I am an ISTDP therapist.  This is an intensive therapy created by Dr Habib Davanloo and Dr David Malan who researched the approach by analysing video recordings of many clients.  More on the research behind it can be found at https://www.istdp.org.uk/research/ .

ISTDP works at a profoundly experiential level as therapist and client work together to experience warded off feelings in a new way and it is this direct experience of being you that can be transformational where you haven’t had that contact with yourself, your feelings before. 

We are all a product of our up bringing and how we adapted at a young age enabled us to survive but as an adult our adaptations can be self- defeating and largely outside our awareness. Feelings that are important can get muted or lost in the process of surviving difficult situations and we can lose our all -important connection to ourselves.  We can get stuck re-living parts of the past instead of finding out who we are and what we need now.