“Is CBT better than psychodynamic therapy?”

Yes, no, and it depends. Plus, to complicate the matter, these are only 2 of many types of therapy, and the specifics are also important to the fit. Think about shoes: sandals, sneakers, high heels, flats, platforms, boots, wedges, etc. And then the length, width, and materials: leather, suede, artificial, cloth....and the smallest detail may make or break the usefulness to YOU! So, read up, and then go to a generalist/consultant and ask your particular questions. Then, meet with someone you think is qualified and see if it feels comfortable to talk to them. And Good Luck!

Peace,

Marian Shapiro

No one approach has been found to be better than the other in this context of your question, and what we do know from a body of gold standard research is the client-therapist relationship quality accounts for a greater than 60 percent contribution to client change and positive treat outcomes as perceived by the client. With that said, you might need to invest a little time in discerning the initial quality of the relationship vs. choosing a clinician with a specific approach or theory. CBT and psychodynamic approaches are both assessed to be good enough for helping to explore change and symptom management.

It all depends on the symptomatology of the patient, they are both great therapies.

I tend to prefer CBT approaches, but both are equally effective.

It depends on what you’re looking to accomplish. Through psychodynamic psychotherapy, which is based on psychoanalysis, the developing relationship between the client and the therapist is the medium through the client’s patterns of thinking, feeling and interacting and how they came to be as they are is illuminated. Through CBT, those same patterns are related to the client’s beliefs, assumptions, interpretations and ways of thinking, and are addressed more directly in terms of the feelings and behaviors they give rise to, and the focus of therapy is on adopting beliefs, etc. that are more logical and credible, and lead to more desirable results. More information is available on Wikipedia.

Review these links for some thoughts on your question:
https://psychcentral.com/blog/psychodynamic-therapy-vs-cbt-smackdown-for-anxiety/#:~:text=CBT%20was%20found%20to%20be,%2C%20and%20depression%20(BDI).
or
https://blog.zencare.co/cbt-vs-psychodynamic-therapy/
or
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201401/cbt-versus-psychodynamic-no

As the last link so states, it is not which one is better, but how can one use them interactively to address MH issues - I prefer an integrated/systems/holistic approach.