Chris Peterson, Psychologist
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Psychologists
LifeStance Health
Santa Barbara, CA
LifeStance Health
Goleta, CA
LifeStance Health
Goleta, CA
LifeStance Health
Ventura, CA
Chris Peterson, Ph.D.
539 San Ysidro Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
About
Chris Peterson, Psychologist
While I do focus on resolving particular problems, in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, specific problems are viewed in the context of the whole person. This type of therapy aims to help you experience life more deeply, enjoy more satisfying relationships, resolve painful conflicts, and better integrate all the parts of your personality. It is based on the insight that our adult personalities are the result of many developmental stages. At any stage, the way we have reacted to events in our lives may have caused us to get “stuck.” Each of us carries within the aspect of ourselves that “got stuck”; the parts that didn’t have a chance to develop fully. We can have an adult exterior and be functioning more or less successfully, but internally we may feel vulnerable, confused, depressed, angry, and childlike. We may not feel able to bounce back from rejection, get past blocks, allow our authentic selves to surface, or stay in touch with our feelings and desires. This impacts our relationships on multiple levels. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is designed to help examine previously unconscious material-- the memories, feelings, and desires that are not readily available to our conscious mind. We aim to understand how those feelings and thoughts affect the way you act and react, think, and feel today. Success in this depends on your willingness, desire, and ability to experience relationships deeply. In psychoanalytic psychotherapy focus is on everything that impacts relationships: current problems or concerns, work, other relationships, feelings, childhood issues, parental influences, adolescent years, or whatever seems important at the moment. By doing so you can learn more about the sources of your current dilemmas, and how to make your life better. By telling your story, in your own way, in your own time, and in your own words you will likely hear yourself in a new way. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy can provide a safe place for you to discover your own truth. You will be encouraged to talk about all thoughts and feelings that come up about your treatment or about your therapist. A very special relationship between therapist and patient can develop over time and through the dialogue in which both participate. This confidential relationship, central to psychoanalytic psychotherapy, is unlike other relationships you are likely to have. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy takes time to explore the complex layers of feeling and experience that make up your own unique history. There is no prescribed length of treatment. Treatment can be successful and productive in a few months’ time or it can extend much longer. Perhaps its greatest potential benefit is the essential freedom to change and to continue to grow in relationships.
Primary Specialty
Psychologist
Gender
Female
Services
Individual and adult
Additional Services
depression, anxiety
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