Individual Psychoanalytic Therapy in Oakland, CA and Online
Explore yourself more deeply in a space where insight and connection allow for real change
Making sense of yourself, your choices, and your path forward.
You Don’t Have to Stay Stuck
You may find yourself repeating painful patterns, struggling with an inner critic that won’t quiet down, or feeling like something is missing, even if you can’t quite name what. Even when you try to make sense of it, something still doesn’t quite add up.
You might wonder:
- Why do I keep ending up in the same situations?
- What’s holding me back in ways I don’t fully understand?
- Will I ever feel more at home in my own life?
Psychoanalytic therapy offers a space to explore these questions—not for quick solutions, but for a deeper understanding that can lead to lasting transformation.
A Space to Become More Fully Yourself
Therapy is an invitation—to slow down, turn inward, and listen. To make space for the parts of yourself that have been unheard or unseen. Through this process, transformation happens—not by force, but by allowing yourself to unfold in new and unexpected ways.
Hi, I’m Dr. Elizabeth Stuart—you can call me Elizabeth. I’m a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, based in Oakland, offering insightful, depth-oriented therapy for those navigating emotional and life challenges. In our work together, we make sense of your experiences in a way that allows new possibilities to emerge. Therapy with me is a space to explore your complexity—not to solve it, but to sit with it together, with curiosity and care.
Therapy That Creates Room for Change
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy offers something deeper. Instead of just managing symptoms, it helps you discover hidden emotions, beliefs, and conflicts that keep you stuck—so that you can experience meaningful shifts, not just momentary relief.
Through this process, you can:
- Feel more at home in yourself, rather than lost in overthinking or self-doubt.
- Stop repeating painful relationship patterns and build more fulfilling connections.
- Understand your emotions more fully—not just intellectually, but in a way that creates real change.
- Develop greater self-compassion by exploring the parts of yourself you’ve pushed aside.
If this resonates, we can explore whether this approach feels right for you.
Breaking Free from What Holds You Back
How I Work: A Psychoanalytic Approach
Maybe you’ve already thought a lot about your struggles, but understanding them hasn’t led to the kind of change you’re hoping for.
Often, the parts of us that hold the most power operate outside of awareness.
In therapy, we work together to make space for the thoughts and emotions that might not yet have been put into words. This process unfolds at its own pace, allowing what has been buried or overlooked to come into focus—sometimes in ways that surprise you. Over time, this deeper exploration can lead to meaningful shifts in how you relate to yourself and others.
Making Space for the Whole of You
It’s a privilege to sit with so many different people, each with their own stories, histories, and ways of moving through the world.
Who you are—your experiences, identities, and the forces that have shaped you—matters here.
Oppression is real. The world does not treat all identities equally. Systems of power have used race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion to control, exclude, and erase. The pain of these injustices—both immediate and carried across generations—is not just external. It can seep into your sense of self, making you question your worth, your belonging, or whether your voice matters.
In therapy, there is space for all of it. For the parts of you that have felt unseen. For the questions you’re still untangling. For the ways the world has both shaped and wounded you. I want to hear your story—not just the parts you’ve learned to share, but the ones that feel harder to name.
What Makes Psychoanalytic Therapy Different?
Shedler,Jonathan. “The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Therapy.” apa.org, February – March 2010
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-65-2-98.pdf
Therapy isn’t just about thinking through problems—it’s about feeling them in a way that brings clarity and freedom. You might understand something logically but still feel stuck. That’s where deeper emotional work begins.
In therapy, we pay close attention to these moments. This isn’t about indulging in anxiety spirals or following despair endlessly. Instead, it’s about noticing what truly matters to you—the tiniest irritations, the longings you barely acknowledge, the anger or sadness that feels inconvenient to express. Deep change happens not through intellectual insight alone, but through an emotional experience of understanding.
What shapes us most isn’t always what we know—it’s what we don’t yet see. Are there things you find yourself pushing away? Sometimes, what we avoid carries more meaning than we realize. In therapy, I listen for these silences, noticing what remains unsaid and why.
Avoidance can take many forms:
- Brushing off discomfort.
- Dismissing your feelings.
- Staying stuck in over-analysis rather than experiencing what’s underneath.
