Types of Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is based on the idea that behaviour and mental well-being are rooted in childhood and past experiences. Psychodynamic therapy involves bringing unconscious thoughts and feelings to conscious awareness and aims to promote a deeper understanding and insight into one's personal issues, to improve self-awareness and to change deep-seated patterns. The insight gained in psychodynamic psychotherapy can lead to significant personal growth and long-term changes in behaviour and personality.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a is a more intensive form of psychodynamic therapy that is typically conducted three or more times a week.
Attachment-Based Psychotherapy
Attachment-based psychotherapy is a trauma-informed psychotherapy based on the idea that one's relationship with their caregivers in early childhood shape how they relate to others emotionally. Attachment-based psychotherapy aims to help patients learn to form secure attachments.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) aims to help patients identify and change thinking and behaviour patterns that are unhealthy or ineffective. The goal of CBT is to replace maladaptive thoughts and behaviours with more accurate thoughts and behaviours. CBT can help a person focus on current problems and involves practicing new skills in the "real world."
Existential Psychotherapy
Existential psychotherapy is a form of talk therapy that aims to help patients understand how they fit into the world. It is based on theories and philosophies that address the challenges related to being human and helps patients identify their true beliefs and what gives their lives meaning and purpose. A patient may explore with their psychotherapist how their choices influence their future.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is based on the idea that emotions are linked to identity and guide people in defining preferences and making decisions. Key ideas behind EFT are that lack of emotional awareness is harmful, avoiding one's emotions can lead to negative outcomes, and ignoring or avoiding one's emotional response may alter the ability to process emotions later on. EFT helps patients gain awareness of their emotions, to understand them, and to gain coping strategies to better manage them.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy is an approach to psychotherapy where the psychotherapist and the patient collaborate to re-author the patient’s problem story. Narrative therapy aims to separate the person from the problem and to teach the person to identify alternative stories that help address their issues in a more productive way.
Person-Centred Therapy
Person-centred therapy is an approach to psychotherapy where the psychotherapist takes a non-authoritative approach to allow patients to take a lead in sessions and in the process, discover their own solutions. When a psychotherapist takes a person-centred approach to psychotherapy, they demonstrate listening without judgment and acknowledge the patient's experience without shifting the conversation in another direction. The psychotherapist encourages and supports the patient without interrupting or interfering with their process of self-discovery.