Psychodynamic Therapy in Rainier Beach, Seattle

At Cascadia Psychodynamic Training Clinic, therapy starts from a simple idea: much of what shapes our lives happens outside our awareness. Things we learned early on often stay with us long after they stop helping us. They can show up as the same arguments, the same disappointments, and the same feelings of being stuck or lost, even when our circumstances change. Rather than focusing only on solving problems or getting rid of symptoms, psychodynamic therapy invites curiosity about what's happening within you: what you feel, what you avoid feeling, and how old ways of being and relating keep repeating in the present.

We come to know ourselves through relationships with other people. Some parts of our experience stay out of view until someone else notices them, feels their weight alongside us, and reflects back what they see. Our therapists offer that kind of relationship: attentive, respectful, and curious, working toward understanding together. When it goes well, it can change a person.

We don't want to glamorize change. Most of us long for it, even as it frightens us, because it means stepping into the unknown. It is often painful, messy, and uncomfortable. But as we come into a richer relationship with ourselves and others, and grow able to feel and express more of our experience, many people find a wellspring of energy and purpose they didn't know was there. It's one of the strange gifts of this work: when we attend to the most painful and confusing parts of our lives, we often find the most authentic, creative, and alive parts of ourselves.

Our therapists are graduate clinicians in training who see patients under close supervision. Each week they meet individually and in seminar with experienced psychodynamic clinicians who help them think carefully about every person they work with. This training model also lets us offer sessions on a sliding scale of $30–$80.

You don't need to know exactly what's wrong, or feel ready, to begin. If something here speaks to you, we'd be glad to talk.