Mateusz Lesman
Psychotherapist
Psychodynamic psychotherapy
Individual Psychology (A. Adler)
Individual psychological psychotherapy focuses, on the one hand, on your life story with all its conscious and unconscious dimensions. On the other hand, it is about how earlier experiences manifest in the therapeutic relationship. This allows them to be recognized, discussed, and ultimately changed.
Individual Psychology & Psychoanalysis
Individual Psychology was founded by Alfred Adler (1870–1937). It engages in dialogue with other psychoanalytic schools and shares the following core assumptions:
- Experiences are not only processed consciously, but also continue to have an unconscious impact shaping how we experience the world and how we live our lives.
- Shaped by our personal history, we develop an individual readiness to respond: we often don’t see things as they are, but as we are used to seeing them, and we react accordingly. In doing so, we repeat familiar patterns that may feel known and safe, yet can also limit us.
- Life confronts us with conflicting demands and unmet needs, such as the longing for safety and connection which are often rooted in past or present relational experiences. These tensions can give rise to inner conflicts, attempts at compromise, or psychological deficits, which may eventually manifest as symptoms and emotional distress. Every symptom, then, carries an individual cause or function.
At the same time, Individual Psychology has expanded psychoanalytic theory with its own concepts. Particularly relevant today are the feelings of inferiority and the related mechanisms of overcompensation, which can manifest in the pursuit of unattainable goals, ideals, or power.
How Change Becomes Possible
Therapy means experiencing safety and emotional holding through an empathetic other person, even in relation to parts of oneself that feel shameful, fearful, or aggressive. Under these conditions, change begins with understanding one’s current suffering, its meaning, and the inner connections that sustain it.
At the same time, attention turns to what repeats itself within the therapeutic relationship: familiar or unconscious patterns and expectations, internal attitudes, and conflicts. Interpreting these dynamics and working through them emotionally makes it possible to perceive oneself and the world in a more nuanced way, and to acknowledge both one's freedoms and one's limitations.