The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Dr. Joan Linhardt - Beyond the Surface: Finding Clarity Through Deeper Understanding
Step into the fascinating world of Jungian analysis with Dr. Joan Linhardt, a Swiss-trained psychoanalyst whose approach transcends traditional therapy boundaries. From her private practice in Leesburg, Virginia, Dr. Linhardt works with clients spanning from teenagers to octogenarians, bringing a uniquely global perspective shaped by her international training and personal travels.
What makes Jungian analysis special? "We tend to be more interested in the spirit of the person," Dr. Linhardt explains. "It's not just a clinical run-through, a recipe book." This holistic approach explores not only what clients want to accomplish but fundamentally who they are as individuals. With credentials including a doctorate in analytical psychology, Dr. Linhardt creates a therapeutic environment where clients feel comfortable exploring deeper aspects of themselves.
Dr. Linhardt's remarkable journey began with a passion for animals and brain science, eventually leading her to anthropology, social work, and finally to Zurich, Switzerland, where she completed her analytical training. This international experience uniquely positions her to work with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds—Africa, Europe, China, South America—with genuine cultural understanding. A highlight of her therapeutic toolbox is dream analysis, which she uses not as a diagnostic formula but as a window into the less conscious areas of a person's psyche. By teaching clients to interpret their own dreams, she helps them access deeper self-understanding, facilitating more rapid progress than surface-level approaches.
Whether you're feeling lost, seeking clarity, or wanting to enhance your talents and abilities, Dr. Linhardt offers a flexible, personalized approach that goes beyond the surface to help you become "more comfortable in your own skin." Connect with Dr. Joan Linhardt by calling 703-999-8292 or visiting www.drjoanlinhart.com to begin your journey toward deeper understanding and personal growth.
My name is Joan Linhart and I have a website, drjoanlinhartcom, and I practice in Leesburg, virginia. I'm a psychoanalyst, jungian trained. That includes a bachelor's in anthropology and sociology, master's in clinical and administrative social work and a doctorate in analytical psychology Wow, along with international and national recognition as a Jungian psychoanalyst Wow. So I spent a lot of time time and I did my analytical work actually the training in Kuznock, which is a suburb of Zurich in Switzerland, and I loved it. I mean, it really was different and I think it was very helpful to me or for me in my practice, because I got to have the experience of living in a foreign country for several years to do this training. So I do have clientele sometimes, well, from all over the world Africa, europe, china, anyway, a lot of different places. Yeah, south America too, nice. So that is one of the draws.
Speaker 1:I find an interest in different cultures and I've had a lot of training in terms of working with individuals. But a Jungian psychoanalyst is different from, say, probably a Freudian psychoanalyst or a different school. We tend to be more interested in the spirit of the person. It's not just a clinical run-through, a recipe book. So who you are and how you are is very important, along with what it is you'd like to accomplish or what it is you'd like to not have with you. As a person, I deal with individual problems Nowadays teenagers on up into the 80s I haven't had anybody in their 90s yet, but who knows? Trained in couples work, family work and group work. But at this point I am most comfortable working with individuals and sometimes different parts of families or couples.
Speaker 2:Okay, you specialize in a lot of things here.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, it covers quite a large area. And the way my business is just my name, because I'm working individually, it's a private practice. I am not part of any large corporation, so it's very private, and records are not accessible except by court order and, for me, permission from the individual. So it's an endeavor that one needs to be really wanting to do and the way I work with people is there are all kinds of issues that bring people in that they either want to get rid of or they want to enhance talents or abilities, and that's fun to do.
Speaker 1:But I don't presume and I don't require any kind of guarantees.
Speaker 1:If they come in, it's a full hour and a half genuine session for whatever it is that they're interested in working on.
Speaker 1:And I do screen first because if it's not an issue that I'm particularly familiar with or whatever, I would refer them to someone else. But if they come in for a session, then I see them, we go pretty much directly to work and at the end of the session, which I tell them up front, I ask them if they feel comfortable with me, because if they feel comfortable with me then we can probably do good work. I also ask myself am I comfortable with this person in terms of working with them on whatever it is that they feel they need work on. So if they are comfortable, then we go ahead and we set some appointments and I check, maybe at the end of five sessions or something like that, to make sure how they feel it's going, what they're getting from it. I don't project exactly how long working on a particular problem might take, but I stop along the way and we discuss where we are and where they want to go and how close or far they are and what they want to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that kind of wraps it up. I love it, but sometimes it might be that it's an individual problem, but if they're married or in a relationship, it might also involve a spouse or a close partner, and sometimes it's necessary to see them as well. So I will do whatever it is that seems necessary in order to help the individual that I'm actually most working with to wherever it is they want to go.
