Psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are two categories of psychological therapies. Their main purpose is revealing the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension, which is inner conflict within the mind that was created in a situation of extreme stress or emotional hardship, often in the state of distress. The terms "psychoanalytic psychotherapy" and "psychodynamic psychotherapy" are often used interchangeably, but a distinction can be made in practice: though psychodynamic psychotherapy largely relies on psychoanalytical theory, it employs substantially shorter treatment periods than traditional psychoanalytical therapies. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is evidence-based; the effectiveness of psychoanalysis and its relationship to facts is disputed.

The Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research was founded in 1945. It is part of the Department of Psychiatry of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Robert Glick is a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a Supervising and Training Psychoanalyst at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research; he was formerly a director of the Center.

Theodore Shapiro is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in New York, where he is a professor emeritus in psychiatry and pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. He is a faculty member of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and a training and supervising psychoanalyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a form of short-term psychotherapy developed through empirical, video-recorded research by Habib Davanloo.

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a brief, attachment-focused psychotherapy that centers on resolving interpersonal problems and achieving symptomatic recovery. IPT is an empirically supported treatment (EST) that follows a highly structured and time-limited approach. Interpersonal therapy is intended to be completed within 12–16 weeks. IPT is based on the principle that relationships and life events impact mood and vice versa. The treatment was developed by Gerald Klerman and Myrna Weissman in order to treat major depression in the 1970s and has since been adapted for other mental disorders. IPT is an empirically validated intervention for depressive disorders and is more effective when used in combination with psychiatric medications.

The conversational model of psychotherapy was devised by the English psychiatrist Robert Hobson, and developed by the Australian psychiatrist Russell Meares. Hobson listened to recordings of his own psychotherapeutic practice with more disturbed clients, and became aware of the ways in which a patient's self—their unique sense of personal being—can come alive and develop, or be destroyed, in the flux of the conversation in the consulting room.

Richard B. Gartner is a clinical psychologist who was trained both as a family therapist and an interpersonal psychoanalyst. One of the founders of MaleSurvivor: the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization, he is a Past President of the organization and now chairs its advisory board. He is known for his research and clinical work in the area of child sexual abuse against boys and its aftermath for them as men.

Susan W. Coates is an American psychoanalyst, who has worked on gender dysphoria in children and early childhood trauma.

The American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (AAPDPP) is a scholarly society including psychiatrists interested in all aspects of psychodynamic psychiatry.

Richard C. Friedman was an academic psychiatrist, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a faculty member at Columbia University. He has conducted research in the endocrinology and the psychodynamics of homosexuality, especially within the context of psychoanalysis. Friedman was born in The Bronx, New York.

Supportive psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that integrates various therapeutic schools such as psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral, as well as interpersonal conceptual models and techniques.

The mainstay of management of borderline personality disorder is various forms of psychotherapy with medications being found to be of little use.

Allen J. Frances is an American psychiatrist. He is currently Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He is best known for serving as chair of the American Psychiatric Association task force overseeing the development and revision of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Frances is the founding editor of two well-known psychiatric journals: the Journal of Personality Disorders and the Journal of Psychiatric Practice.

Edward Khantzian was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Beginning in the 1970s, he developed a progressively more coherent and empirically-grounded self-medication hypothesis of drug abuse, which states that individuals use drugs in an attempt to self-medicate states of distress and suffering.

Jacques P. Barber is a French-born, American clinical psychologist and psychotherapy researcher. He is an Emeritus Professor and Dean at the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University. He served as Dean from August 2011 until his retirement in August 2023.