Therapy 101: The Various Methods And What To Expect

Therapy has been a popular topic in the news and on social media these days and I’m loving how much more openness there is in our culture about accessing therapy. You might be wondering what all the different “types” of therapies are or what therapeutic model might be right for you and what you’d like to work on.

As a therapist who is trained in different modalities, I usually take a holistic approach and tend to draw from a number of different frameworks – I like to have lots of tools to share with my clients. This is just my preference and other providers might solely practice using a certain modality.

Below is a snapshot of some of the different evidence-based, relational models of therapy that are out there. This is in no way a comprehensive list and there is so much more information on each type of therapy that can be found online or that can be discussed with your clinician. There are also many other models and frameworks that exist in psychology, but these are some of the most common. I encourage you to spend some time digging deeper into a specific model that might be of interest to you. 

Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT)

When you think of ‘talk therapy’, you are most likely thinking of Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT guides clients to connect thoughts, feelings, and actions and reframe unhelpful thinking to something that is more adaptive or helpful. In a session, you will not only talk through your situation and challenges, but your therapist will also work with you to build coping skills to better manage your feelings and support you in reframing cognitive distortions. CBT usually incorporates different tools such as psychoeducation, thought stopping techniques, relaxation strategies and assertiveness training or gradual exposure to situations that might be distressing.

It is not unusual  for new parents to feel overwhelmed, to experience intrusive thoughts or worries or to feel like “I’m a bad mom.” With CBT, your therapist would support you in addressing this kind of thinking by helping you to change or remove their power by looking at the connection between your thoughts and feelings, looking for distortions, encouraging you to consider how accurate these thoughts are, exploring underlying beliefs and then working to develop alternative perspectives as well as ways to cope with these unhelpful thoughts. The collaborative approach of CBT provides clients with a sense of hope and connection as they work to feel better and manage worry, sadness, or overwhelm. 

There are numerous types of therapies that are grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy, including Mindfulness Based CBT and DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy). 

Mindfulness Based CBT 

Mindfulness Based CBT combines the theoretical ideas of CBT with meditative practices and mindfulness based strategies to help clients observe what they are experiencing and feeling in the moment and approach this with acceptance.  Mindfulness based CBT gives clients the space to observe their current experience and how they are doing in the present moment, while focusing on their breathing and paying attention to any body or physical sensations that are arising. This supports clients in staying present and approaching their current state without judgment as they better understand and manage their thoughts.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is another form of CBT that helps clients learn skills to regulate emotions. Therapists use a targeted approach that embodies four main concepts: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT is skills based and has been really effective for clients who might struggle with regulating emotions and reducing behaviors that might be interfering with a clients’ life and functioning, with the ultimate goal of improving one’s overall life experience.    

As a new parent who is exhausted or adjusting to this new role, DBT can be really useful in helping parents to stay present or mindful in their current experiences.  Therapists can teach emotion regulation skills to help a new parent cope with issues like sleep deprivation; learning distress tolerance skills can help to respond effectively and calming to situations instead of reacting, and a focus on interpersonal relationship skills can help partners understand and support one another’s experiences in this role as new parents. 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

With roots in CBT and behavioral therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is another mindfulness-based model of therapy that guides clients to have psychological flexibility as well as engage in values-based positive behaviors while being able to tolerate experiencing difficult thoughts, emotions and sensations. It is aligned with the mindfulness practices of encouraging curiosity and non-judgement and teaching clients to stop struggling with their inner emotions and instead accept that these feelings might be appropriate responses to situations that should not keep them stuck. In understanding this, clients can start to accept their challenges and commit to making changes in their behaviors. staying present with what is and welcoming all of it.  By exploring personal values, clients work to focus on healing and developing a different relationship with one’s emotions and experiences and help to disrupt patterns. 

ACT can be useful for new parents who are navigating changes in their relationship to one another as well as in exploring personal values. ACT can also support parents in helping them to have acceptance for their experiences and commit to actions as new parents that align with their own values. 

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) 

EMDR is a structured, phased based treatment that does not actually involve a lot of talking. Instead, it involves bilateral stimulation (most commonly forms of this are eye movements or tapping) to help a client process trauma or other life experiences that cause distress. EMDR is based on the understanding that traumatic memories or distressing events are maladaptively stored in our brain and bodies, causing disturbance (which is why we might experience overwhelm or the flight, fight, freeze trauma response).

In EMDR therapy, your therapist will target past experiences, current triggers, and future potential challenges, with the goal of alleviating presenting symptoms, decreasing the amount of distress you feel from a disturbing memory, help to build an improved view of self and relief from bodily disturbance, allowing healing to occur and your brain to reprocess the trauma in a more adaptive way.  

EMDR can also target future scenarios that might be distressing so as to set a client up for success in coping and managing these situations. For example, EMDR has been found to be very effective in not only processing traumatic birth experiences but also can be helpful as birthing parents consider future pregnancies. By engaging in EMDR to process a traumatic birth experience, you will be supported in reprocessing this trauma so that negative and painful images, memories and sensations are not held in your brain and body that continue creating overwhelm, distress, and other trauma responses;  and ultimately be set up to to better cope with and manage future birth experiences.   

What I love about EMDR is that it can provide clients with relief and reduce suffering for almost anything, sometimes in a shorter amount of time than traditional talk therapy, and it doesn’t require clients to share all of the details of a specific event or trauma.   Throughout the process of EMDR clients are supported by their clinician by learning resourcing strategies (similar to grounding strategies) that are adaptive and help to manage distressing feelings that might arise as you are processing a target memory. This type of resourcing and building adaptive coping strategies can be useful for just about anyone in therapy.  

A unique quality of EMDR is that clients can continue to work with their established therapist while also receiving EMDR treatment on specific memories or experiences and having the dual support can be helpful during.  

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Internal Family Systems (IFS)  is a therapeutic model that focuses on the client's internal “parts” and the self, with the goal of the work being to allow a client to access the “self” so they can heal wounded parts and be more balanced. The parts described all have different roles (manager, exile, firefighter). As individuals, we respond to experiences differently and IFS is a way to talk to some of the parts and experiences that have felt really hard. With collaboration and acknowledgment of the parts, clients can move towards shifting current behaviors that may be impacting the quality of life such as anxiety or substance use.

All of the models shared above are backed by evidence and have been found to be effective in treating many mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, body image, chronic pain, and other distressing life events. Of course, it is always important to consult with your own clinician when working through which type of therapy might be best for you, but my hope is that the above will help familiarize you with your options and set you up with a starting point.

What’s most important to remember is that all of these are most helpful if the therapeutic relationship and a sense of safety is established. The therapists at Parent Wellness Group have training in many different modalities so please reach out to learn more.