The primary modality that I use is called Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) and it was developed by Dr. Habib Davanloo. Over the course of decades, Dr. Davanloo reviewed hundreds of hours of video recorded therapy sessions in minute detail to determine as precisely as possible what sorts of interventions were most effective in facilitating psychological transformation.
The therapy's primary goal is to help the patient overcome resistance to experiencing true feelings which have been repressed because they are either too frightening or too painful. It has been shown that through processing these feelings patients are then able end their use of destructive defense mechanisms and crippling anxiety.
The technique is intensive in that it aims to help the patient experience these warded-off feelings as fully as possible; it is short-term in that it works to achieve this experience as fast as possible; it is dynamic because it involves working with unconscious forces and transference feelings.
One of the main contributions that Davanloo has made to the field of psychology is a revised understanding of the human psyche. It has been observed that there are two parts of the mind that are in direct opposition to each other. We are born with a healthy part that drives us towards health, happiness and reaching our full potential. However, as a result of attachment traumas we develop an unhealthy part that seeks to punish, limit, and sabotage our potential. ISTDP is uniquely designed to dismantle the unhealthy part and strengthen the healthy part so that individuals can reach their goals.
There are now over 25 published outcome studies in ISTDP. Twenty-one of these were published in Harvard Review of Psychiatry. There are numerous studies showing the cost effectiveness of the method through reducing doctor visits, medication costs, hospital costs and disability costs.
Malan (1980) suggested that ISTDP is the most significant step forward in psychodynamic psychotherapy since Freud, concluding that “Freud discovered the unconscious; Davanloo has discovered how to use it therapeutically”