In this introductory talk on time-limited psychodynamic psychotherapy, Dr. Schmidt Neven challenges two stereotypes; the first that cognitive behavioural therapy is the only evidence-based time-limited treatment and the second that psychodynamic psychotherapy is synonymous with long term clinical work. She provides an innovative contextual therapeutic model for psychodynamic psychotherapy with adults as well as with children, adolescents, and their parents, whereby behaviour is not perceived solely in pathological terms but as having profound meaning. The presenting problem or the symptom is thus recalibrated as providing the opportunity for us to understand how adults ‘speak’ their life experience and how children ‘speak’ their families. Dr. Schmidt Neven emphasizes the critical importance of the psychodynamic method that lays the foundation for patients of an internal reflective process that has a longstanding impact for the way in which they manage future life stresses and problems.
Calabash · South Africa