Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT): Providing a focus for time-limited psychodynamic work in the National Health Service

Abstract

In this paper we outline the experience of our involvement as clinicians in a pilot feasibility study of a new brief psychoanalytically-based protocol – Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy [DIT] (see also Lemma, Target, & Fonagy, this issue). We discuss how the DIT model has helped us to integrate more coherently the brief psychoanalytically-based work we have been doing in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, an area of ethnic diversity and high levels of deprivation. We describe the experience of using standardized outcome measures in a brief psychoanalytic therapy. We also include some case studies of clinical work undertaken using the DIT model.