Speaker 2:Beautiful.
Speaker 1:Assuming that it's legal, of course.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, of course I want to backtrack a little bit and ask you how you got into this work and what made you want to get into the field that you currently are in.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I started out in school as a kid being extremely good with animals and I had a very strong interest in the brain. So I know brains are of people and animals are animals. But I was really good with helping veterinarians and things like that. So I left high school to go to college and picked a school that had a small animal training setup. So I did that. But I found that I was not well suited to that, because I could manage human cadaverous but I could not manage well animal cadaverous. I didn't mind the blood and guts, but that other part no. So fortunately I discovered anthropology and ended up doing that. I had a particular interest in Africa. I ended up with a National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship that gave me a whole term just on that area of study. So I got linguistics, I got an African language, I got their geography, all kinds of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that that's something I need to turn off.
Speaker 2:Yes, it happens, it's okay it turn off. Yes, it happens, it's okay, it is off. Busy woman. Sorry, they covered the full term.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, yes, Entirely including housing. It was a really nice one. Wow, that's a great deal there. I'm sure that these things don't exist anymore.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure they don't.
Speaker 1:But I was very happy about it because it made a really big difference for me, absolutely. And then I needed to make a living after undergrad and I started working as a caseworker in Chicago of all places, went to undergrad in Michigan, so there I became interested in social work, which was nice, and ultimately eventually ended up going to graduate school to get my degree in clinical and administrative social work, and I did that at NYU, which was fun. So, okay, one thing leads to another and I kept going back and forth doing individual social work, clinical and then later more administrative type of social work, and agencies Did not go out on my own at that point and I don't remember exactly how this happened, but I heard about something going on in Zurich that was really fantastic. So I was curious. Oh, I think it was from a professor at some point. So I went to sort of a sampling of what it is that they were doing there. It was like a weekend or a week of their program.
Speaker 1:I became really interested in it and I really liked Kuznack and Zurich. So I came back to the United States and I'd been running an agency for some time at that point, but I, oh, and I had local, state and federal experience in social work so I made enough money to go back at least initially, zurich Kuznach, switzerland area, very expensive. I learned what it was like to come here to the United States from poor countries because I would never have had that experience otherwise and I think it was a good learning experience. So it's easier for me probably to work with people from all over.
Speaker 2:That's a wonderful trait to have.
Speaker 1:It doesn't much matter.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the English does not have to be good. I've also traveled in a lot of countries just because I have an interest and it's fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I often go to see the animals they have.
Speaker 2:I love that Still keeping that animal love in part of your work as you go on.
Speaker 1:Yes, I spent most of December in Madagascar seeing lemurs. Yes, now, there aren't very many people that are interested in that, so there were no tours, at least not from here.
Speaker 2:You went to the jungle.
Speaker 1:Well, I went by myself.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:And I know that I'm not as young anymore. I climbed volcanic rainforests and saw the huge lemurs leaping back and forth in the trees and what all. And the little ones were just adorable. The bigger ones could care less about humans.
Speaker 2:Did the little ones care?
Speaker 1:Oh yes, they were affectionate, loyal, kind. One of them came and took my hand and held it.
Speaker 2:It was sweet, that's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and seeing them. You know, came and took my hand and held it. It was sweet, that's a once in a lifetime experience and seeing them in their natural habitat, like that, yeah, my daughter and son in law my daughter primarily does.
Speaker 1:They do trips to Nepal, art and culture trips. So they found me a guide that would work with an individual that you know rather than a group like most people do. But I had a group guide not a group guide, just a guide from their small group for the east part of Madagascar, the west part and the north. I didn't get anywhere near the south because there was a hurricane going on. I didn't get anywhere near the South because there was a hurricane going on and I had one client email me to find out for sure that I was all right.
Speaker 1:Not in that I'm glad he checked up and I do work with clients out of the area as well as in the area, okay, but I do prefer in fact I do see people individually in real life, like we're sitting here now Face to face yeah. Face to face before I will do telephone or other type of work. Yeah, and I do that because I find that I am better at my job doing it that way, because I pick up things from people that are not necessarily.
Speaker 1:Easy to see or spot via a laptop screen. Yes, exactly so. Even the video work is not as good. Now I've worked with somebody for a long time but some of that is actual executive coaching For a long time, but some of that is actual executive coaching. I did some program and experience in that arena as well, so I enjoy that and that now we do by phone.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's only once, or twice a year he comes in person Wonderful.
