Many professionals, such as Frank (1961), point out that the effectiveness of psychotherapy techniques is attributed to the ability of therapists to modify patients’ expectations at will. That is, if a patient gives credibility and validity to this type of therapies, greater changes may be seen in the patient.
Due to this direct interaction of the therapist on the patient’s attitude, it is considered that, in psychotherapy techniques, it is much more complicated to create a separation between the professional and the technique itself.
For this reason, in Psychology-Online we are going to present you a list of types of psychotherapiesas well as the explanation of its methodology and objectives.
How many types of psychotherapy are there?
There are many types of psychological therapy depending on the perspective and methodology used to work. What are the different types of psychotherapy? Below we list the main types of psychological therapy.
- Cognitive psychotherapy
- Psychoanalytic therapy
- Psychodynamic therapy
- Dialectical behavior therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Rational emotive psychotherapy
- Gestalt Therapy
- Brief dynamic psychotherapy or brief strategic therapy
- Meditation, full attention or mindfulness
- Acceptance and commitment therapy
- Logotherapy or experiential psychotherapy
- Systemic family therapy
- Hypnotic therapy
- Reminiscence therapy
- Focal and integrative psychotherapy
- Reciprocal inhibition psychotherapy
1. Cognitive therapy
To carry out this technique, professionals start from the base of the cognitive restructuring since it was identified that many patients with psychological disorders are possessors of negative thoughts and unrealistic beliefs. This therapy developed by Beck, has the objective that patients develop, thanks to the help provided by the therapist, the necessary skills to identify and replace these types of thoughts. Here you can see in depth what it is and what it consists of.
2. Psychoanalytic therapy
This technique was developed by the famous psychoanalyst, with the aim of achieving the resolution of patients’ psychological problems, based on their most repressed fantasies, thoughts and emotions, that is, the inner world that they hide within themselves. For therapists who follow this practice, a person’s unconscious is of vital importance to determine what are the causes that give rise to the psychological problem.
If you want to know more about it, you can read here.
3. Psychodynamic therapy
It is a technique which shares its basis with psychoanalysis therapy, however, it presents a series of differences when it comes to its implementation. These are much shorter in interventions, as well as are characteristic for having a lower intensity in the intrusion of thought. On the other hand, the treatment focuses on which the therapist must focus increase. It could be said that this type of therapy tries to readapt psychoanalysis therapy to the present.
4. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
It is about making the patient understand their way of thinking towards themselves, towards other people and towards the world around them. It aims to help modify certain thoughts as well as actions or behaviors which has derivatives of these. This therapy focuses on the here and now that the patient is living at that moment in his life. Here you can see what it is and what techniques it uses.
5. Dialectical behavior therapy
This was born as an alternative to cognitive-behavioral therapy for those patients who have multiple diagnoses in the personality axis, which is why their behavior is very difficult to control and treat. Use techniques such as training in social skills, behavioral tasksas well as behavior analysis but adding to all of them acceptance strategies with the objective that the patient incorporates the idea that there are certain behaviors which are accepted by the rest of society and that therefore there are others that are not. .
Here you will find more information about the .
6. Rational emotive psychotherapy
Developed by , this brief psychotherapy aims to achieve a deep and intense change in patients, especially in what emotional level it means. It is based on helping the subject to recognize the self-destructive processes that he or she has and to tune in, through the use of reason and rationality, to more appropriate emotions. Great importance is given to emotions, where poor identification of these can lead to psychological problems.
7. Gestalt therapy
It starts from the idea that the things experienced by each individual are formulated individually. That is to say that despite experiencing the same event, two people can give it a completely different mental meaning. Therefore it focuses more on analyze and modify the way things are experienced and not so much in the event that is experienced. In the following article you can see.
8. Brief dynamic psychotherapy or brief strategic therapy
It is based on the intention of knowing what factors give rise to the patient’s maladaptive behavior to subsequently determine the most appropriate therapeutic mechanisms for its resolution. It is characterized by a short session time since only An attempt is made to reduce the patient’s symptomsnot producing a deep and stable change in him.
