The Development Center

Who We Are

Frances Unsell, M.Div., LP
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist for Adults & Groups

For more than 25 years I have worked as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist to help people discover, explore, and work through the underlying causes of their life challenges. These often surface during major transitions or stressors, when someone is trying to discover who they are or what they want from life, or are unable to reach a desired goal. My training and experience enable me to work with the root causes of challenges which include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, past hurts, and an over-demanding or false self.

People often seek me out when they have exhausted self -help, positive thinking, trying to ignore what is going on within themselves, the support of family and friends, pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, or counseling. They know within themselves that they must dig deep to understand who they are and make the desired changes in their life. The journey they are ready to embark on takes courage.

What to Expect From Psychotherapy

In addition to lessening or alleviating what led you to work on yourself, expect to become stronger and better able to meet life's current and future challenges.

Throughout the years, patients have said they have gained a solid core that nothing can take away. They report more energy, improved relationships, that they can better withstand stress, are comfortable in their own skin, feel like their authentic self, and have found their own path in life and are on it.

My Experience & Training

My preparation as a psychotherapist began at Union Theological Seminary as a Rockefeller Fellow. I graduated with a concentration in Psychiatry and Religion. Then I undertook Intermediate Dance Therapy Training at the American Dance Festival to explore the relationship between body and psyche/spirit.

For more than four years I worked at Barnard College, Columbia University, in Career Services. I counseled students and alumnae, directed a career program, and supervised Ph.D. candidates in psychology. This gave me an excellent understanding of counseling techniques and an overview of the world of work. Next I worked in a parish with people during the most joyful and difficult times of life. From there I moved to the national headquarters of a religious denomination as an internal consultant on organizational leadership and development for women. This is when I realized that unless I could work comfortably with unconscious processes I could not help people grow.

Therefore, I undertook a ten-year training and graduated from the Westchester Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalysis. At that time it was a training institute in Existential Psychoanalysis. From this I learned to be in the here-and-now; that people deserve great respect and can be the authors of their own lives; and to pay attention to conscious and unconscious intrapsychic, interpersonal, and cultural dynamics.

Simultaneously, I trained at the world-renowned Tavistock Institute on the interplay of individuals and social systems: families, groups, organizations, society. This gave me a thorough experiential grounding in the deep internal influences people have on one another and the interplay between social systems and individuals.

Credentials and Memberships

Frances Unsell, Founder and President of The Development Center, works in the U.S. and Internationally.

You can reach Ms. Unsell at 203.655.9419.

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