Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D.

Depth Psychotherapy Devoted To Insight, Growth, and Dream Work

505-401-2388

I specialize in depth psychotherapy, treating the unconscious mind via emotional processing and dreamwork. Dreams and emotions are royal roads to the unconscious mind. Our growth-oriented consultations unravel the hidden meanings within your dreams and feelings. We tap into practical insight that can help illuminate your path in life. Dreams, in particular, are soul messengers. They carry profound wisdom that, once understood, becomes a powerful tool for facing inner truths and generating practical change.

During an initial session, we explore whether personal consultation and dream work may help reveal blind spots, provide clarity, and restore your footing in life. With over forty years of intensive psychotherapy practice, I work toward helping each patient experience a focused collaboration that furthers mental clarity and emotional relief.

If you are in a psychological crisis, my practice is currently at capacity. In such cases, consult your primary care physician or call the National Hotline - 988. While my practice is unavailable for crisis care, I may have periodic openings for growth-oriented consultations and dream work. Please feel free to call and inquire.

Professional Affiliations: Depth Psychology Alliance, the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, the International Association for Jungian Studies, and the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

All consultations are conducted via teletherapy.

Session Fee: $250

Making Your Way Through Life

February 28, 2023  /  Paul DeBlassie III

How we make our way through this life seems like an age-old question. Yet, if we’re honest, it speaks to an emotional reality that shakes us up. As a psychotherapist of forty years, I've seen it bring tormented souls to their knees, people crumbling into a psychic heap. I feel the weight of their sadness and the swirl of confusion whipping through their minds. It can disorient and alienate them because, before treatment, they've felt alone in their misery. Of crucial importance is we. We are all making our way, and we are not alone. Everyone has a path, and everyone is looking for answers.

 

A person complained, "Everyone on social media seems so together, their posts all about smiling people with perfect lives." Each time someone expresses feeling so alienated, I've had a mental flash of ailing psyches. We hide our soul ailments behind a façade of having it all together. It’s understandable, a defense against vulnerability. People hurt people and seek a point of vulnerability. So, we guard ourselves. Until we feel safe, there is pretense, even for the sincerest of us. So, there are no perfect people living perfect lives; there are real people staying guarded until they feel safe enough to come out from hiding.

 

Speaking of social media, this morning I posted, “Last night, I dreamt that at 69, I had officially left middle age and entered old age. Ha! I thought I left it a while back, but I don't argue with my dreams. This morning a news article reminded me of the words from '"Voltaire’s “Candide”: 'Il faut cultiver notre jardin”— “we must cultivate our garden.' The garden may be tiny and perhaps hidden, but it is mine to make of it as I want.' Leaving one time of life, entering another, and knowing what to leave behind and what now lies within our reach is contentment. I think it is good.”

 

I wrote this post knowing there is both goodness in the garden of my life and tricky spots. Weeds, misunderstandings, hurt, and pain creep into the most well-tended psychological gardens. You are a decent person living a relatively good life, trying your best. Yet, problems strike. A family member or two or three doesn't get you or feels you don't get them. And it's so frustrating! It happens to the best of us. But it's life and how it works, and we do our best to flow with it.

 

And there’s the snag—the flowing with it. It's not simply the good things but the bad ones too that are in the stream we call life. So often, patients have told me they thought therapy would help even things out. Their life would be put back together, their head straight, and things would be smooth sailing ahead. The fact is that therapy is only life on steroids. It pops things out so we can work with them, learn from them, and then either work them through or learn to adapt and cope with built-ins, the good and bad, the beautiful and painful.

 

The strange thing is that if we block out the bad and put on a happy face, it'll turn around and bite us on the rear-end. There’s no escaping emotions, they’ll backup and soon we’ll be swamped by too much distress, anger, or love. Denying the painful is obvious, but people also deny love. Then it too turns and demands our attention. Suddenly, we’re experiencing an obsessive crush or too much sexual energy. It’s all about the bad and good, painful and beautiful. So, leaning into the reality of the good and bad is what counts. As long as things stay real and human, we're off and running, flowing with the currents of our life.

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