Most couples aren't fighting about what they think they're fighting about. The content changes — the dishes, the in-laws, a missed text — but underneath it, the same shape keeps repeating. What's actually being repeated, and why it doesn't resolve with better communication skills.

In this post, I explore why I use the word “patient” rather than “client,” and how this seemingly small choice reflects a deeper view of therapy—not as a service transaction, but as a serious, sacred healing relationship that honours psychic suffering and our shared humanity.

Emotional containment is the quiet work therapy does in the background: holding, sorting and making sense of feelings that feel like too much on your own. Drawing on Winnicott’s “holding environment” and Bion’s container-contained theory, this post explores how a reliable therapeutic relationship can transform overwhelming emotion into something thinkable, helping you feel safer, more coherent and more able to face your inner world.

Containment isn’t just for therapy—it’s a part of daily life. Parents, partners, and even leaders help others manage emotions by listening, reflecting, and holding feelings with care. Bion’s insights remind us that resilience grows in relationships, shaping how we parent, work, and love in meaningful ways.

A psychoanalytic psychologists reflects on the common request by patients or clients for 'tools' for their mental health.

Making the Most Out of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy