The three words
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a psychotherapeutic approach developed by Habib Davanloo on the basis of the repeated analysis of session recordings. It focuses on recognising the link between feelings, anxiety and defences, and on helping the patient to experience safely those feelings which previously remained outside awareness.
ISTDP grew out of psychoanalytic approaches to brief psychotherapy. Habib Davanloo began developing it in Montreal in the 1960s through the systematic study of recorded sessions. Later developments, including attachment-based ISTDP, incorporated attachment theory and findings from neuroscience.
Intensive
An active focus on emotional experience, anxiety and defences within the session. The intensity is adjusted to the patient’s capacity to tolerate feelings and anxiety.
Short-Term
The aim is to make treatment as focused and efficient as possible. Treatment length varies with the patient’s needs; the name does not promise a fixed number of sessions.
Dynamic
A psychodynamic approach that explores unconscious emotional conflicts, defences and recurring patterns in relationships, including the relationship with the psychotherapist.
Where the method comes from
A map of historical influences and related developments in short-term dynamic psychotherapy. ISTDP is Davanloo’s method; AEDP, Affect Phobia Therapy and other experiential dynamic approaches have their own identities. Connections indicate broad influences, not an exclusive teacher-to-student genealogy.
Select a name to read about its contribution.
Follow the map from top to bottom. Select a name for its contribution.
Psychoanalytic roots
Early brief dynamic approaches
ISTDP developments & exchange
Historical context, not a teacher-to-student genealogy.
People and contributions
Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalysis provided the background concepts of unconscious conflict, defence and transference. The later brief dynamic approaches adapted this tradition.
Sources: Robert Neborsky: history and influence of STDP (2024), slide 5
Sándor Ferenczi & Otto Rank
Early innovators within psychoanalysis who explored more active techniques and the role of emotional experience in treatment.
Sources: Alexander & French (1946): corrective emotional experience
Franz Alexander & Thomas Morton French
In Psychoanalytic Therapy: Principles and Application (1946), they described the corrective emotional experience and advocated adapting technique and session frequency to the individual case. Their clinical work challenged the assumption that effective analytic treatment always required a lengthy, high-frequency analysis.
Sources: Alexander & French (1946): corrective emotional experience
Michael Balint & David Malan
Associated with the Tavistock tradition of brief dynamic psychotherapy. Malan also collaborated with Davanloo and helped articulate and disseminate his work.
Sources: Robert Neborsky: history and influence of STDP (2024), slide 5
Erich Lindemann & Elvin Semrad
Figures in the wider clinical background of brief dynamic therapy. They appear in historical maps of the field alongside the more formally named short-term approaches.
Sources: Robert Neborsky: history and influence of STDP (2024), slide 5
Peter Sifneos
Developed short-term anxiety-provoking psychotherapy, a distinct brief dynamic approach.
Sources: Robert Neborsky: history and influence of STDP (2024), slide 5
James Mann
Developed time-limited psychotherapy, a distinct brief dynamic approach.
Sources: Robert Neborsky: history and influence of STDP (2024), slide 5
Habib Davanloo
Psychiatrist and originator of ISTDP. His study of recorded sessions led to active work with resistance and unconscious feelings, followed by adaptations for patients with lower anxiety tolerance.
- The graded format first builds the capacity to tolerate anxiety and emotional experience.
Diana Fosha & Michael Alpert
Fosha developed Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). Alpert helped create the conferences and professional exchanges from which IEDTA emerged. Their contributions belong to the broader experiential dynamic field.
Sources: AEDP Institute: Diana Fosha; IEDTA: history and training standards
Leigh McCullough
Developed Affect Phobia Therapy (APT), an integrative short-term dynamic model that combines psychodynamic and behavioural principles. APT is a related approach with its own model.
Sources: Affect Phobia Therapy: the model
Ferruccio Osimo
Developed Intensive Experiential-Dynamic Psychotherapy (IE-DP), drawing on clinical work with Malan, Bowlby and McCullough. He was IEDTA’s first president.
Sources: Academic programme: Ferruccio Osimo
Allan Abbass & Allen Kalpin
Abbass is a professor of psychiatry and founding director of the Centre for Emotions and Health at Dalhousie University, with research on ISTDP outcomes. Kalpin helped establish the STDP email discussion list with Alpert in 1999, contributing to the professional exchange from which IEDTA emerged.
Sources: Dalhousie University: Allan Abbass; IEDTA: history and training standards; Dalhousie: Allan Abbass’s account of the Centre for Emotions and Health
Josette ten Have-de Labije & Kees Cornelissen
Both teach and practise ISTDP. Ten Have-de Labije co-authored Mastering Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy with Robert Neborsky, presenting a structured roadmap for clinical work. Cornelissen is identified as a sociologist and psychotherapist in the ISTDP International directory.
Sources: ISTDP Academy: ten Have-de Labije and Neborsky’s roadmap; ISTDP International: practitioners
Robert Neborsky
A psychiatrist associated with attachment-based ISTDP (AB-ISTDP), integrating an attachment perspective into ISTDP. He co-authored Mastering Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy with Josette ten Have-de Labije.
Sources: Robert Neborsky: history and influence of STDP (2024), slide 5; ISTDP Academy: ten Have-de Labije and Neborsky’s roadmap
Patricia Coughlin
A clinician, author and educator associated with the development and dissemination of ISTDP.
Sources: Robert Neborsky: history and influence of STDP (2024), slide 5
Jon Frederickson
A psychotherapist and educator whose work focuses on making ISTDP clinical skills teachable. His institute describes him as co-chair of the ISTDP Training Program at the Washington School of Psychiatry.
Sources: ISTDP Institute: Jon Frederickson
How Davanloo’s method developed
1960s-1970s
Early development
Davanloo studied recorded sessions and developed an active approach to resistance and emotional experience, initially used with selected patients.
1980s onwards
The graded format
The method expanded to include patients with lower anxiety tolerance. A preparatory, graded approach builds capacity before more intensive emotional work.
1990s onwards
Further structural work
Further developments addressed primitive defences and more complex presentations. These developments extend the method; they do not mean that maximal pressure is appropriate for every patient.
These periods are approximate and overlap. They describe the development of the method, not three stages that every patient must pass through. Source: Abbass, Town & Driessen (2012).
What it is used for
ISTDP has been studied in these areas. Assessment and adaptation to the individual patient are essential. Work on defences and anxiety tolerance describes how treatment is conducted; supervision and training are professional activities rather than clinical indications.
- Depression and anxiety disorders
- Personality disorders
- Functional somatic symptoms
What the research says
Published studies support ISTDP for a range of clinical problems, but the strength of evidence varies by condition and study design. A 2012 ISTDP review included 21 studies, with both controlled and uncontrolled designs, and noted methodological limitations. A 2025 review of functional somatic disorders maps a growing, heterogeneous evidence base. Neither review establishes that ISTDP is the best treatment for every patient.
International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association
IEDTA
IEDTA supports the practice, research and teaching of experiential dynamic therapies, including ISTDP. It sets certification standards for Core Training programmes, teachers and supervisors. These are professional training standards; they do not themselves confer a licence to practise psychotherapy.
IEDTA Code of Ethics (2024), section 5