament fit, followed by a free 15-minute call before you commit.
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The first sessions are slow on purpose
Depth work depends on the relationship, and a relationship cannot be rushed. Early sessions are about understanding, not intervention.
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Method follows the person
If EMDR is right for the trauma you are carrying, your clinician uses it. If what you need is to be listened to closely for a year, that is what happens.
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What happens between you is part of the work
Ruptures and repairs in the therapy relationship are not interruptions to the work. They are frequently where the work is.
What people ask about this approach.
Is psychodynamic therapy evidence-based?
Yes. Shedler’s 2010 review in American Psychologist found effect sizes for psychodynamic therapy comparable to those reported for other therapies established as empirically supported, and found that benefits tend to be maintained or to increase after treatment ends.3
How is this different from CBT?
CBT works largely with current thoughts and behaviors and is usually structured and time-limited. Psychodynamic work attends to patterns, history and the therapeutic relationship, and is usually open-ended. They are not opposed — many of our clinicians use CBT techniques inside a psychodynamic frame.
Does integrative mean my therapist makes it up as they go?
No. Integration is systematic and research-guided, and a clinician should be able to say why a given approach was chosen for you.1 The unsystematic version has a name — syncretism — and it is a known risk that training exists to prevent.
How long does this kind of therapy take?
It depends on what you bring and what you want from it. Some people come for a specific problem and finish inside a year. Others stay for several. Your clinician will talk about this openly rather than leaving it vague.
Do I need to talk about my childhood?
Not on demand, and not as a formality. It tends to come up because patterns tend to have histories — but the work starts wherever you are, with what is pressing now.
If you want to go deeper.
A short list of books by the same clinicians featured above — approachable for non-clinicians, indispensable for therapists in training.
- Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy — Nancy McWilliams. Guilford Press, 2004.
- Psychoanalytic Diagnosis — Nancy McWilliams. Guilford Press, 2011.
- The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy — Jonathan Shedler. Open access, 2010.
- Undoing Aloneness & the Transformation of Suffering — Diana Fosha. APA Press, 2021.
- Norcross, J. C., & Goldfried, M. R. (Eds.). (2019). Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
- Norcross, J. C., & Lambert, M. J. (Eds.). (2019). Psychotherapy Relationships That Work (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Based on the APA Division 29 task force on evidence-based relationships.
- Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 65(2), 98–109.
Curious about working this way?
Reach out to our intake coordinator. We’ll help you find a clinician whose approach, training and temperament fit what you’re looking for.