The value of a psychodynamic approach in the managed care setting

The managed care setting presents significant challenges to all psychotherapists. Psychodynamic therapists, however, experience specific difficulties in this environment. Despite managed care's general hostility toward psychodynamic theory and practice, psychodynamic therapists provide unique and significant opportunities for patients. Psychodynamic training, with its emphasis on careful evaluation, exploration of unconscious conflict, transference and countertransference, and other therapeutic phenomena, enables clinicians to provide an invaluable service to managed care organizations. The case of K., a 45-year-old man, is used to illustrate the ways in which psychodynamic elements of a brief treatment contributed to a successful outcome. The importance of including psychodynamic treatment in managed care settings is discussed.