What Is Psychotherapy? How Is It Different from Psychoanalysis?
Both psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are based on the belief that understanding ourselves can help us live with greater freedom. Both involve talking with a trained therapist in a confidential setting. Both recognize that our emotions, relationships, and early experiences shape the way we experience ourselves and the world.
I think it's helpful to think of them as existing on a continuum (at least, in the way I work).
They share many of the same principles. The primary difference lies in the process and the depth of transformation.
What Is Psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy is a collaborative conversation between you and your therapist.
People seek therapy for many different reasons. They may be struggling with anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, perfectionism, grief, burnout, or a major life transition. Others simply have the feeling that something isn't working, even if they can't quite put it into words.
Together, you and your therapist work to understand what is happening in your life, identify patterns that may be contributing to your difficulties, and explore new ways of understanding yourself and responding to life's challenges.
Psychotherapy can be practical, reflective, emotionally rich, and deeply transformative. Many people find that it helps them feel less overwhelmed, more connected to themselves, and better able to navigate life's inevitable complexities.
What Is Psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis shares these same goals, but it approaches them differently.
Like psychotherapy, psychoanalysis is grounded in conversation, curiosity, and the belief that much of our emotional life exists outside our immediate awareness.
What distinguishes psychoanalysis is the structure of the treatment itself.
Psychoanalysis typically involves meeting several times each week over an extended period of time. That increased frequency creates a different kind of relationship to oneself and the analyst.
The therapeutic relationship itself becomes an important place where longstanding patterns gradually emerge and can be understood on a deeper level, especially how they emerge in the relationship to the analyst.
The analyst offers observations and interpretations that help make these patterns visible. But the real change comes through the repeated experience of thinking together.
Over time, many people find that they begin to think differently about themselves. They become more curious about their reactions instead of immediately judging them. They recognize recurring themes across relationships and different periods of their lives. They begin to understand not only what they do, but why they do it.
Eventually, the conversation with the analyst becomes something they carry within themselves—a more reflective and compassionate way of thinking about their own mind.
Does Psychoanalysis Go Deeper?
I believe psychoanalysis offers the possibility of a greater depth of understanding and can lead to true changes in one’s character.
That doesn't mean psychotherapy is superficial. Far from it. Weekly psychotherapy can lead to change and deep insight.
What psychoanalysis offers is a setting that makes it possible to work with aspects of the mind that often take much, much longer to emerge in weekly therapy, if at all.
The greater frequency creates continuity. As thoughts and feelings remain closer to the surface, subtle patterns become easier to recognize. Conflicts that might otherwise remain hidden can gradually be explored and understood. Over time, this often leads not only to insight but to a fundamental shift in how a person relates to themselves.
In other words, psychotherapy helps people understand themselves so that they can cope better. Psychoanalysis gradually teaches people how to think psychoanalytically about themselves and leads to character change.
The conversation becomes an internal one that continues long after the treatment has ended.
Is Psychoanalysis Better?
I don't think that's the most helpful question.
A better question is:
Which treatment is the right fit for this person at this point in their life, given this person’s needs?
Psychoanalysis asks for a significant investment of time, emotional energy, and curiosity.
For some people, this feels exactly right. They find themselves wanting to understand not only a particular symptom or life problem, but the deeper patterns that shape who they are. They are ready to make self-understanding a central part of their lives.
At other times, weekly psychotherapy may be the better fit.
Perhaps life is especially demanding. You may be raising young children, caring for aging parents, building a career, managing a health condition, or navigating an immediate crisis. During these periods, a less intensive treatment may fit more naturally into your life while still offering meaningful opportunities for growth and change. On the other hand, analysis can help support you think better about yourself in the most demanding periods of life. It really depends on the person’s needs.
Different phases of life invite different kinds of work. Neither choice is a lesser one.
How Do I Know Which One Is Right for Me?
You don't have to decide on your own.
One of the first conversations I have with prospective patients is about what they are hoping for and what feels realistic in their lives right now.
Some people come seeking help with a specific problem and discover that weekly psychotherapy is exactly what they need.
Others begin therapy and, over time, become interested in exploring themselves more deeply through psychoanalysis.
Sometimes I meet with someone and share that psychoanalysis is the only treatment I’d feel confident would help the person.
There is no single "correct" path. The treatment should fit the person—not the other way around.
Ultimately, They Share the Same Goal
Whether someone chooses psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, the goal is remarkably similar: to better understand themselves.
As we become more aware of the patterns that shape our thoughts, emotions, relationships, and decisions, we gain more freedom. We become less driven by reactions we don't fully understand and more able to make choices that reflect who we are and how we want to live.
Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis travel that path in different ways.
For some people, psychotherapy provides exactly the support they need. For others, psychoanalysis offers the opportunity for a deeper and more sustained exploration of the mind.
Both begin with the same simple act: two people sitting together and having a conversation.
What unfolds from that conversation can change the way you understand yourself for years to come.
Start Working With A Psychoanalytic Therapist in Washington, DC
Whether you're drawn to the focused, weekly support of psychotherapy or the deeper, more sustained exploration of psychoanalysis, the most important thing is simply that you begin. You don't need to arrive with the right answer — or even the right question. Nina Van Sant, LICSW, provides psychoanalysis for people who are ready to understand themselves more deeply and live with greater freedom and choice. One of the first things we do together is figure out which path makes sense for you, right now, in your actual life. If you're ready to start that conversation, I'd love to hear from you. Start receiving the support you can deserve by following these simple steps:
Meet with a caring psychotherapist
Start taking your first step toward understanding yourself in a way that lasts!
Other Services Offered with Nina Van Sant, LICSW
Psychotherapy is not the only service offered by Nina Van Sant, LICSW. I am happy to offer multiple services to support clients in better self-understanding and lasting healing. Other services offered include psychoanalysis, infertility-related stress, postpartum therapy, and therapy for teens and older adults at different developmental stages. I also work with expats and international professionals who are managing cultural adjustment, relocation stress, and the emotional weight of significant life changes.