About My Practice

Dr. Linda I. Garrity is a licensed Ph.D. Cinical Psychologist and a Certified Psychoanalyst. She has provided psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for the last 21 years to residents of Madison, Wisconsin and surrounding areas. Her extensive experience with both psychotherapy and psychoanalysis enables her to offer clients a variety of treatment options.

Dr. Garrity completed a 9-year post-doctoral training program in Psychoanalysis in 2000 at one of the best training programs in the U.S, The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago, IL. After graduating she attained Certification as a Psychoanalyst from The American Psychoanalytic Association. She was appointed as a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst by both the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Institute and The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, is a Faculty member at both Institutes, and has taught classes to psychoanalysts-in-training.

As a Clinical Associate Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School's Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Garrity has been supervising advanced psychiatric residents in psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy helps you understand the sources of your unhappiness and self-destructive behaviors in two important ways: by identifying patterns of behavior and expectations that you have experienced during your life; and by re-experiencing childhood feelings and uncovering unconscious memories and negative expectations of yourself and others. Your emotional life, how you experience yourself and others, is key. If feelings are painful, they may be deeply buried by various compulsive or dissociative behaviors. Identifying the defenses and behavior patterns you have developed to protect yourself from emotional pain with the help of a trustworthy therapist usually makes it easier to re-experience these feelings. The expression of painful emotion during therapy, for most patients, is followed by a feeling of relief and greater understanding.

As you allow yourself to open up in therapy, unconscious sources of difficulty gradually appear in repetitive patterns of behavior, in dreams, and in observations you make. Aspects of your mind emerge that often are not accessible by other methods, including friends and family, self-help books, and personal determination. This approach is based on some psychoanalytic principles but is not as emotionally intense or deep as psychoanalysis. At the end of therapy you should have a better sense of who you are, how others perceive you, of the areas you need to improve and the steps to achieve this.

Sessions are typically held once or twice per week to allow time to explore the underlying patterns beneath the day-to-day problems which also must be addressed (using a cognitive-behavioral approach). You may be limited by the number of sessions allowed by your health insurance plan, sometimes 15 to 20 sessions per calendar year. Many patients are able to achieve satisfying results within that time frame. Dr. Garrity attempts to achieve the greatest emotional depth possible in the time frame available. Her extensive training in psychoanalysis enables her to more quickly diagnose and treat psychotherapy patients compared to the majority of therapists who do not have rigorous psychoanalytic training.

Typical Symptoms:

• Low Self-Esteem, Lack of Assertiveness
• Anxiety, Insecurity, Fear of Rejection
• Depression, Loneliness, Isolation
• Fear of Emotional Intimacy, Closeness, and Trusting Others
• Phobias, Panic Attacks, Compulsive, Repetitive Thoughts
• Inability to Sustain Feelings of Pleasure or Happiness
• Lack of Goals, Difficulty in Concentrating or feeling Motivated
• Relationship Sexual and Communication Problems
• Self-Destructive Patterns, Repeated Failures in Work or Love
• Dysfunctional Family, Victim of Emotional/Physical Abuse

Years in Practice

Education

• PhD, Clinical Psychology
  
• Certified Psychoanalyst, Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis
  

Professional Affiliations

• American Psychoanalytic Association
  
• American Psychological Association
  
• Faculty,Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysisc Society
  
• Faculty, Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Institute
  

Gender

Prescribe Medications

Accepting New Clients

Insurance Accepted

Sliding Scale?

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