Speaker 1:So where was I? I was going to graduate school. So where was I? I was going to graduate school. Oh, I went to Zurich and I completed the program there and came back here and went into private psychotherapy, psychoanalysis yeah, and I have done that ever since. Now sometimes I still may see couples, but most of my practice at this point, all of my practice is with individuals, individuals okay. And they just from teenage all the way up through into the 80s and all different kinds of problems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, or interests. Yeah, Okay or interests yes.
Speaker 1:Of wanting to expand or get better or overcome something so they can do something that they want to do, that they've been stuck and kind of not getting there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that, thank you. And then, what kind of things do you look for when exploring someone's dreams or inner world, and how does that play a part?
Speaker 1:Well, it's very helpful, very useful. Some people don't dream. Most people know they dream, but the people that don't dream really do dream. They just don't know it. But I can't use that. So, in terms of dreams, it's really very important for young and trained psychoanalysts or therapists because it helps give what's going on in the less conscious areas of the person, especially if they can remember it. And I have them write it down and bring in a copy for me as well. Yeah, but I have them read their own dream, because the way they read their dream and the way they see the dream that they've just had has a lot to do also with my interpretive approach, and I will test out what might be in a dream. I don't simply plunk something diagnostic or what it means, like you would get out of a recipe book for dreams.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because that's really not helpful and it can screw people's ideas up. So testing out where a person is and what their understanding of the dream might be is probably as important as anything they're telling you about what they did before they came in for the session or what they've done last week. So because they're at a deeper level, or at least they tend to be. But dreams can be amazing because they're not all serious. Some of them are really funny and outrageous and there's nothing wrong with having some humor in a session. So depression is important and anxiety is important and you're supposed to.
Speaker 1:According to the DSM, which is an evaluation system for categories of mental illness or problem areas, you're supposed to have either anxiety or depression, but these days most people that do come in have some aspects of both, if they're serious about doing something and something's really been blocking them and they're not happy about it.
Speaker 1:So it's an approach that goes beyond the surface and, using dreams, gets to a deeper level, or at least it allows the person and the therapist to get to deeper levels, and that can facilitate progress more quickly or more thoroughly.
Speaker 1:It's the reason that I went into additional training behind or in addition to all the other training I had is because I felt it didn't go deeply enough. It's sort of like if you're swimming, first you can start in a little pond, then you go to a swimming pool, but they've got sides all around. Then you can go to a lake or a river and then there's the ocean. Then you can go to a lake or a river and then there's the ocean. Now you know, people have different levels of comfort in terms of comfort zones, in terms of where they are and how they might want to be. So that's just a way of looking at things, so that you can see if you're comfortable in one setting, how it is, you might get help getting to be able to be comfortable beyond that, which, again, does not have to be morbid hard work, it really can be fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's engaging and I think it works well. Yeah, after a bit I will ask the person how they feel they're doing, like I mentioned before, so that we can kind of measure progress or see if we need to make a change or a different slant or whatever. Yeah, and if they feel finished, then we stop. And I do tell people it's not recidivism, meaning that they fall back into the same old problem, but sometimes something else comes up that is new and they might want to return, but not to feel that that's any kind of failure on their part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because it's not no no, no, it's just that they're at a different level and different kinds of problems are then surfacing. Yeah, and they may be somewhat unsure, not having experience at that problem level. Whatever, so does that help?
Speaker 2:Yes, it helps a lot. My next question is kind of a little bit diving deeper into I hope I pronounced this right Jungian psychology. You work a lot with the unconscious. How would you describe that to someone who's never heard of Jungian psychology?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. Well, there's a lot of fun poked at psychologists and the media from time to time a psychologist and the media from time to time All it is really is going beyond the surface level into a person's life and how they see the world and themselves in it, and it's only necessary or helpful to do that if they are wanting to do more or be more than they think they are are wanting to do more or be more than they think they are. So it's a way of training. Let's see, if I were a patient coming in, I would be looking to find ways that I could understand how to go about understanding myself better at deeper levels. And the dream work also contributes to that, because basically I'm teaching people how to interpret to some extent their own dreams. Now, everybody cannot expect to interpret fully or totally and possibly even exactly what their dreams mean. But what's more important is that they can get from that practice or that effort a lot more information than they would otherwise. So I guess that's useful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sure is. And then can you walk us through how you help someone get clarity when they're feeling lost or unsure of their path?
