Psychoanalytically informed treatment can be beneficial to most people. For example, it can provide relief from the troubling symptoms of anxiety, depression and other life-disrupting concerns. You might, for instance, be plagued by private rituals, compulsions and repetitive thoughts of which no one else is aware. Alternatively, you might be living a constricted life of isolation and loneliness, or feel incapable of getting close to others. In some cases, as a result of destructive patterns of behaviour, you may have experienced repeated failures, particularly in key areas such as work and love.

As an alternative to more simplistic, short term interventions, psychoanalytically-oriented therapy can be a particularly beneficial treatment option for individuals managing high stress-related worries or concerns, typical of those confronting busy professionals in their work or lives generally. Despite relative satisfaction and success in their lives, individuals fitting this category may nonetheless be suffering disruptive symptoms that restrict choices and other opportunities for pleasure. Hence, certain people may choose to seek out this treatment approach because other interventions have not resolved their problems or, at best, only temporarily so.

In working with a psychologist who is also an internationally accredited psychoanalyst, patients can be confident that they are being treated by a uniquely trained mental health practitioner. Psychologists with this extra level of expertise have not only completed the rigours of their own professional training (i.e. an extensive graduate program in clinical psychology), but also at least 4 years of additional training in psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. In particular, psychologist-psychoanalysts, trained under the auspices of the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society and Institute have received the most rigorous training available. This particular training leads to membership in both the Canadian Psychoanalytic Association and International Psychoanalytic Association (the world wide umbrella organization for the training of psychoanalysts). In summary, people undergoing psychoanalysis or psychoanalytically-oriented therapy can feel confident that practitioners with affiliation to the International Association meet the highest training standards available for this particular treatment.