Unruffled Unconscious

Psychoanalysis with Courtney Douds
by video or phone

If you've found this site looking for more conventional talk therapy or couples work, reach out at courtneydoudstherapy.com

Welcome. I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Lacanian Psychoanalyst practicing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I enjoy helping others build fulfilling lives for themselves, often from the starting point of asking the question - what do I want for myself? Whatever your singular answer may be, I look forward to accompanying you on your journey by providing a space in which your own speech, thoughts, and feelings are prioritized above all else.

Finding what truly satisfies you requires time and space to focus on yourself. Read on if it sounds like psychoanalysis may be what you're searching for...

What is Psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis, pioneered by Sigmund Freud and expanded upon by Jacques Lacan and others, is a comprehensive, holistic therapeutic approach that seeks to explore the depths of the unconscious mind to transform psychological distress. Lacanian psychoanalysis emphasizes the role of language, association, and the unconscious in shaping our identities and experiences. Central to psychoanalysis is the belief that unconscious conflicts and desires shape our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Through a process of free association, dream analysis, and interpretation while meeting multiple times weekly over the course of several years, psychoanalysis helps patients uncover hidden motivations and unresolved traumas that may be contributing to their struggles by allowing them to hear themselves in a new way.

Psychoanalysis may be for you if...

You're an insightful, introspective person. You already know what you're struggling with, but you can't seem to make the changes you want on your own.

You need to speak to someone other than a friend, parent, or partner - someone who can occupy a neutral position in your life unlike any other you encounter.

You don't want another worksheet, coping skill, or breathing exercise. You don't want to see someone who is going to tell you what you've already read, or could easily find on Google or from a class.

You’re looking for something beyond strengthening your ego, tolerating your distress, and external validation of your experience.

You want to explore your dreams, your fantasies, your slips of the tongue, your childhood memories and experiences, and the unconscious conflicts that are causing your distress.

You wish to speak and feel without censoring yourself, without holding back, without fearing that what you share will offend, scandalize, or traumatize the person who listens to you.

Your symptoms didn't appear overnight, and you expect it will take consistent, challenging work to rid yourself of them.

You wish for a new, lasting way of being in the world.

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