Therapy Goals & Interventions

• Increase capacity to experience the full range of emotions

• Manage multiple affective states

• Gain access to multiple aspects of the self without shame

• Ability to comfort and soothe oneself and to be self-reflective

• Develop strategies to communicate effectively

• Ability to accept responsibility and be more truthful with oneself

• Ability to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty

• Ability to think more creatively and openly about one’s past rather than to continue to repeat it

• Experience relief from internal constraints and cognitive inflexibility that have become problematic

• Develop a more imaginative and creative mind

• Increase capacity to love and demonstrate care

• Engage in more meaningful and redemptive relationships

• Generate and Instill Hope

• Improve ability to self-regulate and self-monitor

• Gain skills to define, observe and communicate your personal boundaries

• Increase the ability to manage distressing emotions and sensations using emotion regulation techniques

• Enhance lateral thinking abilities to creatively problem solve and develop personally

• Develop analytic observational skills to evaluate habitual cognitive interpretations and replace them with conscious intentional responses to the vicissitudes of life experience

• Increase interoceptive attention by practicing sensory awareness and grounding techniques to explore the internal atmosphere of your mind and body

• Formulate a cohesive self-narrative to make peace with the past and experience the freedom to envision your future

Reference: Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis: A Guide to Practice, Study, and Research by Roy Barsness