How does psychodynamic therapy differ from cbt?

Consciousness: Psychodynamics emphasizes early developmental trauma, symbolic representations, and making the unconscious conscious. Cbt focuses on becoming aware of and challenging limiting thoughts and beliefs as well as behaviors at the source of emotional disturbance. Cbt is more so a present oriented therapy, while psychodynamics is relatively past oriented.

Psychodynamic vs CBT: The goal of psychodynamic therapy is insight into unconscious emotional responses so that conscious changes can be made in present behavior. "the past" can be re-enacted in the present, causing current life problems. The goal of cbt is to discover & challenge limiting thoughts/beliefs/behavior, since they're presumed to cause painful emotion. How these thoughts developed is much less emphasized.

Goals, technique: Cbt is a therapeutic technique based on the idea that symptoms are a result of habitual patterns of thinking. Change the patterns and the symptoms go away. Psychodynamic therapy is focused on understanding one's motives, conflicts, and deficits, conscious and unconscious, as a tool for change. Dynamic therapy is less structured, and longer duration than cbt. It may be less symptom oriented.

Unconscious/behavior: Psychodynamic focuses on unconscious processes and object relations processes that motivate behavior, and CBT therapists tend to focus only on observable behaviors and how to change them.

Comparing therapy: Although schools of therapy propose different concepts about problems and cures, there is research to suggest that most therapy as practice include a lot of the same methods and actions. Psychodynamic therapy is most unique in belief in unconscious and considering the importance of the patient-therapist connection. CBT focuses more on conscious thoughts and logical/illogical processing.