Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT): Developing a New Psychodynamic Intervention for the Treatment of Depression

Abstract

This article outlines the development of a manualized, brief (16 session) psychodynamic intervention—Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT)1—for the treatment of depression. DIT is based on a distillation of the evidence-based brief psychoanalytic/psychodynamic treatments pooled together from manualized approaches that were reviewed as part of the competence framework for psychological therapies first commissioned in the United Kingdom by the Department of Health. This article begins with a description of the methodology underpinning the competence framework, followed by an overview of the model, its relevance to depression, and, finally, its strategies and techniques, which are illustrated through a case study. 1DIT is easily confused with Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), because both therapies are interpersonal in their focus. However, IPT is not a psychodynamic therapy and this is reflected in the competences required to deliver it (Lemma, Roth, and Pilling, 2010), which are quite different to the psychoanalytic competences required to deliver DIT.