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Go beyond traditional counseling.

Contemporary Psychoanalysis

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung

Dr. Anthony Koch, Psy.D. is a psychoanalytic candidate, receiving advanced training and clinical supervision through the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis located in Washington, D.C.

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“Do you feel a pull to explore the hidden currents shaping your life and connections?”

Psychoanalysis offers a unique opportunity to explore the root causes of your struggles - often hidden in the unconscious. Unlike typical psychotherapy, which may focus on immediate solutions or coping strategies, psychoanalysis dives beneath the surface. Through more frequent sessions and sustained reflection, we uncover and work through longstanding emotional conflicts. If you’re ready to engage in a transformative process that fosters long-term growth and self-awareness, psychoanalysis could be the path for you.

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What is psychoanalysis?

  • Psychoanalysis, as a form of psychotherapy, is like deep-sea diving into your inner world. On the surface of life, we swim through daily routines and familiar patterns. But beneath, in the depths, live forgotten memories, unspoken longings, and invisible currents that shape who we are. Analysis offers a safe vessel and a trained companion to help you explore those depths, discover hidden treasures, and free yourself from the undertow of old stories.

  • Freud built the first bridge into the unconscious over a century ago. His version of psychoanalysis was like cartography - mapping out the inner world with the tools of his time. Thankfully, maps evolve. Today’s contemporary and relational psychoanalysis is less about rigid theories and more about relationship as a compass. It recognizes that healing happens not just through uncovering hidden truths, but through the living, breathing encounter between analyst and patient. You are not alone with your inner world anymore - you bring it into dialogue, where new paths can be drawn.

  • The psychoanalytic couch is not a relic; it’s an invitation. Imagine lying back in a hammock, gazing at the sky, letting thoughts drift. The couch creates a space where you don’t have to perform, explain, or even make eye contact. Freed from distraction, your mind can wander into unexpected places. Sometimes, the best discoveries happen when you’re looking inward instead of outward.

  • Think of analysis as a long conversation with your unconscious. It begins with curiosity and unfolds like tending a garden: together, we notice what grows wild, what keeps repeating, what withers in the shade. Over time, we uncover root systems like patterns of relating and feeling that have shaped your life. The process is not about quick fixes but about lasting transformation, like cultivating a forest rather than trimming a hedge.

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  • People come to analysis when the usual tools for self-help no longer reach the places that hurt. It’s not just about fixing a problem; it’s about understanding the deeper story beneath the symptoms.

    Some feel caught in the same relationship patterns, like being stuck in a play where the script never changes. Others feel a quiet emptiness, as if they’re living life behind glass. Many come because their dreams, anxieties, or desires whisper that something unspoken is shaping their choices.

    In short: people seek analysis because they want more than relief, they want to understand themselves at depth and discover new ways of being alive.

  • The goal is not to become a different person, but to become more fully yourself. Analysis helps bring unconscious patterns into awareness so you can choose rather than repeat.

    For some, it’s like turning on the lights in a room you’ve always lived in: suddenly, the furniture makes sense, the shadows lose their power, and you can rearrange things in a way that feels like home.

    The aim is lasting transformation. For some that means freedom from the old scripts, freedom to love more openly, to work more creatively, and to live with a deeper sense of authenticity.

  • Both psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy are depth-oriented and relationship-based. The difference is less about “how caring” or “how insightful” the work is, and more about intensity, method, and what becomes possible over time.

    The Analytic Process (Psychoanalysis)

    Psychoanalysis is designed to help you understand and transform deeper, often long-standing patterns—especially the ones that show up in close relationships.

    What characterizes the analytic process:

    • Greater intensity and continuity (typically more frequent sessions), which allows emotional patterns to emerge in real time.

    • A stronger focus on transference—how old relational expectations and fears get re-lived in the relationship with the analyst.

    • More sustained attention to unconscious process (what is felt, avoided, repeated, or enacted—not just what is said).

    • A long-term aim of structural change: increased capacity for self-understanding, emotional freedom, intimacy, and resilience—not only symptom relief.

    The Psychotherapeutic Process (Psychodynamic Psychotherapy)

    Psychodynamic psychotherapy also works with emotion, meaning, history, and relationships but usually in a more focused way, often with fewer sessions per week.

    What characterizes the psychotherapeutic process:

    • More flexibility in pacing and focus, often balancing insight with immediate life concerns.

    • Attention to patterns and relationships, with transference addressed as it arises, but typically less intensively.

    • A stronger emphasis on support plus exploration—helping you cope better while also understanding underlying themes.

    • Goals may include symptom relief, better functioning, clearer self-understanding, and improved relationships—sometimes with deep change over time as well.

    Which is “better”?

    Neither is better, just different tools.

    • Psychoanalysis may be a good fit if you want deep, comprehensive work and are curious about longstanding patterns that feel hard to shift.

    • Psychodynamic psychotherapy may be a good fit if you want depth work with more flexibility, or if your goals are more focused on specific symptoms, relationships, or life transitions.

  • Psychoanalysis is less like a quick repair and more like learning a new language, the language of your inner life. And like any language, it needs rhythm and immersion to take root.

    Traditionally, sessions are several times a week. This steady rhythm creates momentum and allows us to catch patterns as they unfold in real time. Think of it like tending a fire: if you only add wood once in a while, the flame flickers out; if you tend it regularly, the fire grows steady, warm, and illuminating.

    Frequency is something we decide together, balancing tradition with your life, but the spirit is the same: regular contact keeps the work alive.

  • Psychoanalysis isn’t only for people in pain; it’s for anyone who feels the stirrings of a deeper search.

    It tends to be suitable for those who notice patterns repeating in relationships, like walking the same maze no matter which turn they take. It’s for people who carry unexplained heaviness, or who feel that their life looks “fine” on the outside but doesn’t feel alive on the inside. It’s for the curious - those who want to understand why they dream what they dream, desire what they desire, and sometimes get in their own way.

    In truth, psychoanalysis is for anyone willing to slow down and listen to their inner world. If psychotherapy is like learning to swim, psychoanalysis is like learning to navigate the ocean, open to anyone ready to explore the depths with a trusted companion.

  • Psychoanalysis is a powerful method, but like any approach, it’s not the right fit for everyone.

    It may not be the best choice if someone is in the middle of a severe crisis that requires immediate stabilization, skill building, and quick symptom reduction. In these cases, other forms of treatment or support may be a better fit.

    Psychoanalysis also requires a certain capacity for reflection and consistency. If life circumstances make it impossible to attend regular sessions, or if someone feels unsafe sitting with their own thoughts even briefly, a different kind of therapy might be a better starting point.

    That said, many people move between treatments over time. Sometimes other approaches help build the stability or skills needed, and psychoanalysis becomes possible later.

  • If you’d like to learn more, here are a few accessible places to start:

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Get in touch

Every life carries stories told and untold. Psychoanalysis offers a space to uncover the hidden chapters - the ones written in silence, dreams, and repetition. In our work together, new meanings emerge, and old scripts lose their grip. This is where you begin to write your life in a freer, truer voice.

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