Speaker 1:Well, depends on the age, sex. Oh, by the way, gender work is increasingly important these days, regardless of current politics. Yes, and so there is an upheaval. There's a lot of pressure on teenage kids at this point particularly. But, going to your question, well, kids at that age may be a good place to start, because they don't fully know themselves.
Speaker 1:Most of them know they don't fully know themselves, but they know parts of it, yeah, and they may be very jealously hanging on to those aspects, but still be uncertain because of fear, pressure in terms of, well, what's it mean?
Speaker 1:Where do I go from here? What's it mean when do I go from here, afraid to take another step forward or being vulnerable to being pushed in one way or another or held back, and so I suppose it's probably really helping a person become more comfortable in their own skin with who it is they actually are in the moment and what it might be that they might be most interested in, and, given the true factors that nobody knows necessarily all the time exactly, which path is right for them. But that doesn't mean that they have to stand still and not go anywhere. It's best, then, to encourage a person to take a leap or a step forward in some direction to test it out, and once they're able to do that, then they have experience in going forward, um in um, going forward and forewarning that if it's not right, take a step back and take the other road, because it's you cannot always be right and that's as important to learn. It was important for me to learn that, um, I was not going to be a good veterinarian.
Speaker 1:Oh, as much as you loved animals and wanted to help it's okay, but I'm doing something else that is very helpful, and I still go out of my way to have plenty of contact with real animals.
Speaker 2:Yes, good, never lose sight of that, your favorite passion. Now I want to ask you my final question. I could talk to you all day and I don't know why, but hearing your voice it soothes me Like. I want to ask you my final question. I could talk to you all day and I don't know why, but hearing your voice it soothes me Like I could just hear you talk all day Like please don't leave. But unfortunately I have someone next.
Speaker 1:But anyway, oh nice yeah, I love your voice.
Speaker 2:It's very calming and I just I'm probably going to listen to this podcast a lot just to hear your voice. I'm kind of nervous don't show that at all. You're doing great, all right. Is there anything that I have not touched on that perhaps you would like to get out there or share about yourself or your business or your industry, oh, I'm not rigid, meaning that if you make an appointment with me and something comes up and it's not possible to make it just call.
Speaker 1:I am very flexible about appointments and appointment times and settling on something that'll work for both of us, whoever it is that might be. On the other end and it's except for when I'm out of the country, which is not very often I can remain flexible and work with another person's schedule as best we can. Beautiful. So after studying in Switzerland, it's a very Germanic area. Even the trees when they're planted are so many inches each from the other. Well, that rigidity never got all the way through, at least not to me. So I'd say I'm probably easy to work with, but it's important to give as much information as possible so that they can put enough of themselves out there to help me understand what it is that they really want and need to go for. And evaluating along the way is a good step, important for both of us.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. Oh does that help? It does. And one last time where can people find you? Give us your phone number and website.
Speaker 1:Oh, my website is J-O-A-N-L-I-N-H-A-R-D-T. What is it? I'm giving the Gmail Gmailcom. That's a Gmail thing, but the website is just Joan Linhart. At what is it? The website is just JoanLinhart. At what is it? Wwwdrjoanlinhartcom. Yeah, Okay, my phone number. And I work in Leesburg but I have people commuting. I did from somewhere down near Culpeper or Philadelphia. One fellow is now in Quebec, Somebody else is in Vermont and New York. So flexibility doesn't just extend to time but also place and possibilities of managing. A session I do a full 60-minute hour, or an initial session is a full hour, and a session I do a full 60-minute hour or an initial session is a full hour and a half. Yeah, Telephone number is 703-999-8292. And calling is best, but they need to say very immediately that they're a potential patient.
Speaker 1:I get a lot of useless calls, Junk mail, junk calls, spam calls yes, yes, yes, and I'm awfully the minute they say and how are you doing today? I hang up, uh-oh. So please don't feel badly. Get out right away that you're a potential patient. You want to discuss whether or not it would be helpful to come see me? Okay, and it doesn't matter what your issue is. If it's not something that I'm accustomed to working with, I will say so right away and give you other possibilities. If it is something that I do work with and it doesn't work out with us, again another referral or somebody that's particularly possibly good for them, in whatever area, it is Perfect.
Speaker 2:All right, Joan. Well, thank you so much for being here today and thank you for making time to chat with me and tell me a little bit about your journey and the type of services that you provide.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. Thank you, yeah, you're so welcome.