9. Meditation, full attention or mindfulness
This technique is used as a method to increase the awareness that people have about everything that surrounds them so that in this way they can respond in a more skillful way to all those mental processes that can contribute to the development of psychological and behavioral disorders. . Here you will find .
10. Acceptance and commitment therapy
This therapy, unlike many others, is not based on changing or reducing annoying thoughts and sensations that can interfere with a subject’s life, but rather tries to alter their function and generate in them, a flexibility in regulating your behavior. It seeks to generate in the patient a development of full awareness of himself, which allows him to act in a valuable way.
11. Logotherapy or experiential psychotherapy
The , developed by Frankl, focuses all its attention on the meaning of human existence, starting from the search for a comprehensive vision of the human being, who is considered as a unique being. It is an existential therapy where the individual’s problems are caused by the existential emptiness that he or she feels.
12. Systemic family therapy
People are considered as parts of a family system where the psychological problems of individuals are produced by problems in the relationships between the members of said systems. With this technique it is intended reformulate the way in which the individual perceives himself within said system to identify what are the causes of your problems.
13. Hypnotic therapy
The aim is to induce in the patient a trance state or partial sleep (known today by all professionals as a state of high suggestibility) so that you connect in a more intense way with your most emotional and primitive thoughts.
14. Reminiscence therapy
Created to be performed with patients with dementia, this therapy consists of talk about one’s own life experience with the aim of sharing memories and reflecting on the past. Its objective is to stimulate brain function in adults in order to reduce brain deterioration.
15. Focal and integrative psychotherapy
Again we find a psychotherapy which is based on psychoanalysis, however, it has a focus on which the therapist will focus all his attention when helping the patient. This focus is considered to be the basis of the patient’s conflictdue to which the anxious and psychological symptoms that it presents have developed.
16. Psychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition
In this type of psychotherapy, the therapist helps the patient to develop appropriate responses to stimuli which provoke unwanted attitudes or responses in him. To do this, use is made of the application of incompatible responses which make it impossible for the subject to perform the non-adaptive behavior that he usually performs.
What type of therapy do I need?
At this point, it is normal for you to wonder what type of therapy is best or what type of psychotherapy is the one you need. Each person is completely differentlike each disorder, so from here we cannot venture to determine what type of therapy would suit each person.
Furthermore, it must be taken into account that many of these psychotherapies do not have real scientific evidence, so their validity and reliability can be considerably affected. Which can be crucial when choosing one type or another of therapy.
Therefore, our recommendation is that go to a specialized professional and tell him or her your problem, since he or she will be able to develop a treatment plan according to your needs.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Types of psychotherapy: techniques and methodswe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Ackerman, N. (1970). Theory and practice of family therapy. Buenos Aires: Proteus.
- Gempeler, J. (2008). Dialectical behavior therapy. Colombian Journal of Psychiatry, 37(1), 136-148.
- Haley, J. (1974). Family treatment. Barcelona: Toray.
- Mañas, I. (2009). Mindfulness (Full Attention): Meditation in clinical psychology. Psychology Gazette, 50, 13-29.
- McNamee, S., & Gergen, K.J. (1996). Therapy as social construction. Barcelona: Paidós.
- Morejón, AR, & BEYEBACH, M. (1994). Brief systemic therapy: Working with people’s resources. M. Garrido and J. García (Comps.), Psychotherapy: Contemporary models and applications, 241-290.
- O’Hanlon, W. H. (1989). Deep roots. Basic principles of therapy and hypnosis by Milton Erickson. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
- Polo, JVP, & Díaz, DEP (2011). Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as a treatment for depression: A review of the state of the art. Duazary, 8(2), 251-257.
- Soriano, MCL, & Salas, MSV (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Fundamentals, characteristics and evidence. Psychologist Papers, 27(2), 79-91.