- Keeping yourself busy to distract from deeper feelings.
Have you noticed familiar struggles surfacing in your relationships or patterns in your life? Together, we can explore where they come from and why they keep appearing. These patterns often have roots in early experiences and unconscious expectations about ourselves and others.
Our past is alive inside of us, shaping how we see ourselves, how we relate to others, and how we experience the world. This doesn’t mean therapy is about endlessly rehashing childhood memories. But whatever painful experiences you are having now are very likely connected to experiences from your past. In order to feel freed up and able to live more fully, we need to make sense of these connections.
What do you notice about yourself in relationships?
Do you tend to hold back, unsure of how to express what you really need? Do you find yourself replaying the same conflicts, even when you try to do things differently? Or maybe you struggle with trust, uncertain if others will meet you with the care and understanding you need.
Together, we’ll explore how you experience connection—your hopes, fears, and the patterns that shape your relationships. We’ll look at how early experiences, culture, and the world around you have influenced the way you relate to others and see yourself. With deeper understanding, new possibilities for closeness and fulfillment can emerge.
What happens between us in therapy can offer a rare glimpse into the way you experience connection, trust, and vulnerability in the rest of your life.
The way we relate to others is shaped by early experiences—patterns that continue into adulthood, often without us realizing it. The therapy relationship offers a rare opportunity to notice and explore these dynamics in real-time, within a safe and contained space. By paying attention to what unfolds between us, we gain insight into the deeper emotional currents shaping your relationships, opening new possibilities for connection and trust.
Psychoanalytic therapy isn’t driven by worksheets or predetermined outcomes. Our sessions are open-ended, inviting you to share whatever is on your mind—even the things that feel small or disconnected. Our sessions are open-ended, allowing space for anything on your mind—even the thoughts that seem small or disconnected.
Over time, this process allows deeper parts of yourself to emerge. Desires, fears, fantasies, dreams, and memories —some of which you may have never fully articulated before—become available for exploration. In therapy, there is room for all of it.
How Can I Support You?
Therapy is a space where you don’t have to hold everything alone. My role isn’t to give you quick answers, but to help you listen more deeply—to the emotions beneath the surface, the patterns that keep repeating, and the parts of yourself that may have been overlooked.
In our work together, therapy becomes more than a place to talk—it’s a space where change takes shape.
As we make sense of your experiences, you may begin to feel less weighed down by self-doubt, less caught in the same old struggles, and more able to move through life with clarity and self-trust. Over time, what once felt stuck can start to shift, opening up new ways of relating to yourself and the world around you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Psychoanalytic therapy is a form of depth psychology that aims to explore unconscious thoughts, feelings, and experiences influencing a person’s behavior. Through regular sessions, individuals gain insight into their internal conflicts, leading to personal growth and symptom relief.
Unlike some therapies that focus on immediate problem-solving, psychoanalytic therapy delves into the underlying causes of emotional difficulties. It emphasizes understanding the influence of past experiences and unconscious processes on present behavior, fostering deep and lasting change.
This type of therapy can be helpful for people struggling with persistent emotional pain, self-doubt, relationship difficulties, or a sense of being stuck. It is particularly well-suited for those seeking not just coping strategies but a deeper understanding of themselves and lasting change.
Sessions typically involve discussing whatever comes to mind, including thoughts, feelings, memories, and dreams. This free association allows unconscious material to surface, which the therapist and client can explore together to gain insight into underlying issues.
The length of therapy varies. Some people engage in therapy for several months to work through a specific challenge, while others choose to continue for years, deepening their self-understanding and emotional growth. There’s no fixed timeline—progress happens in a way that feels right for each person.
Many people find this approach transformative, not only in reducing distress but in expanding self-awareness, deepening relationships, and feeling more at home in their own lives. Research shows that the benefits of psychoanalytic therapy often continue even after therapy ends, as the insights gained can have a lasting impact.
If you’re seeking to understand the deeper roots of your thoughts and behaviors and are interested in a comprehensive approach to personal growth, psychoanalytic therapy may be suitable for you. Consulting with a qualified psychoanalytic therapist can help determine if this approach aligns with your needs.
