The popularized picture of therapy is that of a therapist sitting in a chair taking notes while their patient lays on a couch discussing their thoughts and feelings. While some forms of treatment do integrate this type of approach to help patients, there are many different therapy types to meet the needs of individual patients. In this article, we’ll present a quick overview of the types of therapy commonly available today.
Psychoanalytic Therapy
Founded by Sigmund Freud and popularized across Western culture, psychoanalytic therapy involves the therapist listening to the patient discuss their lives and their feelings. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy has expanded throughout the years into several theoretical modalities including Kleinian, Relational, Self, Ego and Object Relations. These methods are widely referred to as talk therapy and will often involve the therapist analyzing patient’s lives for patterns or significant events that play a role in their current mental health challenges.
Group Therapy
Group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which two or more patients work with their counselors and learn from others in their situation. This type of treatment often involves group discussions in which individuals are encouraged to communicate with their counselors as well as their peers on various challenges they face. The goal of group therapy is to ensure individuals have a safe space in which to practice new behaviors and gain strength through emotional support from others in their situation.
Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive therapy is similar to psychoanalytic therapy in that it seeks to resolve negative thoughts or feelings. However, cognitive therapy approaches are designed to work within a consolidated timeframe. Patients are provided treatment over the course of a customized lesson plan that often involves “homework”. Cognitive therapy strategies may also integrate behavior tracking, which allows the individual to analyze their mood and develop new ways of thinking.
Behavior Therapy
Behavior therapy is a form of therapy designed to address specific negative behaviors being exhibited by the patient. This therapy form will help respond to issues such as phobias and often involves approaches such as desensitization, in which the patient is exposed to anxiety-inducing situations to help them slowly become comfortable in a particular scenario. The therapy is usually paired with cognitive therapy to help assure long-term treatment success.
Interpersonal Therapy
Interpersonal therapy is a treatment that helps address conflicts between individuals. Within this therapy process, patients examine their relationships with family, coworkers and friends and strive to improve communication with the goal of reducing conflict and relieving issues such as depression.
By gaining a greater understanding of their full range of types of therapy, individuals can select the right approach for their unique mental health needs. To learn more about the details of these treatments, call or contact us today at 202-641-5335.
Therapy is becoming more and more important in our world today, so I appreciate your information on the different types that are available. Behavior therapy is really interesting to me, do you happen to know anything about how effective this is? I think that my daughter might be able to benefit from this specifically. She has some of the issues that you described. Thank you!
I appreciate you explaining these few different kinds of therapy and how they meet the specific needs of their clients. I think it’s amazing that we’ve developed these many different methods to help people overcome blocks in their lives. It’s important to understand how they each work, I think, so you can pick the option that you think you will respond to the best.