What Do I offer?
I offer you the opportunity to find your optimal health and better version of yourself putting mental balance and nervous system regulation at the centre. How? With Psychoanalysis and the use of complimentary therapies when needed: we will find and address the root cause of your challenges and discomfort.
I will look at you as a human being, taking into account your mind, body and soul. With psychoanalysis at the centre, I will provide a holistic plan based on functional medicine principles, using herbal supplements, nervous system regulation techniques and exercises. The idea is to build up your capacity and resilience so that you can transform your life and do the things that you love.
Since very early in the history of the human being emotions and affects (jealousy, ambition, passion, sorrow, laziness…) have been related with sickness in the body. Emotions are also very related to the capacity of resistance to infectious illness: it has been observed that soldiers from the defeated army were more sensitive to infections than the winner ones. Recent research shows that people who are stressed, anxious and depressed are more likely to sicken . The impact of mental health on chronic disease is now quite well known. What is more: Not being able to deal with guilt an anxiety can lead to physical disease. How? Lets see some psychic structures that impact our body:
- Cancer is preceded by depression.
- Chronic diseases (specially autoimmune) such as: IBS, ulcer, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia are preceded by anxiety neurosis.
Psychoanalysis can help you be healthier because by treating depression and anxiety, you are less likely to develop these type of diseases.
Before the production of the unconscious, it was impossible to know anything about the unconscious reality, there was no scientific practice,it was ideological. Freud said that after very sterile times, medicine made big process: understood the cells, the chemical mechanisms, the functions… All these findings were related to the soma of the human beings. This is why doctors were attracted to focus on the soma and abandoned the study of the psyche to the philosophers.
After Psychoanalysis was born in 1900 with the Interpretaron of the Dreams, we can ask ourselves: what are the causes of that disorder which has affected the mood, impacting the soma?
For a long time we have heard about psychosomatic disorders. What is the psychosomatic phenomena? Psyche and soma are inseparables. What happen to psychosomatic patients is that to them, thinking is painful, so they elaborate everything via soma.
According to psychoanalysis, getting sick and maintaining that sickness implies some working. Disease is the outcome, the result of certain unconscious working.
The work required to maintain a psychosomatic structure is very costly: the patient suffers from the organic disease and all the suffering that implies into his daily life (physical pain, low mood, anger, financial issues, under mined relationships, not reaching their full potential, bad quality of life) . All this “working” is aimed to deny that he is a psychical subject, with psychical processes and pretend to reduce his body to a biological one (as if they could separate their psyche from their soma).
In psychoanalysis, the process of sicken is read from the end. A symptom, a disease is an effect of the unconscious (like dreams or slips). From the last outcome, the disease, we read the underlying psychic structure behind it.
Diagnosis in traditional medicine have big impact in patients: example, lets say that 80% of the gastric ulcers relapse the first year, however, the patient is told he has a chronic disease which happens in outbreaks. Medical diagnosis are a foretell of the future. In this sense, to tradicional medicine, future is present, in psychoanalysis, it is to be built. A psychoanalyst is not going to come up with a diagnosis and hence a severe, mild or chronic prognosis according to the symptoms the patient talks about. To psychoanalysis, these symptoms are just hints (which led the doctor to diagnose certain disease), nothing more than manifest content (which needs to be interpreted, like dreams).
It has been observed that psycho – somatic patients, present a history of anxiety. Hence, if we can treat anxiety we should be able to prevent many cases of severe chronic disease.
Everything happens for a reason, we are all implied in all what we do. There is not such thing as bad luck. If that is true… there is so much we can do!
Why is it so important that a psychoanalyst can read, interpret the reality for us? Reality is not what it seems. It is not what we think.
What is the main cause of failure? Laziness? We are not talented enough? We are ugly, not lovable? We don’t want to be happy? You might have friends, family or colleagues ( maybe yourself ) who try and try very hard to progress at work, become healthier, have more friends, social life, romantic relationship, family…. and they do not succeed or they succeed in something but fail in other aspects of their lives.
The main cause of failure is… fear of success. This is a big topic, Freud wrote about it already in 1916: “Those wrecked by success” , in case you want to read it. It sounds unbelievable, but for the human being is more difficult to tolerate success than failure. Failure is a punishment that calms down our unconscious guilt. Even more: findings show that unconscious guilt feeling could precede, indeed precipitate a criminal act. Why? Because the criminal is committing the crime in search for punishment.
