Much like people do not have the same types of mental health needs, there are many approaches to mental health support and therapy that are available to each person who enters a therapy room.
Whilst there is some overlap and many therapists will use more than one type of treatment, different approaches allow for more targeted treatment of specific needs and to help people who may react better to certain types of therapy over others.
Whilst there are dozens of therapy types out there, many of them can be collated into specific approaches and specialisations.
Behavioural Therapeutic Approaches
Behavioural therapy is focused on current actions and outcomes and the idea that by changing these responses people can change their relationships to the events from their past that cause them, breaking negative behavioural loops and creating more positive reactions.
Many forms of behavioural therapy are familiar to people, such as aversion therapy, where behaviours they want to stop are associated with uncomfortable or unpleasant thoughts, flooding, where someone faces a fear directly, and systemic desensitisation, where someone gradually builds up a relaxation reaction to something they found negative.
Cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT is a specific therapy pathway related to behavioural therapy but addresses the problematic beliefs and thoughts people have about themselves that are causing distress.
Humanistic Therapeutic Approaches
Humanistic therapy is about developing self-acceptance and altering the worldview that can affect the choices a person makes, focusing intently on understanding how a person feels without making assumptions or having too firm a guiding hand.
The most common example of this approach is person-centred therapy, where a therapist provides empathy, guidance and ultimate acceptance to aid with personal growth and counter the emotional distress that can sometimes occur when people harshly criticise someone’s life choices.
There are other aspects to this as well which emphasise further how personal philosophy affects people’s approaches to life. Existential therapy is about finding which parts of life mean the most to a person and how they can find purpose if they feel they are drifting or not fulfilling their potential.
Psychodynamic Therapy
A psychodynamic approach is a more classical approach to psychology and mental health therapy, focusing broadly on the foundational blocks that make a person who they are, as well as acting and thinking certain ways.
The broad approach to psychodynamic therapy is tailored heavily to individual needs as will often involve analysing dreams, fantasies, and exploring a person’s past to find patterns of behaviour or thoughts that could be contributing to a negative situation or mental anguish.
Unlike CBT, which is designed to target current actions and thoughts, psychodynamic therapy is intensive and long-term, with some people working for years to fully unpick their past and achieve long-term positive mental health outcomes.
Relationship Therapy
This specialist approach focuses not only on an individual but on interpersonal issues within a relationship unit, which is often an adult couple but can also include families, siblings and child groups.
As they often involve having more than one person in the room at a time, the dynamics of relationship therapy can be very different to individual therapy, or even to group therapy featuring several individuals.
