Psychoanalysis is a method of treatment that offers a way of understanding ourselves, our relationships, and how we respond to the world. It was developed as a way to heal, change and grow, helping people to cultivate psychological understanding and empathic curiosity about themselves. In essence, it is a method for learning about the mind.  

Unconscious conflicts can create disharmony, unhappiness and inhibitions that may be expressed through difficulties in personality, relationships and work. The analytic process involves exploring experiences of past relationships while also addressing ongoing life difficulties and experiences with the hope of developing more adaptive responses. Through a collaborative therapeutic alliance in psychoanalysis, we seek to develop self-observation and gain awareness of destructive, unproductive patterns informed by one’s past. 

Psychoanalysis helps people learn how they became who they are, what they do, and why they feel the way they do, paving the way for the emotional freedom necessary to make substantive, lasting changes. 

Psychoanalysis treatment offered in Hartford, CT and throughout Connecticut. Mary L. Ayre, MD is the best psychoanalyst offering individual adult psychotherapy, integrative psychiatry, clinical supervision and telehealth services. Residency at UCONN and Institute of Living. Board certified psychiatrist. Graduate Psychoanalyst. Individual or group therapy and counseling. Dr. Ayre graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University, with an undergraduate degree in Chinese Language and Area Studies, and a minor concentration in Psychology.  Following a period of cultural and linguistic immersion in Asian culture, during which her interest and enthusiasm for alternative (non-Western) medicine and attention to holistic approaches to health were piqued, Dr. Ayre enrolled in medical school at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  She pursued residency training at the University of Connecticut and the Institute of Living in Hartford. Following graduation from residency training, she served as Medical Director at the New England Holistic Health Center in Glastonbury, CT. As a Board Certified Psychiatrist, Dr. Ayre continued her studies at the Western New England Institute of Psychoanalysis, where she completed her training and became a Graduate Psychoanalyst.  She has continued to be involved in teaching as well as supervising Residents (psychiatrists in training) and other mental health professionals.  She has affiliations with the WNEIPS and the Institute of Living.  She is a consulting and supervising psychiatrist at Hartford Hospital.  She is affiliated with the University of Connecticut, where she is a former Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry.  A committed life-long learner, Dr. Ayre has completed additional training with the Institute for Functional Medicine, and considers nutrition and lifestyle changes to be an integral component of mental health and balance.  “As a psychiatrist with a background in Eastern Philosophy, nutrition, and functional medicine, and as a trained psychoanalyst and graduate of the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, I bring to bear a broad, nuanced approach in the treatment of each individual. “I have a personal interest in neuroscience and the biochemistry of nutrition and its effects on mental health. These form the foundation upon which other inquiry is based.  Better mental health is achieved in the end from re-wiring—neuroplasticity of the brain.  This is the substrate of understanding and behavioral change.” Dr. Ayre has maintained a private practice in Hartford, CT for many years, where her professional focus is on Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Psychiatry, and Integrative Psychiatry.  Where other short-term treatments are better suited for short-term problems such as anxiety or depression brought on by a specific event, psychoanalysis is better suited to address long-standing maladaptive patterns. Psychoanalytic treatment involves multiple weekly sessions to identify underlying problematic patterns or behaviors, with the goal of developing the emotional freedom necessary to heal and make lasting changes. The psychoanalyst is a mental health professional with specialized, advanced training in working with people at this deeper, unconscious level. Dr. Ayre’s psychoanalytic training involved an additional 6 years of advanced post-doctoral study beyond completion of medical school and Residency in Psychiatry.