Therapy
Which Type of Therapy Services are Right for You?
Written by
Inner Clarity
September 3, 2024
So, you’ve decided to invest in your mental health. Congratulations! You’re making a great choice. Connecting with a therapist is one surefire way to gain a productive space to discuss challenges and develop healthy coping skills. But while it may be clear you’d like to move forward with treatment, figuring out what types of therapy are right for you is not always as simple.
There are so many different issues and goals that every individual may bring into therapy and there are even more strategies to address them. By exploring what therapy methods are out there, you can identify which will provide the most effective care for your mental health needs.
At Inner Clarity, we not only offer high-quality therapeutic services with professionals trained in a wide range of specializations, but helpful guides to inform what options are available and what strategies work best for those committed to gaining a clear mind for a healthy life.
Perhaps you’ve read some self-help books and found that you desire more professional guidance to understand yourself and your past. Maybe you’re looking for structured therapy sessions from which you’ll be able to walk away with specific techniques to employ in your daily routine. Or, you’re searching for someone you can trust to unconditionally assist you in delving into your thoughts and feelings.
Ever since the field of psychology first emerged in the late 19th century, the theoretical frameworks behind what therapy entails have only diversified and grown. The following types of therapy access almost every possible mental health condition a person could want to redress. At Inner Clarity, our therapists utilize best-practice techniques using evidence-based interventions to best address the needs of our clients.
Cognitive behavioral therapy has become increasingly popular in recent years and for good reason. According to the American Psychological Association, the core principles behind CBT presume that mental problems are largely caused by learned patterns of negative thinking that can be recognized and supplanted.
CBT is particularly effective in treating certain conditions like anxiety or depression because counselors often provide “homework” assignments to patients in order to disrupt what they have become accustomed to and show that there are alternative ways to respond to stressful situations.
If you have experienced a traumatic event and would like to address it without necessarily talking about it at length over the course of many sessions, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy could be what you’re looking for. EMDR prompts patients with guided eye movements and instructions that help access unprocessed memories tied to the source of distress with the goal to resolve how they are stored in the brain.
The EMDR Institute, Inc. cited a study that showed 100 percent of single-trauma victims were no longer diagnosed with PTSD after just six 50-minute sessions. The tactic can enable you to manage memories of past stress while no longer reliving them, though it’s important to note reports show EMDR is most effective for those suffering from specific incidents of trauma and not overlapping mental illnesses.
For those struggling with borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, or substance abuse, consider pursuing dialectical behavioral therapy. This treatment style was designed specifically for patients striving to achieve more sustainable self-regulation as it focuses on supporting one’s ability to recognize their constant flux of feelings, and understand that life is a complex process that requires a continuous dialogue between the self and others, Psychology Today states.
According to the National Library of Medicine, the word “dialectic” itself refers to the synthesis of two opposites: both the change and acceptance of difficult patterns in one’s life. You can access DBT through individual therapy sessions, group skills training, or even phone coaching.
Maybe you’re navigating symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and are looking for support to regain control from the compulsions causing interruptions in your life. Exposure and response prevention therapy works by helping you practice, first gradually in a safe and controlled setting, confronting what triggers your compulsions so that you may retrain your brain to respond to them in a different way.
Though challenging, continuous ERP helps build lifelong resilience; instead of helping you remove or avoid sources of stress, you learn how to accept them as a part of everyday life and how to respond to them in ways that are no longer debilitating. In fact, reports show that OCD can worsen with time if gone unaddressed by the evidence-based tools like the kind ERP offers.
Interpersonal therapy furnishes unique benefits to those wanting a structured and short-term process toward substantive change. Instead of rooting around in the time of one’s early development, it examines the current state of your interpersonal relationships and how to improve, among other things, your communication skills.
As the Center for Addiction and Mental Health states, interpersonal therapy addresses four main areas that are common sources of stress: major life changes (like the loss of a job), grief, difficulties in sustaining relationships, and general conflicts in relationships. This mode can also manage mood disorders and anxiety or bulimia.
The world of psychology was forever changed when the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud developed the main tenets of psychodynamic therapy in the early 20th century. This style of talk therapy often interprets one’s current mental concerns as stemming from early childhood conflicts. Freud believed that by interpreting one’s past experiences and unconscious mind, you could resolve the root of a person’s current problems.
Psychodynamic therapy is a great option for patients interested in learning more about themselves by analyzing their dreams, exploring free association exercises, and discussing how they transfer feelings about past experiences onto new ones.
Now that you’ve received a lay of the land on what types of therapy you have to select from, it’s crucial you reflect on your own personal preferences, treatment goals, and past therapy experiences when it comes time to move forward with a provider.
Inner Clarity’s services provide the opportunity for patients to pair with qualified counselors who have experience in multiple different therapy modes. Whether you’re looking for an individual, couples, or family therapy model, consulting with a professional about what type of therapy is most appropriate for your mental health will start you on the most effective path.
Given the many kinds of therapy available, it can be daunting to actually seek mental health services. Here are three tried-and-true strategies for finding a provider who is a good match.
Perusing therapy directories or online platforms can make it easier to find a professional counselor who specializes in the type of mental health care you are interested in working with. You can also consult peers who know you best for recommendations on therapists in your local orbit.
But what may be most conducive to meeting the right therapist for you is engaging with therapy practices that share the same general values and priorities you do. Inner Clarity’s roster of qualified professionals all believe that a person’s mind, body, and spirit need to be in balance in order to achieve a healthy life.
The forces driving you to seek therapy can seem overwhelming when taken in all at once, but if you take the time to contemplate what specific concerns rise above others, that will help the therapist you eventually work with understand what to prioritize in your sessions.
Furthermore, understanding what style of therapy you think is best suited to your needs — whether CBT, DPT, psychodynamic therapy, or something else — will guarantee that you will be matched with providers who have training in that field of treatment.
Many communities across the country face a shortage of qualified therapists, stranding those in need with few local treatment options. Fortunately, virtual therapy provides increased access, especially for those seeking therapists with unique specializations.
Virtual therapy also provides unrivaled convenience, making it easier for people to fit therapy into busy lives from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. Through online therapy, mental health relief is ultimately available anywhere you have an internet connection.
Every person deserves access to quality mental health services. By identifying what type of therapy corresponds correctly to your mental health affairs, and following the strategies shown by Inner Clarity for accessing a provider capable of offering that treatment, there’s no limit to what goals you can realize.
Whether you’d like to virtually pursue cognitive behavioral therapy through individual sessions, or interpersonal therapy with you and your partner, request an appointment with Inner Clarity today and we’ll get you on the path toward a clear mind for a healthy life.
