Psychology & Psychotherapy

A mindfulness-based body psychotherapy developed by Ron Kurtz, using somatic awareness and bodily experiences to access and transform unconscious material.

A structured, solution-oriented support for professionals, aimed at developing leadership, optimizing performance and facilitating career transitions.

A set of communication and personal change techniques modeled on therapeutic excellence, aiming to reprogram limiting mental and behavioral patterns.

An adaptation of psychoanalysis in short format (10-30 sessions), focused on a central conflict, actively using transference and interpretation to produce rapid, targeted change.

A modern psychodynamic school viewing the therapeutic relationship itself as the main change agent, emphasizing mutual co-construction of experience between patient and therapist.

A transpersonal approach developed by Roberto Assagioli integrating psychoanalysis, Eastern philosophy and spiritual dimension for harmonious synthesis of all personal dimensions.

A humanistic, experiential approach founded by Fritz Perls, focused on present-moment awareness, the contact-withdrawal cycle and personal responsibility for a more authentic life.

A systematic behavioral assessment method identifying antecedents, behaviors and consequences (ABC model) to understand and modify problematic patterns.

A psychotherapy using visual art creation (painting, drawing, modeling, collage) as therapeutic mediation to express and transform psychic conflicts beyond words.

A humanistic approach founded by Carl Rogers based on three essential therapeutic conditions — empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence — to release the natural actualizing tendency.

The founding method of psychotherapy created by Sigmund Freud, exploring the unconscious through free association, dream analysis and transference to resolve deep psychic conflicts.

Structured therapeutic support for couples in difficulty, aiming to improve communication, resolve conflicts and strengthen the attachment bond.

A transgenerational psychotherapeutic method by Bert Hellinger using human representatives to stage and resolve unconscious family dynamics transmitted across generations.

A personality theory and psychotherapy method created by Eric Berne, analyzing transactions (exchanges) between three ego states (Parent, Adult, Child) to improve communication and relationships.

A system of human integration through movement, music and group encounter, created by Rolando Toro, aimed at stimulating the genetic potentials of life expression: vitality, sexuality, creativity, affectivity and transcendence.

A structured, scientifically validated psychotherapy that identifies and modifies dysfunctional thoughts and maladaptive behaviors to treat anxiety, depression and numerous psychological disorders.

Therapeutic use of reading and writing to foster emotional expression, awareness, narrative restructuring and the psychic healing process.

Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic approach based on a return to Freud through structural linguistics, asserting the unconscious is structured like a language and using variable-length sessions.

An inner listening method developed by Eugene Gendlin, allowing access to the 'felt sense' — the implicit, pre-verbal knowledge the body holds about our life situations.

A scientifically validated therapy using alternating bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping) to reprocess traumatic memories and reduce their emotional charge.

A psychosomatic trauma approach developed by Peter Levine, which releases traumatic energy trapped in the body through progressive sensory titration and pendulation.

A classical behavioral technique developed by Joseph Wolpe, combining deep relaxation with gradual exposure to phobic stimuli to extinguish the conditioned anxiety response.

A third-wave CBT therapy that develops psychological flexibility through acceptance of internal experiences and commitment to values-aligned actions.

A body-oriented trauma psychotherapy integrating neuroscience and attachment theory, working directly with the body's sensory and motor responses to resolve trauma.

A holistic support aiming at the person's global fulfillment — self-confidence, emotional management, life purpose, balance and well-being — through a structured, caring process.

A body psychotherapy using movement and dance as the primary process of communication and expression to promote psycho-body integration.

A body psychotherapy developed by Alexander Lowen combining verbal analytic work and intense physical exercises to release chronic muscle tensions (character armor) and restore vital energy flow.

A philosophical therapeutic approach exploring fundamental concerns of human existence — death, freedom, isolation and meaning — to help live more authentically.

A third-wave therapy targeting not thought content but metacognitive processes — the beliefs and mental strategies that maintain pathological rumination and worry.

An approach treating psychological problems as relational system dysfunctions rather than individual pathologies, by modifying interactions and communication within the system.

A psychotherapeutic model viewing the mind as a system of sub-personalities ('parts') organized around a compassionate core Self, offering a non-pathologizing path to trauma healing.

A structured behavioral treatment for depression that breaks the cycle of withdrawal and avoidance by scheduling valued and meaningful activities.

An integrative third-wave therapy combining CBT, mindfulness and dialectical philosophy, initially designed for borderline personality disorder and extended to intense emotional dysregulation.

A neurobiological trauma therapy using eye position to locate and process brain areas storing unresolved traumatic experience.

A structured, validated CBT protocol for PTSD using repeated exposure to traumatic memories (imaginal) and avoided situations (in vivo) to reduce fear and avoidance behavior.

An integrative approach combining CBT, attachment theory and psychodynamic concepts to identify and transform early maladaptive schemas from childhood that perpetuate psychological suffering.

A therapy using music and sound (listening, improvisation, composition) as therapeutic mediators to improve physical, emotional and cognitive health.

An existential psychotherapy founded by Viktor Frankl, centered on the search for meaning as the primary force of human motivation, born from his concentration camp experience.

An approach to the psyche developed by Carl Gustav Jung, exploring the collective unconscious, archetypes, individuation process and dream symbolism to achieve Self-totality.

Beyond the unconscious and the Oedipus complex, Freudian psychoanalysis rests on a set of founding concepts that illuminate the dynamics of psychic life: repression, defence mechanisms, life and death drives, repetition compulsion, narcissism and metapsychology. This article explores these essential notions for understanding how Freud conceived the workings of the human mind and the origins of psychological suffering.

Psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century, constitutes the first systematic attempt to explore the human unconscious. More than a therapeutic method, it is a comprehensive theory of psychic functioning that revolutionized our understanding of sexuality, dreams, language and human suffering. This article traces the historical origins of psychoanalysis, its founding concepts and its evolution over a century of clinical practice and intellectual debate.