Psychiatric treatment
Dr McKensey specialises in psychodynamic psychiatry
Psychiatrists are medical doctors with specialist training in understanding psychological and emotional difficulties. Their training allows them to consider a person’s difficulties from both medical and psychological perspectives, including the role of physical health, medication, life experiences, relationships and individual circumstances.
Dr McKensey’s particular approach is to understand these different elements within the context of the person as a whole. Diagnosis and medication can be useful, but do not always explain why someone is struggling or what may be needed for meaningful change. This is particularly important when difficulties are complex, longstanding, or have not responded to more conventional approaches.
Dr Andrew McKensey has completed six years of intensive training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, an in-depth, relationship-based form of treatment. It is particularly suited to people wanting to understand longstanding difficulties and recurring patterns in their lives, rather than focusing only on relieving symptoms.
The work is based on the understanding that our ways of thinking, feeling and relating develop for reasons, often in response to important relationships and experiences throughout life. Through the therapeutic relationship, these patterns can gradually become better understood, creating the possibility for deeper and more enduring change.
Long-term psychotherapy is a significant commitment, usually involving regular sessions over a number of years. Research suggests that for some people, the benefits of psychodynamic psychotherapy can continue to develop after treatment has ended.
Medication can be a useful part of psychiatric treatment, but it is rarely the whole treatment. Dr McKensey considers medication when it may help create the conditions for recovery or psychological change, weighing its potential benefits, limitations and side effects for each individual.
His practice is not primarily focused on medication management. Medication is considered as one part of a broader understanding of a person’s difficulties, alongside their relationships, experiences, circumstances and psychological life.
Where Dr McKensey is providing ongoing psychotherapy, medication may be managed by the person’s GP or another treating psychiatrist, allowing the psychotherapy to remain the primary focus of his work.
Dr McKensey does not provide routine stimulant prescribing or ongoing stimulant medication management.
