Counseling Theories and Approaches

If you are thinking of trying therapy, you might notice that there are a lot of different approaches. Some work best for specific conditions, while other’s work on a range of issues.

Here are some of the most common and widely used types of therapies and what each one might be good for:

Psychodynamic

Psychodynamic or Psycho-Analytic therapy developed from psychoanalysis. It is a long-term approach to mental health treatment. You can expect to talk to a professional counselor about anything on your mind to uncover patterns in your thoughts or behaviors that could be contributing to distress. It is also common to talk about your childhood and past, along with recurrent dreams or fantasies you might have.
Psychodynamic therapy can be good for addressing depression, anxiety, eating disorders, somatic issues, substance abuse, and a variety of other conditions.

Behavioral

In behavioral therapy, you will not spend much time talking about your “unconscious” reasons for your behaviors or working through your emotional difficulties. Instead, you will focus on ways to change reactions and patterns in your behaviors that cause you distress. Behavioral therapy can be good to address anxiety, phobias, substance use disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), oppositional and defiant behaviors, and behaviors that stem form communication difficulties and emotional challenges. The most common strategies used in Behavior therapy include: Systematic desensitization, Aversion Therapy, and Flooding.

Cognitive

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a short-term approach to mental health treatment and is similar to Behavior therapy. However, it also addresses unhelpful thought patterns or problematic thoughts. The idea is that certain feelings or beliefs about yourself or situations in your life cause you distress. The distress can oftentimes, contribute to mental health issues, alongside them, or develop as a complication of other mental health issues. In CBT, you will work on identifying the patterns and learning more about how the patterns negatively affect you. With the help of your therapist, you will explore ways to replace your negative thought patterns or behaviors with ones that are more helpful and accurate.
CBT often involves homework or practice outside of therapy sessions. Some subtypes of CBT include: Dialectic Behavior therapy (DBT) and Rational Emotive therapy (REBT). In DBT you work on acceptance and emotional regulation, skills development, coping mechanism and how to deal with your emotions when they arise. In REBT, you learn how to challenge irrational beliefs that contribute to your distress in the first place. CBT can be good for addressing mood disorders (depression and bipolar disorder), anxiety and phobias, eating disorders, substance use disorders, OCD, insomnia, and some symptoms of schizophrenia.

Humanistic

Humanistic Therapy is an approach to helping that takes into consideration your “world view” and how it affects the choices you make. Especially the choices that cause you distress. It is based on the idea that you are the best person to understand your experiences and needs. Humanistic therapists attempt to help you work toward the goal of living your most fulfilling life. Humanistic approaches can be good for addressing self-esteem issues, difficulty coping with chronic health issues, effects of trauma, depression, relationship issues, substance use disorders, feelings of worthlessness, or being lost in life.

Integrative, Holistic, or Multimodal approaches

Evidence Based Treatment

Evidence-based treatment is a movement in psychology that aims to track the effectiveness of treatment to provide clients with the treatments that have solid evidence backing their efficacy. At Psychological Assessment and Treatment Services, we will only use those practices that have known evidence for working. We utilized different questionnaires and measures to obtain data from clients at different times in therapy, such as at the beginning, during (progress monitoring), and ending of treatment, to see how they are doing and if the interventions and approaches we are employing are working to help.

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