Why do we look for punishment? Why do we have the need to be punished? From the unconscious guilt we can only see his effects: the punishment, the failure. Failure of many types: unhappy marriage, cruel boyfriend, losing a job, getting sick, going bankrupt… We look for punishment to calm down that unconscious guilt from which we can only see its effects.
Examples: I have this so important job interview that I have been looking forward and… I get sick. I finally manage to get the woman I have always wanted and… I am sad, I don’t like her, I can not love her. I win the lottery and loose the ticket. I get the promotion I have worked so much for and… I begin to fight with people, I arrive late… You cheat on your partner and you copy him in the email…
Why I cannot delegate? Why do I always have relationships in which I end up suffering? Why I cannot be successful in my job and progress? Why is so difficult the relationship with my family? Psychoanalysis can interpret reality. It can interpret your unconscious guilt. You no longer need to punish yourself for being successful.
Have you been from doctor to doctor and they say…: you are ok? Your results are “normal” BUT… you have MANY symptoms in the body which impact your quality of life, energy levels and relationships. You are tired all the time, have digestive symptoms, insomnia… you are moody and your libido is so low! You might have tried many different diets (paleo, keto, vegan….) and, even if you manage to stick to them… situation does not improve. Having good mental health, a well-balanced nervous system, and overcoming trauma is key to enjoying good gut health: Your gut is your second brain!
You can take the best supplements in the world and hire the best practitioners, but if you don’t deal with emotional and trauma root causes, it will be very complicated for you to fully heal. You might not feel you are stressed but… you might be stuck in “chronic stress response”. In order to heal, we need to address your Limbic system.
Good news is that Psychoanalysis and brain re-training is the right tool to address those unconscious triggers and unresolved traumas helping you get rid of those…unhelpful old ideas and way of thinking which have led you to feel sick for so long. Then you CAN HEAL.
Thanks to psychoanalysis we know that… reality is not what it seems. Thanks to the interpretation of a psychoanalyst, you will be able to change those behaviours that became habits and that way of thinking which has harmed you.
Psychoanalysis is a tool to achieve optimal health. If you want to loose weight and become fitter… have psychoanalysis. If you suffer from Chronic fatigue, and lack of energy… have psychoanalysis.
We have all experienced or will experience an anxiety attack sometime in our lives. It is as if life was going to end very quickly. We want to have all the answers, all the solutions, we can not take difficulties.
My therapy will help you work on the psychic reality where anxiety arises. Fear to disappoint, comparing with others all the time, fear of things going wrong… All these show a difficulty to manage the psychical energy, lack of maturity.
If you are reading this, you might have experienced or are experiencing anxiety. I will help you transform your weaknesses and give you tools to grow in life. My therapy works on the unconscious processes of the personality which lead you to experience discomfort (whatever you want to call it, stress, anxiety…) because you cannot manage some affective processes with certain people or situations.
Why do we experience anxiety? We tend to think that anxiety is something bad. However, anxiety is necessary. It is a warning that something is happening, like a temperature. It warns us about a danger, it protects us. The issue is when we feel it in the body and we feel it all the time. It is difficult to live in those conditions. That is pathological. It is not real. People who suffer from anxiety tend to have a very negative view of life, they are pessimistic. Why is that? Because they can not manage uncertainty. For them, is easier to think that the worst think will happen instead of having to wait and see what will really happen in the end. Anguish and anxiety indicates that in some aspects of our lives, we still behave as children.
What we think about ourselves cannot help us because it is a deceptive appearing. All that reach our consciousness is an appearing disguised by thoughts, feelings and affects that we do not know but… it impacts our lives because we suffer from its effects.
Psychoanalysis discovered that you know, without knowing it, the cause of your discomfort. My therapy will help you phrase, put into words whatever is causing your discomfort so that you can elaborate it psychically. I will help you express, whatever is sickening you, because you can not elaborate it in a different way, so that you can move forward in life.
Anxiety can show in two different ways. The traditional anxiety attack: accelerated heart beat, accelerated breathing, hands paraesthesia, sweats, excitability, anguish wait. Even the feeling of going crazy or imminent death. The other way of experiencing anxiety is the equivalent of the anxiety attack. In this case, it is an anxiety attack “without anxiety”. Some examples of the equivalent of the anxiety attack would be: asthma attack, bulimia attack and vertigo (when neurological cause has been ruled out).
Anxiety as opposed to anguish is only psychical, there are no symptoms in the body.
In order to do any new activity in life, we need to be able to tolerate a bit of anguish: every time I begin to write, to work, every time I have a new relationship, when I take a test, when I develop a new idea, when I launch a business, when I lose someone… We need to learn to deal with anxiety, if we can not tolerate it, it becomes a symptom. We need to be able to be out of our comfort zone to achieve things in life and grow.
