Codependency is among the most common unhealthy relationship patterns and one of the hardest to recognize from within because it feels like devotion. The codependent person organizes their identity around being needed. They derive purpose from managing their partner's emotions, solving their partner's problems, and sacrificing their own needs to maintain the relationship. When the relationship is stable, the codependent person feels secure. When the partner threatens to leave or becomes independent, the codependent person experiences a crisis that goes beyond normal relationship distress. The potential loss of the relationship is also a potential loss of self.
Dr. David Steinbok works with adults in Boca Raton who are caught in codependent dynamics. His psychodynamic approach examines how the codependent pattern developed, what emotional need it serves, and how the therapeutic relationship can provide an experience of connection that does not require one person to disappear into the other's needs. An unhealthy relationship patterns therapist in Boca Raton can help distinguish between genuine caring and the compulsive caretaking that codependency produces.
