Itay Lahav

Itay Lahav is a PACFA clinician with 22 years of practice in Australia. She works with stress, anxiety, relationships, trauma and abuse, sleep problems and depression. She also helps people who are questioning meaning or life direction and who want to explore personal development and life purpose.

Itay draws on psychodynamic ideas to look at how past patterns shape current feelings and choices. She also uses attachment-based work to understand how early connections affect relationships. Sessions often focus on recognising those patterns and trying small, practical shifts in daily life.

Her approach is client-centred and conversational. She listens for recurring themes such as abandonment, attachment issues, or communication problems. From there she helps people examine how those themes turn up in relationships, work and self-image.

Itay works with trauma in a focused way and attends to the body–mind connection when it matters. That means sleep, chronic pain or dissociation are treated alongside emotional and relational concerns rather than separately.

She is comfortable working in short-term focused blocks as well as longer term psychotherapy. People can expect a calm, direct style that brings historical patterns into view and tests different ways of responding in day-to-day life.

How psychodynamic and attachment work translate to online sessions

Psychodynamic therapy looks at how past experiences shape current feelings and choices. In practice this means talking about recurring patterns, dreams, or early relationships to see how they influence daily behaviour and decisions. It can help when someone feels stuck in similar problems across different parts of life.

Attachment-based therapy focuses on how early bonds affect trust, closeness and communication now. Sessions use discussion and reflection to identify attachment needs and to try out different ways of relating, which can improve relationships and reduce repeated conflict.

Finding the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and the issues you bring, and together you decide whether a shorter focused plan or deeper ongoing work fits best. This can include combining psychodynamic reflection with attachment-focused exercises when that matches the person's needs.

Please confirm which session formats are currently offered before booking, as formats are not specified here. Online sessions can make therapy easier to fit into a busy week and can reduce travel time. They also allow for shorter check-ins or more regular appointments when that helps maintain progress.