Summary•A theory which enables the recipient of care to identify health‐care needs is paramount.•Hildegard Peplau's (1952) theory of psychodynamic nursing enables this process to occur in collaborative identification and resolution of need.•The psychodynamic approach can direct the user to focus on the psychosocial problems created by a stroke.•The advantages and limitations of the theory are still to be investigated with the continued application to varied clinical situations.•There is a need to generate an expanded research‐based taxonomy of psycho‐social interventions for th