What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy involves individuals who are experiencing challenges in their daily functioning either through emotional dysregulation or stemming from various mental health conditions. A psychotherapist can help alleviate a client’s symptoms and help to determine what the root cause of their condition is. Stressful life events, traumatic experiences, medical illnesses, and mental health conditions can all contribute to an impact on daily functioning and emotional well-being. Working with a licensed counselor, social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist can help a client get back to where they want to be. For some individuals, psychotherapy can be combined with medications for the best treatment option.

Some psychotherapists may utilize one specific modality, while others may incorporate a combination of approaches to help meet each individual client’s needs.

Types of psychotherapy modalities include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Helps people identify and change thinking and behavior patterns that are unhealthy or ineffective, replacing them with more accurate thoughts and functional behaviors.
• Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): Can help people learn healthy ways to express emotions and ways to improve communication and how they relate to others.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): A specific type of CBT that helps clients more effectively regulate emotions and is typically conducted in individual and group settings.
• Psychodynamic Therapy: Based on the idea that behavior and mental well-being are rooted in childhood and past experiences and involves bringing to conscious awareness feelings that might be unconscious.
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): A therapeutic modality involving an eight-phase treatment approach that works to access and process a client’s traumatic memories or other adverse life experiences to help the client heal from their distress associated with these events. During one phase of EMDR, a clinician utilizes lateral eye movements, hand-tapping, or other bilateral stimulation to help the client process through their targeted experiences.
• Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): A brief therapy modality that incorporates the belief that the client has the capacity to define their problems and therefore can identify exceptions and solutions to their problems (American Psychiatric Association, 2023).

It's essential to recognize that therapy is a highly personalized experience, as no two individuals are alike. A skilled therapist tailors their approach to the specific needs and goals of each client, ensuring that the therapeutic journey is uniquely suited to promote healing and empower individuals to lead more fulfilling lives.