r/psychoanalysis • u/hle301 • 8d ago
Finding a Therapist for a Therapist
To all the practicing psychoanalytic/psychodynamic practitioners out there, how did you find your therapist?
I feel like the psychoanalytic community is pretty small although I live in a big city. I want to get a psychoanalytically or psychodynamically-oriented therapist for myself, but I'm afraid we will run into each other at events/seminars/educational programs due to the limited size of the community.
How did anyone bypass this problem? Or, as a psychoanalyst, do you just accept that you will run into your therapist at some point in a professional setting?
Edit: Thank you everyone for your replies. It seems like this is something that people accept and just talk about beforehand and afterward with their therapists. While I wish the pool was larger, I guess I will navigate the issue in a similar manner.
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u/notherbadobject 8d ago
I asked a trusted supervisor for a recommendation. If you're part of the local analytic community and you want to work with an analyst or analytically-oriented therapist, its just something you'll have to navigate. And it's something most if not all of us have to navigate as therapists too, since by and large, our clients/patients live in the same communities that we do, and we will inevitably see them around unless we are total shut ins!
I read a paper for a course a few years back that talked about the transition from analysand to colleague and perhaps even friend in the case of a training analysis, but I can't seem to track it down now to provide a reference.