Dr Patricia Hunter is a psychologist and psychoanalyst.
She likes to listen and learn from her patients. She is especially interested in listening for feelings, because
feelings are information, and critical to our survival. Talking to another person allows someone to feel more intensely than they could on their own. She also feels strongly that aging is not a disease, but instead an accomplishment. She encourages creativity in the face of it.
Dr Hunter believes that dreams are information too, and encourages her patients to remember their dreams, and to talk about them in session. She believes that dreams tell us about hidden parts of ourselves that operate beyond our awareness, so that we can know ourselves better, appreciate how incredibly complex we are, and have more compassion for ourselves. It goes without saying that this helps us, ideally, to have more compassion for the people around us as well. She truly believes 'we are all connected.'
Originally trained in CBT and later psychoanalysis, she is also familiar with IFS (Internal Family Systems) and EMDR. She teaches and supervises candidates at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, and previously taught at the Suffolk Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
Dr Hunter believes that therapy is team work. She will ask you how you feel about the sessions, what seems to be working, what might be turning you off, how can therapy be better, what you might want more of, or less of, and always, what is "just right!!" She will encourage you to celebrate yourself and your accomplishments. Therapy is not only there
because you are in pain, although often that is what motivates people to go to therapy originally. Therapy is there to help you grow, and to grow strong, and over time, to transform your pain into insight, and your passions, and your joys, into action.
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“While many of us work hard to earn the right to be comfortable and avoid challenge in later adulthood, this strategy runs the risk of sending our brains the message that they no longer need to keep growing this is the worst message you can give to an organ of adaptation.”
People can get down on themselves as they age, and develop bad habits that become ingrained. Self-statements like "I am no longer attractive" - "I have no memory anymore" - "It's hell to get old."- "I am no longer sexy"- "I have nothing to look forward to but death." can start out a little bit at a time and build on themselves until you become them! And this is unnecessary in this day and age of modern medical miracles. These statements can be modified by speaking with someone who 'gets' you, and eventually helps you, to understand yourself. Dream work and EMDR can awaken your mind, and your unconscious can begin to dream new dreams and become more supple, more creative, more energized. Yes it's true that we slow down a little as we age, and I am not suggesting we stop the process, but rather grow and flourish through it. How we think about ourselves make a gigantic difference in how we conduct our lives. Let's help you to develop new ways of thinking, and behaving, that empower you and help you master your environment, rather than letting the negative prejudices undermine your attitude. In doing so you can transform your present and future, whether it involves days, years, or decades.