What Does the ISTDP Experience Look and Feel Like?

Posted on: February 15, 2016

News & Insights From Santa Monica Psychiatrist Katherine Watkins, M.D.

Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy “ISTDP” is part of a group of therapies, known as the “emotionally focused therapies.” In it, the goal is for patients to actively experience various feelings during the session; it has been referred to as a neurobiological technique, as one of the goals is to become aware of the internal physical experience of all of your emotions. Treatment usually begins with me asking you about the precise nature of your problem. Based on what is uncovered, we will set your therapeutic goals. During each session we will collaborate to examine specific conflicts or problematic events in your life while observing your responses to them. I will draw attention to your internal experience throughout the session, including your automatic defenses, anxiety symptoms, and emotions (both physiological sensations and impulses). (more…)

Posted in: ISTDP

What Makes ISTDP So Effective?

Posted on: February 5, 2016

News & Insights From Santa Monica Psychiatrist Katherine Watkins, M.D.

One of the things that makes ISTDP so effective is its concentrated attention to the unconscious barriers that work against successful treatment. In ISTDP, these barriers are referred to as “defense mechanisms” or “defenses.” ISTDP posits that defenses prevent us from experiencing our authentic feelings, and that it is only with active and persistent attention by the therapist to exposing and confronting these defenses will patients be able to experience the full range of their emotions. In childhood, defenses can be a useful tool in emotionally overwhelming or traumatic situations. Defenses such as dissociation and repression can shield us from intense feelings that we are developmentally unprepared to experience and process. However as we grow up, this shielding cuts us off from our full range of feelings, even when we are now emotionally able to handle the feelings. When this happens, it may lead to depression, anxiety, relationship problems and self-defeating behavior, or as one of my patients said, “I’m living a two dimensional life.” (more…)

Posted in: Fundamentals, ISTDP

Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)

Posted on: January 21, 2016

News & Insights From Santa Monica Psychiatrist Katherine Watkins, M.D.

Several years ago I became interested in a new type of psychotherapy, called Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, or ISTDP for short. Developed by Habib Davanloo M.D., a clinical researcher at McGill University and Montreal General Hospital, ISTDP is an evidence-based psychotherapy which has been shown to be uniquely effective for people with symptoms such as depression or anxiety, problems with relationships and intimacy, or physical symptoms without a medically identifiable cause, such as headache, shortness of breath, diarrhea, or sudden weakness. The ISTDP model attributes these symptoms to the occurrence of distressing situations where painful or forbidden emotions are triggered but are outside of awareness. (more…)

Posted in: ISTDP