Psychoanalysis, foremost, is a practice of speaking. It is also, correlatively, a practice of listening. My role as an analyst is to listen carefully, patiently, and attentively, to the world that you speak to me during our sessions. Rather than being a patient on whom I act, you are the agent who reveals yourself to me and to whom I then respond. What will come from psychoanalysis can only be found in the practicing of it, and this is one of the most singularly beneficial aspects of the treatment. There is only one “rule” in psychoanalysis, and that is to say whatever it is that comes to mind; it is in the surprising twists and turns of free association that the unconscious comes to the fore, and it is here that it becomes possible, slowly, to make progress towards extricating oneself from the frustrating repetitions or patterns of behavior into which we all so easily fall. It is my job to help expose and emphasize these ruptures in the service of shepherding your desire and your curiosity.
Lacanian psychoanalysis has its own form of technique that differs from other types of talk therapy. What the Lacanian analyst listens for is breakdowns and/or gaps in speech, as well as repetition of certain themes, sounds, or words. The Lacanian analyst is deeply invested in listening carefully to the speech of the analysand, encouraging, at certain points, the possibility of associating more to a particular word or construction. Lacanian analysis necessarily creates a space where the speech of the subject is foregrounded, eventually allowing the analysand to think through and transform what is revealed when the unconscious breaks through.
I emphasize speech patterns, repeated signifiers, and repeated anxieties over issues surrounding gender, sexuality, and gender identity. My practice is necessarily grounded in my academic background—that is, my backgrounds in philosophy and sexuality studies help support my work in listening with you for your unconscious irruptions.