What Is Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)? ISTDP is an evidence-based, emotion-focused model of psychotherapy developed by Dr. Habib Davanloo, a psychiatrist of Iranian descent who trained and worked for decades at McGill University in Montreal.Frustrated by the length and limited effectiveness of traditional psychoanalysis, Davanloo sought a more direct and efficient way to help people achieve lasting emotional change. Through thousands of recorded sessions, he studied the real-time processes that led to transformation — and those that kept people stuck. Out of this rigorous research, ISTDP emerged as a method that brings unconscious emotional processes into awareness more rapidly and powerfully than traditional approaches.

Unlike therapies that can remain primarily insight- or cognition-based, ISTDP works at the emotional core of symptoms — helping clients identify and experience previously avoided feelings that have been driving anxiety, depression, physical tension, and self-defeating patterns. By addressing these underlying emotions directly, the therapy aims to dissolve the defenses that keep people trapped in repetitive suffering.This approach is often especially helpful for people who have not found relief in previous therapies. Many clients arrive at ISTDP having gained understanding of their issues but still feeling blocked — repeating the same patterns of avoidance, anxiety, or self-criticism. ISTDP focuses on dismantling these unconscious barriers so that deep emotional connection, self-compassion, and lasting change can finally take root.At its core, ISTDP is about helping individuals reclaim their full emotional capacity — freeing the energy once tied up in old conflicts to live with greater vitality, openness, and authenticity.