Bondi Junction Psychotherapy, Amanda Dowd

I am a Jungian Psychoanalyst and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist who has been in private practice in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney for over 20 years. I trained in Australia with The Australian and New Zealand Society of Jungian Analysts (ANZSJA), am a member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and am registered with PACFA (the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia).

I offer psychotherapy and psychoanalysis to both individuals and couples who are experiencing emotional difficulties and distress which interfere with their capacity to engage positively with life and relationships.

I also offer clinical supervision for therapists, psychologists and counsellors who are seeking to deepen their engagement with psychotherapeutic work and learn something of the Jungian and post-Jungian intersubjective and psychodynamic approach. Please feel free to contact me to discuss this.

I have lectured both in Australia and internationally at clinical conferences in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth, San Francisco, Montreal, Cardiff, Zurich and, most recently in St Petersburg. I have published widely and my new book, Placing Psyche: Exploring Cultural Complexes in Australia, jointly co-edited with Craig San Roque and David Tacey, was published recently by Spring Journal Books.

I specialise in:

• Anxiety, Depression;
• Traumatic life events, Post-traumatic Stress, Panic attacks;
• Disturbance of a Sense of Self, Identity issues;
• Relationship issues, Sexuality;
• Grief and Loss;
• Post-natal Depression, Fertility issues, Miscarriage, Peri-natal Loss, Parenting;
• Loss of Self-Agency, Low Self-Esteem;
• Disturbance in Body Image, Eating Disorders, Self-harm;
• Dream Work, Nightmares, Sleep Disturbance;
• Migration, Change of Place and Feeling 'out of place';
• Lack of Fulfilment and Meaning
• Repeating Patterns of Illness;
• Life Direction / Repeating life Patterns;
• Self-development, Creativity and Creative ‘Blocks’.

About Jungian Analysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Jungian psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy together offer an holistic approach to understanding our lives and the world in which we live. A Jungian and post-Jungian approach has a deep respect for the uniqueness of the individual, for the wisdom of the psyche, for the purposive nature of both dreams and symptoms and for the importance of creativity and imagination. I have an ecological approach which recognises that we are relational beings and that we are always situated within a particular social, environmental and cultural context.

I draw on a range of theoretical and clinical influences and work with dreams to assist clients in understanding and working through emotional distress and loss, interpersonal conflicts and confusions, life changes and uncertainties. A Jungian and post-Jungian approach is applicable to individuals, couples, families and groups because it places the relationship with and understanding of one's 'self' at the centre of understanding one's relationships with others and relationships between ourselves and the world. It rests on two assumptions: that our unconscious life profoundly affects and interferes with our conscious intent and that the integration of disavowed aspects of self supports the development of the personality towards greater self-fulfilment and engagement with life. Once acknowledged and related to, our unconscious life can potentially enrich and expand our conscious awareness and become a source of creative renewal and meaning making.

People come into psychotherapy because they feel that their relationship with themselves and others is out of kilter in some way. They may feel anxious and/or depressed, feel a lack of meaningfulness or purpose in life, feel confused about relationships or life path, find themselves in a difficult situation, or perhaps feel stuck or blocked or can’t sleep. Some people come into therapy because of unsettling or frightening dreams or repeating dream ‘themes’ or because they have had a powerful dream experience which they wish to understand. Others come into therapy because they have a feeling that something is ‘wrong’ or ‘not quite right’ but can’t put their finger on it. Or it might be that there has been a traumatic life event, such as a significant loss or shock that cannot be overcome, or a migration experience. Many people also seek therapy because they have begun to recognise patterns that repeat, or because they have recognised that their relationship with their body and/or with food is disturbed in some way, or because they have noticed recurring or unexplained physical symptoms, or suffer from chronic physical or mental illness. Many people seek therapy because of anxieties and confusions about ‘who’ they are.

I offer a safe, supportive and confidential environment in which the unconscious patterns that structure our perceptions of self and other and hence our relationships, and the meanings that we make of them, can be discovered and reflected upon.

As the bindings of past experience loosen, this opens the way to greater freedom, more choice and self-change.

Dreams

What we call ‘dreams’ are remembered manifestations of the highly associative, figurative and symbolic processes of the mind. In fact we are always ‘dreaming’ because this is what the mind does but this process occurs below the level of consciousness. Occasionally, however, a dream can be recalled upon waking. The rational mind can have difficulty taking dreams seriously because their symbolic language is not readily understood and so dreams are often discarded and de-valued as being ‘nothing but..’.

Unlike Freud, who understood dreams as being essentially wish fulfilments and who felt that there was always something ‘hidden’ or disguised in a dream, particularly a repressed sexual wish, Jung felt that dreams were symbolic and he came to understand a dream as being ‘a spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form, of the actual situation in the unconscious’ – a portrayal that both describes the unconscious psychic situation as it is at that time and also points towards its resolution. Jung also felt that dreams are nearly always compensatory, that is that they compensate for an overly one-sided (narrow) conscious attitude towards ourselves and others. Dreams, therefore, offer a unique ‘window’ into our unconscious life and, if related to and understood, open up the possibility for reconciliation between our often conflicting conscious and unconscious attitudes, beliefs and desires. This can lead to deeper self-awareness and freedom as the dreaming process can become a rich source for greater meaningfulness in life.

A Jungian approach to dreams always seeks to understand the dream within the dreamer’s own context – there is no formulaic ‘interpretation’, rather dreams have many levels of possible meaning which may continue to unfold as the process of therapy – and life – continues.
Some people come into therapy with dreams that are deeply affecting and/or troubling without knowing why. Some people begin to remember their dreams once they have begun their therapy and there are many people who do not remember their dreams clearly at all. If you do not remember your dreams this is in no way an impediment to a meaningful therapeutic experience.

Fees

Fees for psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and supervision are negotiated privately with each client. I offer a limited number of low-fee places in my practice. Private health insurance refunds may be available.


Skype

Psychotherapy and Clinical Supervision sessions via Skype are available for clients who live out of Sydney.


Links

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Jungian Analysts (ANZSJA) www.anzsja.org.au
The International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP) http://www.iaap.org
Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) http://www.pacfa.org.au