Anxiety and anguish disorder happen in relation with a desire, in situations where we are deeply involved, touched, in relation with important decisions and moments in life.
If you experience anguish and anxiety, it might be that you are expressing in your body what you can not express in words. I will help you express your thoughts in words so that you do not have to express them in symptoms nada sicken your body.
Is it possible to overcome depression? How? You will probably know quite a few people who have suffered or suffer from depression. Research shows that a depressed person can go to the doctor with somatic complaints, mixed anxiety-depressive disorders or even nonspecific complaints. The pathology is then misdiagnosed and not treated properly.
Depression signs and symptoms are: low mood and deep psychic pain, lack of interest in the outside world, loss of capability to love, inhibition of all the functions and decrease of self love. What we know today as depression has its origin in melancholia.
70% of depressed people are under 45 years old, meaning they are in a period of their lives in which, they should be active, they should be producing a life. Working. Travelling. Building relationships. Depression is a disorder which impacts all the aspects of life: people who are depressed spend in bed more time that people suffering from diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, back issues or arterial hypertension.
Psychoanalytical treatment to overcome depression avoids emotional stress, physical wear and even financial stress not only of the patient but also of his/her family. If you are depressed and undergo my therapy, you will be able to continue with your everyday life. You will be able to build a life that you like.
Depression has big social impact. Effects of depression should be carefully studied to understand the severity of the disease and how important it is its prevention. As an example, today latest research shows the clear link between depression and cancer.
Depression it is among the four most expensive diseases for society, along with Cancer, AIDS and respiratory diseases (above heart diseases).
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder or Obsessive Neurosis is one of the most complex structures. Its symptoms reflects that complexity. The symptom is a way to process a desire the person can not tolerate. For that person, at that moment, the symptom is a solution. It is a way to position themselves in relation to their unconscious desire.
Repression is a psychic mechanism: when we want to avoid something in the outside world, we run, we scape but because we cannot scape from ourselves, from our desires, what we do is … to repress. What does “to repress” mean? It means to put something away from the consciousness. However, when we repress something, it does not disappear, it becomes unconscious. When something is repressed it is even more powerful. Why? because it is completely out of our control, it has big impact on us: we can only see its effects.
People can suffer from OCD many years and when they finally go to the psychoanalyst, symptoms are very severe. A symptom is a necessary reaction to an unconscious psychic process and because it is unconscious, it does not respond to any logical reasoning. What is even more, sometimes the patients find relief in their symptoms. In many occasions, thanks to the symptoms, patients end up going to the doctor or psychoanalyst.
A good example of an OCD would be Jack Nicholson in “As good as it gets”. He has to jump following the lines of the road to avoid stepping on the ground. His thoughts are attached to apparently absurd ideas, the obsessive ideas. He can’t avoid thinking over and over again about what it could be considered… nonsense. That absurd idea becomes an obsession. If someone tries to convince him about how stupid is what he is thinking he would say… “ I know but … I cannot take it out of my head”.
These absurd ideas are the starting point of very intense intellectual activity that exhausts the patient. He is obliged against his will to reflect over and over again about that idea as if it was a super important personal matter. Most of the times the obsessive ideas are scary: they have to do certain rituals to avoid feeling anguish, to avoid something bad happening to someone else. These rituals consist of repetitions of every day life activities: going out, dressing up… all these activities become very complex time-consuming rituals: checking 10 times that the door is locked, folding the sheets in a certain way before being able to sleep; washing the hands many times to the point they injure their skin; putting, taking off the socks many times … those behaviours are extravagant but also very common.
People suffering from OCD find pleasure in thinking. This is how they interact with the world around them: in their thoughts, they repeat over and over again things they have to do, they relate to people but in reality… they never do any of those things. They end up isolating themselves. They tend to be energetic, perseverant, highly intellectual, perfectionist and with strict moral. These patients tend to blame themselves for things they have not done. Guilt and remorse are the main affects in these patients.
This disorder impacts the professional life of the patients not only due to their isolation but also due to the ongoing distractions and waste of time caused by the obsessive ideas.
The objective of the treatment is to understand the meaning of those obsessive symptoms, interpret them and provide the patient with the tools to learn to joy in a different way. To put their energy in reality and reach their full potential. They can in fact be very productive! Medication in theses cases is specially ineffective. It can also mask the symptoms without solving the conflict the patient has with his unconscious desire.