Therapeutic Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) helps improve moods, anxiety, and behavior by examining confused or distorted patterns of thinking. Clients can be taught that thoughts cause feelings and moods which can influence behaviour and can be taught to identify harmful thought patterns. Research shows that CBT can be effective in treating a variety of conditions, including depression and anxiety.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps a client understand and accept their inner emotions. ACT therapists help clients use their deeper understanding of their emotional struggles to commit to moving forward in a positive way.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can be used to treat clients who have chronic suicidal feelings/thoughts, engage in intentionally self-harmful behaviors, or have Borderline Personality Disorder. DBT emphasizes taking responsibility for one's problems and helps the person examine how they deal with conflict and intense negative emotions. This often involves a combination of group and individual sessions.
Family Therapy focuses on helping the family function in more positive and constructive ways by exploring patterns of communication and providing support and education. Family therapy sessions can include the client or child, adolescent along with parents, siblings, and grandparents.
Mindfulness-based Therapies is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose and in the present moment. The goal of mindfulness is to focus less on reacting to something or someone and more on observing and accepting without judgement. It teaches you to be aware of your thoughts and feelings and to accept them, but not attach or react to them. This practice helps you to notice your automatic reaction and to change it to be more of a reflection. Research shows mindfulness helps to: change negative behaviours, manage difficult emotions, reduce suffering, improve self-awareness, increase empathy
Proactive Counselling, counselling adolescents is different from counselling adults. A proactive approach focuses on eliminating problems before they have a chance to appear and a reactive approach is based on responding to events after they have happened. The difference between these two approaches is the perspective each one provides in assessing actions and events.
Cognitive Stimulation Therapy is an evidence-based intervention for individuals with mild to moderate dementia consisting of structured sessions of cognitive stimulation delivered in a group setting
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) is a brief treatment specifically developed and tested for depression, but also used to treat a variety of other clinical conditions. IPT focus on how interpersonal events affect an individual's emotional state. Individual difficulties are framed in interpersonal terms, and then problematic relationships are addressed.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy emphasizes understanding the issues that motivate and influence a client's behavior, thoughts, and feelings. It can help identify a client's typical behavior patterns, defenses, and responses to inner conflicts and struggles.
Psychoanalysis is a specialized, more intensive form of psychodynamic psychotherapy which usually involves several sessions per week. Psychodynamic psychotherapies are based on the assumption that a client's behavior and feelings will improve once the inner struggles are brought to light.
Play Therapy involves the use of toys, blocks, dolls, puppets, drawings, and games to help the client recognize, identify, and verbalize feelings. The psychotherapist observes how the client uses play materials and identifies themes or patterns to understand the client's problems. Through a combination of talk and play the client has an opportunity to better understand and manage their conflicts, feelings, and behavior.
Supportive Therapy gives client and teens support in their lives to cope with stress, identify helpful and unhelpful behaviors, and improve self-esteem.
Couples Therapy is a specific type of family therapy that focuses on a couple's communication and interactions.
Group Therapy uses the power of group dynamics and peer interactions to increase understanding of mental illness and/or improve social skills. There are many different types of group therapy (e.g. psychodynamic, social skills, substance abuse, multi-family, parent support, etc.).
Integrative Therapy is more inclusive of the client than traditional forms of therapy, where the client plays a less active role in treatment. Integrative psychotherapists consider the individual characteristics, preferences, needs, physical abilities, spiritual beliefs, and motivation level of their clients and use their professional judgment to decide the best approach to therapy for each client. Different approaches may be used consecutively throughout different stages of the therapeutic process or they may be used as a single combined form of therapy throughout. The approach is grounded in psychosynthesis, focuses on the relationship between mind, body, and spirit, attempting to understand and address the ways issues in one aspect of a person can lead to concerns in other areas