Understanding Types of Therapy

When it comes to seeking mental health care, there are many different types of therapy. It can be confusing to navigate if you are new to therapy and unfamiliar with the styles and theories. Below is a (non-comprehensive) break down of some popular styles of therapy and what they are in practice, so that you are more informed when searching for a therapist.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)- CBT believes that the way you think about things that happen to you is what causes our emotional reactions, not the event itself. CBT focuses on unhelpful thoughts and unhelpful beliefs about yourself, the future, and the world, and focuses on challenging maladaptive patterns and creating new, more accurate, more helpful belief systems. CBT also focuses on unhelpful patterns of thinking, like spiraling out with anxiety, mind reading, or thinking of things as either this or that. This therapy focuses mostly on the present moment and current experiences now that are impacting us. CBT can be utilized to treat dozens of concerns, from depression and anxiety to sleep disorders and chronic pain.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)- The goal of DBT is to create a life worth living. It is based off of dialectics, which is the idea that two "opposing" things can exist at the same time without cancelling the other out (ex: "I love you and you frustrate me!"). It focuses on skills to help increase mindfulness, better tolerate distress, better regulate emotions, and be more effective in relationships. DBT believes that you are always doing the best you can and you can be better, and encourages you to become more effective at using skills instead of making our lives more challenging. DBT also has a trauma therapy (DBT-PE) that combines DBT with Prolonged Exposure.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)- ACT focusing on separating from thoughts and understanding that negative thoughts are just thoughts and not who you are as a person. There is a focus on mindfulness and observing thoughts. ACT also focuses on values and aligning your life with your values to bring satisfaction and happiness.

Psychoanalysis- This therapy is based off the work of Freud and is one of the oldest forms of therapy. In its true and full form, therapists are blank faced, offering no emotional reactions during therapy, and therapy occurs multiple times throughout the week. The idea behind this therapy is that you have unresolved conflicts from your childhood that are negatively impacting you. By understanding these unconscious conflict and bringing them into awareness, you can resolve your concerns. Psychoanalysis is based in the past, focuses entirely on the unconscious, and holds that you get better through insight alone.

Psychodynamic Therapy- This is essentially the next generation of psychoanalysis. There is still a focus on the past and on unresolved conflict, but therapists are more emotive and therapy is only once a week. Psychodynamic therapy can help navigate childhood conflicts and better understand attachment. There are many styles of dynamic therapy, including relational dynamic therapy, which focuses specifically on relationships in your life and understanding the impact these have on your mental health.

Trauma Therapies:

• Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)- This theory believes that after a trauma, you get stuck on certain thoughts and begin to believe them. These thoughts are unhelpful and cause you to feel challenging emotions, which then generalize and impact many aspects of your life. CPT believes that if you can identify these thoughts you are stuck on and create more balanced thoughts, you can change how you feel and recover from trauma.

• Prolonged Exposure (PE)- When a trauma occurs, often you are unable to fully process it and instead try to forget about or avoid the memory. Unfortunately, that only works until it doesn't. The longer you avoid something, the more scary it becomes, but by confronting it, you can learn that you can tolerate discomfort and finish processing the trauma. PE encourages you to go back to the trauma memory and relive it, focusing on thoughts and emotions that come up. You also will approach things you are avoiding in your daily life (ex: certain places, people, or things that trigger trama). PE is intense and effective.