Key Clinical Processes in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy

Davanloo’s Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), while derived from traditional psychoanalytic theory, is a modified brief treatment with growing empirical support for its effectiveness with clients with psychoneurotic disorders and character pathology. This model describes key empirically derived processes that can bring ready access to unprocessed unconscious emotions that otherwise perpetuate widespread symptom and behavioral disorders. Herein we describe the metapsychological underpinnings, clinical application, and evidence for central interventions used in ISTDP through the use of a case example.