Psychoanalytic Diagnosis 3

 Given your symptom based diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder your PCP or your Psychiatrist will decide which antidepressant medication would be best for reducing your painful symptoms and will prescribe that medication for you. They will hopefully also refer you to a mental health professional for counseling or psychotherapy ( Your psychiatrist IS a mental health professional and my offer you psychotherapy and/or medication.) So let's say your PCP or Psychiatrist prescribes you the anti depressant drug Lexapro and refers you to me for psychotherapy. When you come to see me for your first session I will also learn about your symptoms and I will also conclude that you are suffering from Major Depressive Disorder. I then offer you some version of Talk Therapy. If I practice a version of talk therapy that seeks to reduce your symptoms directly, as does the medicine prescribed by your doctor, I need not think about your diagnosis much further. You are depressed and my treatment of you seeks to reduce your painful symptoms and help them go away. For instance, we might work on your feelings of worthlessness by seeing if they are really true or are they based in your distorted feelings about yourself. Do others feel this way about you? Has your life history demonstrated that you are worthless? Over time such an attack on your irrational feelings about yourself will hopefully cause them to abate. This approach applies to your other symptoms as well. This approach is called supportive therapy for which there are many types, including CBT ( Cognitive Behavorial Tberapy.)

1Natalie Melton