The Portrait of Madame Récamier, by Jaques Louis David (Napoleon’s court painter) is one of my favorites because she represents enlightenment. She was the owner of a salon, where great thinkers like Voltaire and Diderot came to chat about the enlightened future. She is often pointed to as being a classic representation of The Enlightenment because her hair is loose and easy, her dress in flowing, she is bare armed! and barefoot! Scandalous for this time.
The Portrait of Madame Récamier, by Jaques Louis David (Napoleon’s court painter) is one of my favorites because she represents enlightenment. She was the owner of a Salon, where great thinkers like Voltaire and Diderot came to chat about the enlightened future. She is often pointed to as being a classic representation of The Enlightenment because her hair is loose and easy, her dress in flowing, she is bare armed! and barefoot! Scandalous for this time.
Heidi Goar, LCSW, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
Education
SUNY-Binghamton, MSW, 2017
Training Institute for Mental Health,
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Training & Certificates
EMDR, Big Oak Psychotherapy Training Institute
RLT, Relational Life Institute
IFS, Internal Family Systems Institute
“The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.” —Horace Walpole, 1776
An old teacher and friend of mine used to say this and it was a gentle reminder to me of how delicate we are as human beings. If there is no way to express feelings, or people are made to feel ashamed of them, anxiety or depression can develop, which are natural, but dysfunctional, coping mechanisms. If we are kept from freely expressing our thoughts, we may develop a powerful inner critic that can stand in the way of allowing us to be confident or making decisions in life.
Therapy is the work we do together to reveal feelings and thoughts, where they come from, what they represent, and our various ways of dealing with them. We aim to uncover in us what happened in the past, and remove the sense of “being stuck.” The psychoanalytic approach is a slow peeling of the onion, a gentle pulling back the layers to reveal the sources of the issues that seem to hold us back. The aim of psychoanalysis is to heal by acknowledging that we are thinking and feeling creatures; this is our essence.
Before I became a therapist, I taught college sociology for many years. My social work degree is from SUNY Binghamton, a New York State University and this, coupled with my academic background provides an overall view of how the world and the individual intersect. I have a keen sense of the individual’s place within society, and believe that we are all powerfully effected by these outside forces over which we have little influence or power. Guiding people through this process, helping folks to be aware of this intersection, the process of seeing the impact outside forces have on us, is also part of the work we do together.
I tend to work quietly to observe and uncover the traumas folks report in their lives, large or small. To aid in this work, I sometimes use complimentary methods such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) (click here for more information about this type of trauma therapy), and Internal Family Systems (IFS) (click here for more information about this type of trauma therapy) to help access events of the past. These remarkably innovative therapies, are designed to heal traumas, and fit beautifully with the deeper, more comprehensive work of psychoanalysis.
In the couples work I do, I lean a great deal on Terry Real’s relational approach. This work combines individual therapeutic techniques with a “no nonsense” approach that differs from traditional psychoanalytic modes.