Agoraphobia Treatment Options

Alternative Treatment for Agoraphobia – Part 1: Psychodynamic (or Insight) Therapy

If you have agoraphobia, psychodynamic therapy (commonly called insight therapy) can either help you make a major breakthrough or turn out to be an expensive trap. Insight therapy has not been proven by research to be as effective as most cognitive-behavioral approaches. Despite this, some therapists practice it and consider it effective. If you are going to try insight therapy, it's good to know something about it first.

Insight therapy comes from Freudian Psychoanalysis which was popular in the early 20th century. In this type of therapy, the patient talks at length about his or her thought and feelings, and the therapist analyzes them. The goal of insight therapy is to figure out the deeper reason behind why you are suffering from a particular psychological disorder. In the case of agoraphobia, the goal would be to figure out what about your life is behind all the fear.

Before you go to a therapist, it might be worth it to try to figure out what is behind your fear on your own. Ultimately, the answer will need to come from you, with or without the help of a therapist. Therapists are trained to help you figure it out if you can't do it on your own.