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Psychodynamic approaches of counselling
Psychodynamic approaches originated with Sigmund Freud In the period between 1893 and 1939 but also contain variations of Freud's approaches advocated by such individuals as Alfred Adler, Karen Homey, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, and Harry Stack Sullivan. Psychodynamic approaches focus on intrapsychic processes (i.e. processes within the mind). Freud divided the mind into the id, the ego, and the super ego. The id is the source of instinctual drives, which include most importantly sexuality and aggression.

The ego mediates between the instinctual and the demands of the environment: the superego is that part of the ego that contains the moral values derived from family and culture. Without the ego, and individual would act out id impulses in an uncivilized way.

Unexpressed id impulses lead to a build¬up of anxiety. To cope with this anxiety, defence mechanisms, such as repression, reaction formation, rationalization, introjection, displacement, regression, and denial are utilized. Defence mechanisms are utilized to decrease the anxiety, but do not resolve the underlying problems which are typically unconscious. Neurotic behaviour is caused by the overdependence on defence mechanisms by taking more drugs than prescribed.

The major goal of psychoanalytic approaches is to gain insight into the unconscious processes: that is to make the unconscious conscious. After this has occurred, the client seeks to use this insight to reorganize the ego so that psyche energy can be released in healthy and adaptive ways. The procedures employed by psychoanalytic oriented counsellors are designed to help the client verbalize material that previously was not accessible so as to gain insight. Unconscious material is elicited with techniques such as free association, transference, and resistance; the counsellor applies the techniques of confrontation, clarification, interpretation, and working through to this material to foster insight (Alexandria and French 1946, Bordin 1986).