Horizon Therapy practitioners in Toronto and online across Ontario use a strong mix of therapy modalities, including Relational and Psychodynamic Therapy (RPT). We are here to support your unique mental health needs and provide you with tools to meet the challenges you are facing in your life. Relational Psychodynamic therapy helps with a wide range of mental health needs including depression, low self esteem, relationships issues, trauma recovery, and anxiety, stress, and burnout.
What Is Relational Psychodynamic Therapy?
Relational psychodynamic therapy is an approach that grew out of the relational psychoanalysis movement in the 1980s. Instead of seeing people driven only by internal forces, it views us as profoundly shaped by our relationships. The idea is simple: we grow, heal, and sometimes get hurt through connection with others, so therapy itself becomes a relationship where healing can happen.
Relational and psychodynamic psychotherapy is generally drawn from a mixture of: self psychology, intersubjectivity theory, relational psychoanalysis, psychodynamic developmental theory, attachment theory, trauma theory, and feminist theories of psychotherapy.
Here are its basic principles:
Connection
Our emotional health is deeply tied to the quality of the relationships we have and the sense of mutual connection they offer. As humans we are wired for connection, and our emotional well-being depends on it.
Past & Present
Emotional distress often comes from painful or limiting relational experiences from both the past and the present. This may be as a result of attachment ruptures with primary caregivers, or how we were or were not responded to when we experienced various challenges or trauma. These experiences can wear us down impacting our sense of self, mental health, and security in relationships.
Attunement
Healing happens in a safe, genuine, emotionally attuned relationship. A relational therapist aims to understand how clients experience themselves in all aspects of their lives, and responds with empathy and authenticity.
A New Relationship
The therapist and client work together to build a meaningful therapeutic relationship that feels supportive, strengthening, and enlivening.
Re-experiencing & Healing
In the safety of this relationship, clients can revisit the impact of harmful or limiting relationships, and gradually loosen the hold those experiences have had on their lives.
What Might Happen in the Room?
Relational therapy often focuses on the relationship itself as a tool for growth. Your therapist may help you explore patterns from early relationships or as they appear in the moment, invite you to experiment with new ways of relating, or help repair moments of tension. These experiences can feel vulnerable, but they offer a safe space to try something different and notice how it affects you.
Techniques may include concepts from neurobiology or co-regulation (helping your nervous system settle through connection), exploring different perspectives together, or using role play and imagined dialogues to practice new relational movements. Therapists may also work with free association, transference and countertransference, and dream material.
Throughout the process, you might hear questions like, “Does this feel familiar?” or “What was it like to say that to me?” These inquiries invite insight and deeper emotional experience, highlighting the belief that healing unfolds most powerfully within relationships.
Relational psychodynamic therapy in Toronto & across Ontario
What Does Relational Psychodynamic Therapy Help With?
Relational psychodynamic therapy offers an opportunity to explore relational patterns, create deeper and more meaningful relationships, and find a more secure sense of self as you grow and heal.
- Depression
- Anxiety & Chronic Stress
- Relationship Challenges
- Childhood Emotional Wounds
- Attachment Wounds or Insecurity
- Boundaries
- People Pleasing
- Relational Trauma
- Identity and Self Worth
- Feeling Disconnected from Oneself or Life
RPT Therapy | Toronto, ON
What's Possible Through Relational Psychodynamic Therapy?
Relational therapy uses the therapeutic relationship to support and strengthen a person’s sense of self, increasing confidence and overall well-being. This approach also recognizes how power dynamics and social factors such as race, class, culture, gender and sexuality shapes one’s experiences, and works with these influences as they appear in life and the therapy room.
- Feeling more grounded and emotionally aware
- Developing a stronger, more cohesive sense of self
- Becoming more compassionate toward themselves
- Feeling more secure and confident in relationships
- Healing from past relational wounds
- Expressing emotions more freely
- Understanding and changing recurring patterns
- Cultivating deeper more nourishing connections
Relational and Psychodynamic therapy in Toronto & Across Ontario
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Relational Psychodynamic Therapy different than CBT?
Unlike more structured approaches, relational therapy is not focused on advice-giving but on exploring how you relate to yourself and others, including the influence of past experiences and unconscious motivations. While CBT works by examining and changing thought patterns, relational therapy focuses less on symptom management and more on deeper patterns, unconscious motivations, and the therapist-client relationship as a tool for change. It invites you to try new ways of connecting and responding so your relationships, patterns, and sense of self can evolve in more authentic and sustainable ways.
Will I just be talking about my past?
Past experiences are explored, but therapy also focuses on how you relate in the present, including your relationship with the therapist, to create lasting change. Therapy will also focus on your goals, working towards where you want to be in your future.
Why do I repeat the same relationship patterns?
Many people unconsciously repeat relationship patterns because of early experiences, attachment styles, or learned coping strategies. These patterns may feel familiar, even if they cause conflict or dissatisfaction. Relational therapy helps you identify these cycles, understand their origins, and develop new, healthier ways of connecting with others.
How can relational therapy help with trust and emotional closeness?
Relational therapy focuses on understanding patterns in how you connect with others and how past experiences shape current relationships. It helps partners or individuals recognize barriers to trust, communicate needs safely, and repair emotional disconnects. By exploring attachment styles and emotional responses, relational therapy can deepen intimacy and strengthen bonds over time.
Who is Psychodynamic Relational therapy not suitable for?
Relational and psychodynamic therapy is generally safe and effective for most people, but there are some situations where it may not be the best first-line approach:
Severe crisis situations – If someone is in immediate danger of self-harm, experiencing active psychosis, or in a severe mental health emergency, short-term crisis interventions or medical stabilization are needed first.
Need for rapid symptom relief – Those seeking immediate strategies for acute anxiety, panic attacks, or compulsive behaviors may benefit more initially from therapies like CBT, DBT, or medication while using psychodynamic approaches as a complementary tool.
Difficulty engaging in reflective work – Psychodynamic therapy requires willingness to explore thoughts, feelings, and relational patterns. Someone who struggles with insight or consistent engagement may find slower progress.
Cognitive limitations – People with significant cognitive impairments that affect memory, attention, or verbal communication may find it challenging to engage fully in the process.
Why am I attracted to the same type of partner repeatedly?
Repeated attraction patterns often reflect unconscious needs or unresolved issues from past relationships, attachment issues, and adverse childhood experiences. Psychodynamic and relational therapy explore these patterns, helping you understand why certain traits feel familiar and how to make conscious choices for healthier relationships.
Why do relationships trigger strong emotions for me?
Intense emotional reactions in relationships can be linked to attachment needs, past trauma, or unmet emotional expectations. Therapy provides tools to recognize triggers, regulate emotions, and respond in ways that support connection rather than escalation.
Why do I feel like my current relationships repeat patterns from my past?
Psychodynamic therapy highlights how early life experiences and unconscious beliefs influence present relationships. You may notice recurring conflicts, attachment struggles, or emotional reactions that mirror earlier experiences. Therapy helps uncover these unconscious patterns, giving you insight and tools to create healthier, more conscious relationships.
Do I need to be in therapy for years?
Every person’s journey is different. Some notice insights and emotional relief within a few sessions, while deeper, long-standing patterns often take longer to explore and shift. Psychodynamic therapy is typically longer-term to allow deeper exploration, but meaningful growth and understanding can occur in shorter periods as well. The more consistently you engage, the more opportunity there is to rewire patterns, grow and bring healing to your core self and relationships.
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Therapists that Use Relational Psychodynamic Therapy
Horizon Therapy | Toronto, ON
How To Get Started
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