Jungian Therapy

What is Jungian therapy?

Jungian therapy is a talking therapy based on the work of Carl Jung. It is also called analytical psychology, the name Jung gave it.

You and your therapist work together to bring hidden parts of your mind into awareness. The aim is more balance, and a clearer sense of meaning.

Dreams, images and symbols are at the heart of the work. So are questions about what your life means.

Sources: BACP: types of therapy, SAP: analytical psychology, UKCP: approaches

Where it comes from

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, born in 1875. He worked closely with Sigmund Freud in the early days of psychoanalysis. In 1913, after their ideas grew apart, the two men went their separate ways.

In London, the Society of Analytical Psychology began in 1946. It was the first to offer a training in Jungian analysis, and Jung was its first president. Jung died in 1961.

Sources: SAP: Carl Jung, SAP: analytical psychology, SAP: Michael Fordham

Key ideas

A few of Jung's ideas come up often in this therapy:

• The collective unconscious. A deeper layer of the mind that Jung saw as shared by all people.
• Archetypes. Jung's name for patterns in the mind, such as the mother, the child, birth and death.
• The shadow. The parts of yourself you find hard to accept. It can hold good qualities too.
• The persona. The face you show to the world, named after the masks of Greek actors.
• Complexes. Groups of images, ideas and feelings that can make you feel out of control.
• Individuation. Jung's word for becoming who you really are, and finding meaning and purpose.

Jung also thought a symptom, such as anxiety, could be a sign that something inside you is out of balance.

Sources: BACP: types of therapy, Hogenson n.d., SAP: analytical psychology, Hopwood n.d., Perry n.d., Schmidt n.d.

How it works

Dreams matter a great deal in this therapy. Jung valued them almost above all else, as a way to see what is going on inside you.

Unlike Freud, Jung did not see a dream as a disguise for hidden wishes. He saw it as the unconscious commenting on your life right now.

Your therapist may also use active imagination, a kind of meditation that lets images and symbols come up. Some use painting, games or sand play too.

You do not have to be a vivid dreamer. Your therapist can start from pictures in the world around you instead.

You bring your dreams, your pictures and whatever else is on your mind. Together, you look at what they might mean for you.

Sources: SAP: analytical psychology, Hogenson n.d., Kast n.d., Soubrouillard n.d., SAP: what happens in analysis, UKCP: approaches

What sessions look like

Sessions last 50 minutes. You might go anything from once to five times a week.

Four or five times a week is often called analysis. Once, twice or three times a week is often called psychotherapy.

Analysts generally use a couch, and you may lie on it. In psychotherapy you may sit in a chair or lie on the couch. Many therapists also work online or by phone.

It is hard to say at the start how long therapy will last. The Society of Analytical Psychology says there is no short cut or quick fix.

Even so, a few sessions can sometimes put one problem in perspective.

The society runs a low-cost scheme for students and for people on benefits or low incomes. Its analysts are experienced practitioners in training. For analysis, you commit to four sessions a week for at least two years.

The first meeting is a chance to see how it feels to talk with this person. You can ask how they work before you agree to go on.

Sources: SAP: Jungian analysis, SAP: analysis and the couch, UKCP: approaches, SAP: what happens in analysis, SAP: clinic

How it differs from psychodynamic therapy

Jungian therapy and psychodynamic therapy both belong to the psychoanalytic family. The difference lies in what each one looks for.

Jung was more interested in the present and your future growth than in digging into the past. He looked for the meaning and purpose of a symptom, not only its cause. He linked that growth mostly to the second half of life.

Freudian work centres on words. The Jungian approach sees images as the main way into the unconscious.

The work often takes in spiritual experience too. One Jungian body says spirituality here is not the same as religion.

Sources: UKCP: approaches, Hopwood n.d., Schmidt n.d., Soubrouillard n.d., GAP: about

Who it may suit

Jungian therapy may suit you if you:

• Have dreams or images that stay with you
• Feel a lack of meaning, even when life looks fine from the outside
• Are at a turning point, or in the second half of your life
• Want room for spiritual questions, with or without a faith
• Enjoy drawing, painting or other creative ways of working

It may suit you less if you want a set programme with tasks between sessions. The Society of Analytical Psychology says meaningful change takes time. It also says another kind of therapy is sometimes more suitable.

The work can be hard and painful at times, and it takes some courage.

Sources: SAP: analysis and the couch, SAP: what happens in analysis

Finding a Jungian therapist

Five UK Jungian groups belong to the International Association for Analytical Psychology. Each belongs to the British Psychoanalytic Council, the UK Council for Psychotherapy or both. Both councils keep registers accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.

Anyone in the UK can call themselves a psychotherapist or a counsellor. The NHS advises checking that a private therapist is on an accredited register.

At the British Jungian Analytic Association, training takes at least four years. Trainees have their own analysis at least three times a week.

Sources: IAAP: member societies, BPC: member institutions, UKCP: Jungian analysis college, BPC: regulation, PSA: UKCP, Lally & Naulls 2025, NHS: talking therapies, BPF: BJAA training

The evidence

Jungian therapy as a whole has not been tested in a randomised controlled trial. In such a trial, people are put into groups by chance, so the results can be compared fairly.

Sandplay, a method some Jungian therapists use, has had trials of its own. A 2019 review found 16 randomised trials of it, with children and adults.

A 2013 review found studies mostly from Germany and Switzerland. They were mostly studies of everyday practice, without a control group. The studies found improvements, but a tenth to a fifth of people did not benefit.

A 2022 review found some support for Jungian therapy, and a strong need for randomised trials. In 2025, the same lead researcher called the evidence base still weak.

His team's own study followed 104 people in Jungian therapy at a German training institute. They had fewer symptoms afterwards. It had no control group, so it is hard to know whether the therapy caused the change.

NICE does not name Jungian therapy in its guidance on depression or generalised anxiety. The NHS Talking Therapies manual does not list it either.

If you are weighing up a few options, our guide to the different approaches sets them side by side.

Sources: Roesler 2013, Roesler et al. 2025, Roesler 2019, Roesler & Reefschläger 2022, NICE NG222, NICE CG113, NHS England: talking therapies manual