We are living in a world dominated by the pursuit of achievement and adaptation. Many people are not coping well with the demands that life in this world places on us. They are suffering from depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, success inhibitions, relationship problems, self-sabotaging attitudes and behavior patterns, self-destructive habits or addictions, and severe psychological disorders.
Not only individuals, but also couples, groups or organizations such as companies or social institutions can be dysfunctional. Be it that communication does not work, be it that that they do not reach their goals or realize their full potential, and thus are chronically dissatisfied, blocked and limited.
You need help, someone to show you how you are getting in your own way, and how to find success and satisfaction.
I work with the tools of Psychoanalysis. That is, I use the psychoanalytic knowledge of human development and psychic functioning together with my many years of experience to enable each person seeking my help to better understand himself and to assist him in overcoming his inner invisible barriers.
The psychic mechanisms are also at work in a couple relationship, a group or an organization. That is why the psychoanalytic method can equally help to improve blocked relationships in lovers, insufficient functioning of groups or organizations.
In my psychoanalytic work individuals, couples, groups and organizations, I am always concerned with taking a forward-looking and positive perspective: Yes, we can! YOU can, the couple can, the group and also the organization can, they all can find their personal way to better, more successful and satisfying functioning if they learn to perceive, recognize, confront and deal with their unconscious obstacles and inner counterforces.
This path is not feel-good therapy! It is persistent patient learning, overcoming inner resistances that are inherent in every human being. I consider myself to be your partner, your trainer, your motivating, supporting and sometimes demanding companion on our journey together.
Psychoanalysis is the empirically most validated, most sustainably effective and most transparent method of treatment.
Psychoanalysis is based on the recognition that human beings are motivated by two drives, the sexual drive and the aggressive drive. This drive nature of human beings, which is already inherent in childhood, inevitably leads to complications in human psychological development. We have problems dealing with frustration, we experience guilt and anxiety, we repress our unconscious conflicts and develop symptoms.
Our capacity to love, work and enjoy is inhibited. Depending on the upbringing, these problems may intensify. The result is a lacking capacity to develop freely and to use our energy for our life goals. Unresolved inner conflicts lead to the well-known symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as painful limitations in performance, joy of life, creativity and productivity.
Sigmund Freud said the three pillars of health are working, loving and enjoying. Psychoanalysis has been developed to release the dormant potential in all of us for success in work, love and enjoyment.
If this potential is blocked, you need to engage in a personal learning process, and you need a reliable partner and teacher to guide, accompany and support you in this effort.
This is my main goal when I work with you.
We can understand a psychoanalytical cure as a fascinating journey together, aiming at exploring and getting to know your inner world, discovering your potentials, confronting and overcoming your inner blockages and demons.
Psychoanalysis in its most intensive and effective form is practiced as the so-called “classical” psychoanalytic cure: The patient (analysand) lies on the couch and narrates, freely associating. The analyst sits behind him, listens and feels what is going on inside himself and the patient. He encourages the patient to tell him everything that comes to his mind, and tries to engage the patient in understanding together, what the unconscious meaning of his feelings and dreams is. Analytical sessions last 45 minutes and they take place three to four times a week on different days. Regular fixed times are scheduled.
The classical cure is the most sustainably effective form of psychoanalytic treatment. Depending on the goal of the treatment, it may take years. Former patients, who have undergone analytic treatment, often say today that it has led to profound changes in their lives. They have not only gotten rid of their symptoms, but have developed a new attitude toward life, understand themselves better, feel more alive, more capable and more able to relate to others.
Psychotherapy with the psychoanalytic method takes place in a different setting: The analyst and patient meet once or twice a week for their joint sessions, and they sit vis-à-vis each other.
The method is the same as in classical psychoanalysis, but the joint work usually does not reach as deep, because the repressions and other defenses against unpleasant truths about oneself are less well touched and worked on, and thus the causal conflicts and traumas sometimes cannot be sufficiently resolved.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy is suitable for a broad range of problems and disorders. It sometimes transitions into a classical analysis when therapist and patient agree to intensify the treatment and increase the number of sessions per week.
A special form of psychotherapy is couples therapy: A married or loving couple attends a session of approx. 75 minutes every fortnight, during which the couple’s problems (sexuality, communication, lack of emotional contact, conflicting interests, etc.) are addressed, and better ways of communication and mutual understanding are established.
Psychoanalytic Supervision is the support of specialists (Psychoanalysts, Psychotherapists, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Physicians, Teachers, Lawyers, Social Workers, etc.) with the instruments of the psychoanalytical method.
The Supervisee learns to grasp and better understand the problems of his clients or patients, and to find adequate interventions – words that touch – in order to best help and support them according to their goal.
The thematic focus in supervision lies less on the Supervisee’s own personal problems, but more on the problems of his clients or patients.
Psychoanalytic Coaching is a topic-centered and tailor-made support for executives and experts. Solutions for specific problems are worked out, unconscious blockages of creativity and productivity are processed and overcome with the use of psychoanalytic tools.
Coaching sessions often last two to three sessions in a row and take place at longer intervals (e.g. every two or three weeks).
Managers and leaders learn in Coaching sessions to become aware of their unconscious flaws causing their lack of creativity and productivity, to understand the roots of their faulty management and leadership behavior, to develop new approaches and attitudes, and to function in their daily work in a more relaxed, productive and goal-oriented way.
Teams, groups and organizations may also be inhibited, limited or blocked in fulfilling their tasks by unrecognized conflicts and problems. Psychoanalytic Organizational Consulting aims at detecting and overcoming these often hidden blockages and helping the organization to concentrate its resources and energies optimally on its key mission and issues.
The Organizational Consultant works together with the leadership team in longer sessions (lasting several hours to a full day) at larger intervals (usually once a month), thereby getting to the bottom of the structural, organizational and communicative problems. Together, we work out and resolve the often unconscious and hidden causes and find expedient and effective solutions.
This approach can be combined with Supervision sessions in which the relationship aspects in the leadership team are examined more closely and any paralyzing and destructive conflicts are recognized, spoken out in a safe and empathetic atmosphere, and ultimately worked through and resolved.
Markus Fäh
Prof. Markus Fäh, Ph. D.
Theaterstrasse 4
8001 Zürich
