What are the Most Common Types of Therapies?
Arguably, everybody could benefit from therapy at least once in their lives. Life is complicated, and we could all use a little help occasionally. There are countless different therapeutic modalities out there, ranging from psychodynamic therapy to cognitive behavioural therapy, and more besides.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the most common evidence-based therapies and their foundational principles.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Commonly referred to as ACT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a psychotherapy based on accepting your thoughts and feelings, without judgement, and committing towards value-based actions that move you forward, rather than dwelling in the past.
It shares many similarities with mindfulness practices and has the individual identifying and focusing on their core values to help them decide what is important to them. For instance, an OCD sufferer might be feeling stuck, ruminating over whether they locked the front door or not. They are entirely in their head and not present whatsoever.
Within an ACT framework, the individual would accept the uncertainty over whether they locked the front door, without going back to check on it, and take a step towards a value-driven decision; in this case, it might be something like being fully present and engaged in the conversation with their significant other.
The benefits of ACT are that it encourages individuals to learn to live with their thoughts rather than trying to avoid or excessively engage with them. The model encourages people to accept thoughts as precisely that – thoughts, and then continue to live life as they would want to.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a prevalent form of psychotherapy in which an individual is invited to explore (and change) how their thought patterns – or cognitions – affect their behaviour. CBT involves looking at our core beliefs, dysfunctional assumptionsand negative automatic thoughts.
Our core beliefs inform how we interact with the world, and CBT can help challenge some of the more faulty or unhelpful beliefs. For instance, someone might have the core belief that they’re a failure. A CBT therapist would help gently challenge that assertion and break it down.
By working on these negative core beliefs and faulty thinking patterns, often called cognitive distortions, individuals can see significant improvements in their anxious or depressive symptoms. The most common cognitive distortions addressed as part of CBT treatment include (but aren’t limited to):
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is a form of therapy modelled closely around CBT; however, its focus is on those people who struggle with the intensity of their emotions. It revolves around learning to handle difficult emotions and helps individuals steer away from behaviours like self-harm, drug and alcohol problems, and eating problems.
Examples of DBT techniques are the ideas of distress tolerance and emotional regulation. With these skills, individuals begin to learn that they can cope with complicated feelings and emotions. The STOP skill, for example, can be used to de-escalate intense moments.
This stands for Stop, Take a step back, Observe and Proceed. In doing this, the person struggling can put some immediate distance between themselves and the difficult emotion(s) they’re experiencing. Other related DBT skills include radical acceptance, mindfulness, and wise mind.
Psychodynamic Therapy
This therapy examines how past experiences (often our childhood experiences) shape who we are and how we behave today. Psychodynamic treatment is underpinned by the theories first penned by the likes of Freud and others.
The therapeutic relationship, that’s to say, the connection between an individual and their therapist, is particularly important in psychodynamic therapy. This is because so much of psychodynamic therapy involves diving into past, often sensitive and traumatic, experiences.
Other Forms of Therapy
Some other less common forms of therapy include EMDR, ecotherapy, Jungian therapy, compassion-focused therapy (CFT), and more. The important thing to note is that there’s a therapeutic modality for everybody out there, and you shouldn’t be put off if the first therapy you try isn’t the one for you.
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