COMMON THERAPUTIC APPROACHES DEFINED
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) encourages mindfulness to overcome the negative attitudes, thoughts, and feelings that result from difficulties that come with life. ACT builds on a model of accepting our reactions, staying present, and making choices that then enable us to take action. Someone who struggles with social anxiety, continued stress, and depression could benefit from ACT.
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Attachment-Based Therapy taps into the experiences that influence your early attachment experiences, or the bonds that developed between you and your early caregivers, in order to resolve the resulting feelings, thoughts, communications, and behaviors that you may have adopted as avoidant coping mechanisms. For someone whose current experiences are being negatively impacted by early trauma, Attachment-Based Therapy may be an effective therapeutic approach. This approach is often used in parent-child and family therapy sessions.
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Behavioral Therapy encompasses a wide range of therapies that are leveraged in targeting self-destructive behaviors. Behavior therapy is built on the belief that behaviors are learned and can be unlearned. For someone wanting to let go of unhealthy behaviors that are proving to be harmful, Behavioral Therapy is worth considering.
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Brainspotting addresses pain and trauma by tracking eye movements across the fields of vision. It helps you identify and release how your body stores pain and trauma. This is a great option for someone that wants to heal their trauma-induced emotions, fears, and pain on a deeper level.
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Client-Centered Therapy occurs when your therapist takes a step back, and allows you to take a more active and directive role in your healing process. In this approach, your therapist is primarily present to encourage self-acceptance and healing. This is a great method for those who recognize their potential and want to take the lead, but still value the support that a therapist can provide.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a short-term approach that allows you to address your goals by considering the thoughts, feelings, and experiences that support desired behaviors. This is a great option for you if you have a short-term goal you want to achieve, and desire the support and accountability that a therapist can provide.
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Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a form of CBT that targets PTSD with the belief that our thoughts impact our attitudes and feelings about our past trauma. The implicit goal is that, over 12 sessions, you are able to turn the experiences that hurt you into ones that empower you. CPT is a great modality for someone that wants to change the ways that their trauma presents itself in their day-to-day lives.
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Collaborative Therapy is an approach that allows you to apply your own understanding of your experiences. In this mode, your therapist is less likely to direct the conversation, with you drawing conclusions of cognitive and behavioral shifts that you need to make. This is a great approach for someone who values candid explorations of their experiences and problems as a route to reflecting on options and solutions.
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) promotes healing by providing skills to manage difficult emotions. Your therapist incorporates mindfulness, self-awareness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal communication into your treatment plan. DBT is a great modality if you are struggling with stress or anxiety, or if you find yourself overwhelmed by strong emotional reactions. DBT can consist of group therapy sessions in addition to the individual sessions with the therapist.
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is a structured form of healing that requires you to revisit painful and traumatic experiences in order to reduce the triggers and feelings of negativity towards the experience. You will be asked to focus on the trauma while your therapist helps to control the bilateral stimulation via controlled eye movements.
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Family Systems is a form of therapy that helps you find reconciliation within your familial relationships. Founded on the concept that each member of a family contributes to the health of the family system, Family Systems Therapy is a great option for families that are experiencing a level of dysfunction that feels unmanageable. The guidance of a therapist could accelerate the healing of each individual, and thus the relationships that you hold with each other.
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Grief Therapy addresses the emotions and thoughts that follow the loss of a loved one or pet. Grief Therapy is successful at managing pain and processing memories that you shared with the deceased in a way that is healing and positive for you.
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Holistic Therapy goes beyond the diagnoses and sickness that you may have. You are viewed as a person, first and foremost. Holistic Therapy is a great route for someone who wants to approach their healing with their entire being taken into consideration, not just the symptoms and diagnoses that shape the way they experience life.
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Mindfulness is the practice of being present and aware of your thoughts, feelings, and experience from moment to moment. This is an ideal practice for someone wanting to increase their self-awareness.
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Multicultural Therapy is founded on the understanding that family and cultural factors impact our individual perspectives of ourselves, the world, and our experiences. This is a great form of therapy for refugees, immigrants, and anyone who finds challenges in assimilating to a new culture.
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Person-Centered Therapy involves speaking through your experiences, with minimal but intentional feedback from your therapist. Your therapist is not present to interpret your experiences; they may, instead, opt to repeat back what you say to help you understand your thoughts and feelings in a new way. This is a great form of therapy for someone who heals best by openly discussing their experiences and challenges.
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Polyvagal Theory focuses on your social experiences and views your behavioral challenges and mental health disorders as responses from the autonomic nervous response to these experiences.
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Positive Psychotherapy (PPT) intertwines humanistic and psychodynamic approaches to healing from pain. The idea is to rewire our brains to think about our painful experiences in a more positive way. This is a great approach for someone who struggles to find the silver linings in their experiences, and who would like to shift their attitude about their life.
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Solutions-Focused Therapy focuses on arming you with problem solving skills by focusing on the impact of your present decisions on your future. Solutions-Focused Therapy empowers you to become more goal oriented, rather than becoming paralyzed by problems. This therapy is recommended for anyone who struggles with managing and responding to their problems.
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Somatic Experiencing is designed to alleviate the symptoms of PTSD and other mental and physical manifestations of trauma. Your therapist works with you to understand how your trauma impacts you on a physical level. Shifts in posture, changes in breathing, and fidgeting could all be observations in a Somatic Experiencing session. Someone who seeks to change the physical responses that occur as a result of their trauma may appreciate the effects of Somatic Experiencing.
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Strength-Based Therapy focuses on your internal strengths and resources as tools for overcoming failures, pain, and trauma. Your relationship with your therapist is collaborative, open, and non-hierarchical. Your community is viewed as a support system of resources, as opposed to being viewed as an obstacle.
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Trauma Therapy is designed to help you with your history of traumatizing experiences. Trauma Therapy incorporates a variety of other therapies that your therapist may deem helpful to your specific circumstances.
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Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is a type of therapy best suited for children and adolescents with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and/or anxiety. This approach is a cognitive behavioral, and aims to diminish your negative thinking surrounding the events.