Categories: Health

Types of Mental Health Therapies

With the amount of stress in our world today, mental health conditions are very prevalent. Many people seek therapy or counseling to help them work through issues which are causing them great stress – whether it be issues at work, home, or unresolved problems from childhood. Therapy or counseling focuses on working on one’s problems by talking and changing the way one thinks about them. Today, there are several popular types of therapy and we will explore three of them in this article.

 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a tried and true method of changing maladaptive thoughts and behaviors. It works on the principle that what you think influences the way you act, and that by changing how you think, you will change your actions in relation to the world around you. It focuses heavily on identifying cognitive distortions and countering them with more rational thoughts. Those in therapy are expected to do homework between sessions and go over this homework with their therapist during the sessions. This is the most studied method of therapy which is popular today as it has been shown to help clients improve greatly in a short amount of time.

 

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy was originally developed for Borderline Personality Disorder but has now been adapted to treat all sorts of symptoms. It focuses on teaching clients skills in 4 main areas: emotional regulation, interpersonal skills, mindfulness, and distress tolerance. This therapy most often involves attending both a group session and an individual session each week. Symptoms are tracked on a homework sheet and ‘coaching’ calls to the therapist are encouraged to work through difficult situations.

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a relatively new therapy which focuses not on eliminating distress but on teaching clients to accept their negative emotions and “ride out the wave”. Mindfulness is a key component to this therapy. It also focuses on accepting one’s feelings and being present in the moment with them. The least studied of these three therapies, it has shown promise in alleviating stress and depression.

 

Many therapists choose an eclectic method when working with clients and will pull in aspects of all of these therapies as they feel the need, while some specialize strictly in one area. It is important for a person seeking therapy to question a potential therapist about their clinical orientation when interviewing them to see if they are a good fit.

 




  • Lola

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    • What a wonderful article! Thanks for posting. The problem some people have is that they have failed to accept the negative part so as to seek for a way of doing away with it. Others believed that negativity does not exist therefore they kept making the naive mistakes. It's high time we correct ourselves before we are being corrected. Thanks for posting.

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