Dr. Linda Garrity, 110 E. Main St., Ste. 702, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 255-0100.

Treatment is available for these symptoms:

Treatment Options Which will be Reviewed With You:

Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytically-Oriented Psychotherapy:
Unconscious factors may be controlling your emotions and behavior. You may feel depressed, insecure, and fear rejection but have no idea why. You may see yourself in the same negative light that you felt you were viewed by others when younger. You may expect that people in your current life will mistreat you as you felt mistreated or neglected in the past. You may feel empty and lonely, unable to deeply connect with others. You may feel there is something wrong with you because you cannot feel happy or cannot stop yourself from doing things you know are self-destructive.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy helps you understand the sources of your unhappiness and self-destructive behaviors in two important ways: by identifying patterns of behavior and expectations that you have experienced during your life; and by re-experiencing childhood feelings and uncovering unconscious memories and negative expectations of yourself and others. Your emotional life, how you experience yourself and others, is key. If feelings are painful, they may be deeply buried by various compulsive or dissociative behaviors. Identifying the defenses and behavior patterns you have developed to protect yourself from emotional pain with the help of a trustworthy therapist usually makes it easier to re-experience these feelings. The expression of painful emotion during therapy, for most patients, is followed by a feeling of relief and greater understanding.

As you allow yourself to open up in therapy, unconscious sources of difficulty gradually appear in repetitive patterns of behavior, in dreams, and in observations you make. Aspects of your mind emerge that often are not accessible by other methods, including friends and family, self-help books, and personal determination. This approach is based on some psychoanalytic principles but is not as emotionally intense or deep as psychoanalysis. At the end of therapy you should have a better sense of who you are, how others perceive you, of the areas you need to improve and the steps to achieve this.

Sessions are typically held once or twice per week to allow time to explore the underlying patterns beneath the day-to-day problems which also must be addressed (using a cognitive-behavioral approach). You may be limited by the number of sessions allowed by your health insurance plan, sometimes 15 to 20 sessions per calendar year. Many patients are able to achieve satisfying results within that time frame. Dr. Garrity attempts to achieve the greatest emotional depth possible in the time frame available. Her extensive training in psychoanalysis enables her to more quickly diagnose and treat psychotherapy patients compared to the majority of therapists who do not have rigorous psychoanalytic training.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy:
Cognitive-behavior therapy is effective with problems that are well-defined and circumscribed. The problems treated are those of which the patient is consciously aware. A less emotional and more intellectual approach is used than in psychodynamic therapy and the length of treatment may be relatively brief. Cognitive-behavior therapy utilizes direct teaching and explaining, homework assignments, and provision of concrete steps for the patient to take.

Dr. Garrity includes cognitive-behavioral techniques in all of her treatment options to make sure that the patient is intellectually aware of useful and appropriate responses to conflict situations. If a cognitive-behavioral approach is not effective and the problems seem due to deeper unconscious patterns, a more in-depth intervention will be discussed with the patient.

Couples Therapy:
A variety of techniques may be used depending on the needs and goals of each couple. Some cognitive-behavior therapy is always used to handle problems of daily living, such as how chores, childrearing and money are handled. Problems in emotional and sexual intimacy are treated by exploring deeper fears of becoming vulnerable, and feeling hurt, rejected or abandoned. Exploring the role models each member of the couple had in their own parents and the expectations and unmet needs this created is best understood using a psychodynamic technique.

Psychoanalysis:
Analysis is an intimate partnership in which the patient becomes aware of the underlying sources of difficulties more deeply and emotionally by re-experiencing them with the analyst. The patient comes 4 times per week, lies on the couch, and attempts to say everything that comes to mind. A central aspect of analysis is transference. Transference occurs when the patient unconsciously displaces patterns of feelings, thoughts, and behavior, originally experienced in relation to significant figures in childhood, onto persons in their present life who do not fit these patterns. This often creates conflict. When the patient displaces these patterns onto the analyst, the analyst is in a key position to help the patient understand and correct these misperceptions and to more accurately perceive present relationships. Patient and analyst join in efforts to modify crippling life patterns and remove incapacitating symptoms and to change the patient's sense of self in deep and abiding ways.

The person best able to undergo psychoanalysis is someone who, no matter how incapacitated at the time, is potentially sturdy and can withstand the sometimes painful childhood emotions that emerge. This person already may have achieved important satisfactions with friends, marriage and work but is impaired by deep feelings of unhappiness and various long-standing symptoms or self-destructive patterns. Since psychoanalysis is deeper and more thorough than other forms of therapy it offers the possibility for more effective and lasting results than other treatment options. Some patients start out with a once per week psychotherapy and later decide to pursue psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis for the Psychoanalyst:
Psychoanalysis is the only approach where analysts-in-training are required to receive personal analysis, 4 or 5 times per week for a number of years. In contrast, trainees need not receive personal psychotherapy to earn an M.D. in Psychiatry, a Ph.D. in Psychology or an M.S,W. in Social Work from most universities. Because of the rigorous training required, there are only a few psychoanalysts in the Madison area who have graduated from Institutes sponsored by the American Psychoanalytic Association. During her training Dr. Garrity received personal psychoanalysis 4/times per week.

Many people seek Psychotherapy and are Helped:
At least one out of four people in the U.S. has been in psychotherapy. You are not alone. According to the American Psychological Association, 9 out of 10 Americans surveyed said that psychotherapy had helped them. One study found that 50% of the patients made some improvement after only 8 sessions, and 75% after 6 months.

Supervision and Training for Mental Health Professionals:
Supervision in psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy is available to Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other qualified mental health professionals. Supervision is focused on learning to identify the diagnostic or psychodynamic formulation of the patient, the patient's transference, enactment, and projective-identification patterns, and the therapist's countertransference reactions. Group supervision may be arranged.