Types of Therapy
Evidence Based Therapies
It is important to find a therapist with whom you feel comfortable working. However, it is equally important to find one that uses evidenced based therapies. At Anxiety House we are an evidence-based practice because our clients only receive treatments with research showing its effectiveness. At (insert clinics) we value our client’s time, effort and financial commitment to therapy. Many of the following therapies can be used with children, adolescents and adults. Your treating clinician will develop an individualised treatment plan and guide you with one of following therapies:
Attachment-Based Therapy
Attachment-based therapy is a brief, process-oriented psychological treatment focused on developing or rebuilding trust and centres on the client expressing emotions. Attachment-based theories connect early life attachment experiences with primary caregivers and highlights how these patterns can either develop normally or require some intervention to secure heathy relationship as an adult.
Acceptance and Commitment therapy
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented psychotherapy that stems from traditional behaviour therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy. Clients are encouraged to learn how to sit with difficult emotions rather than avoid them. The fundamental basis is for people to accept that these deeper feelings are understandable responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. Clients are encouraged to accept their emotions and commit to making necessary changes in their behaviour that are consistent with their personal values and the way that they want to see their life.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a short-term present-day therapy that centres on the way an individual thinks and feels influences the way he or she behaves. The focus is on problem solving, and the goal is to change clients' thought patterns in order to change their responses to difficult situations. A CBT approach can be applied to a wide range of mental health issues and conditions.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) provides clients with new skills to manage painful emotions and decrease conflict in relationships. DBT specifically focuses on providing therapeutic skills in four key areas. First, mindfulness focuses on improving an individual's ability to accept and be present in the current moment. Second, distress tolerance is geared toward increasing a person’s tolerance of negative emotion, rather than trying to escape from it. Third, emotion regulation covers strategies to manage and change intense emotions that are causing problems in a person’s life. Fourth, interpersonal effectiveness consists of techniques that allow a person to communicate with others in a way that is assertive, maintains self-respect, and strengthens relationships.
Compassion-Focused Therapy
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) helps those who struggle with the shame and self-criticism that can result from early experiences of abuse or neglect. CFT teaches clients to show self-compassion and regulate mood leading to feelings of safety, self-acceptance, and comfort. The technique is like Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, which also instructs clients about the science behind the mind-body connection and how to practice mind and body awareness.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy
EMDR is a unique, non-traditional form of psychotherapy designed to diminish negative feelings associated with memories of traumatic events. Unlike most forms of talk therapy, EMDR focuses less on the traumatic event itself and more on the disturbing emotions and symptoms that result from the event. Treatment includes a technique used by the therapist to guide the client’s eye movements from side to side to stimulate psychological processes that decrease trauma symptoms.
Family Systems Therapy
Family systems therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps individuals resolve their problems in the context of their family units, where many issues are likely to begin. Each family member works together with the others to better understand their group dynamic and how their individual actions affect each other and the family unit. One of the most important premises of family systems therapy is that what happens to one member of a family happens to everyone in the family.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy
Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a focused therapy where the main goal is to improve the quality of a client’s interpersonal relationships. IPT provides strategies to resolve problems within four key areas: interpersonal deficits (e.g. social isolation); unresolved grief (e.g. death of a loved one); third life transitions (e.g. divorce and conflicting expectations between partners, family members, close friends or co-workers.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a modified form of cognitive therapy that incorporates mindfulness practices such as meditation and breathing exercises. Using these tools, MBCT therapists teach clients how to be aware of negative thought patterns that can cause a downward spiral into a depressed state so they will be able to better manage depression.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a combination of play therapy and behavioural therapy for young children and their parents or caregivers. The adults learn and practice new skills and techniques for relating to children with emotional or behaviour problems, language issues, developmental disabilities, or mental health disorders.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
PET is a form of psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After a traumatic event, some people experience unwanted thoughts, disturbing nightmares, feelings of hopelessness, depression, and hypervigilance. If you have these symptoms, you understandably want to avoid thoughts, feelings and things that remind you of the trauma. The goal of PET is to gradually help you reengage with life, especially with things you have been avoiding. By doing so, you will strengthen your ability to distinguish safety from danger and decrease your PTSD symptoms.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is like psychoanalytic therapy in that it is an in-depth form of talk therapy based on the theories and principles of psychoanalysis. But psychodynamic therapy is less focused on the patient-therapist relationship, because it is equally focused on the patient’s relationship with his or her external world. Often, psychodynamic therapy is shorter than psychoanalytic therapy with respect to the frequency and number of sessions, but this is not always the case.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
A form of cognitive behavioural therapy that addresses the specific emotional and mental health needs of children, adolescents, adult survivors, and families who are struggling to overcome the destructive effects of early trauma. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) is especially sensitive to the unique problems of youth with post-traumatic stress and mood disorders resulting from abuse, violence, or grief.
