Art Therapy:
In this form of therapy the individual uses clay, paint and other art medium to create images that explore their feelings, dreams, fears, or memories. Creativity can provide a means of expression for that which has no words, and is often used with both children and adults suffering from depression, facing loss, or recovering from trauma or sexual abuse.
Behavioral Therapy:
This type of therapy helps weaken the connections an individual has made between situations and the automatic reactions to them. It also teaches the individual ways to calm his/her mind and body so that they are able to feel better and think more clearly.
Biofeedback:
Biofeedback involves the use of electronic systems to monitor internal processes such as heart rate, brain waves, or perspiration to help an individual become aware of their physiological responses and learn to have more control over them. This therapy seems particularly effective in treating anxiety disorders.
Cognitive Therapy:
This therapy type teaches individuals how certain thinking patterns are causing their symptoms by distorting the way they view life. It encourages new, healthy and realistic thinking patterns to emerge.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT):
CBT is a preferred treatment for most emotional and behavioral problems. It combines most aspects of both cognitive and behavioral therapy. CBT is a focused and active therapy, which means it sticks to the course of treatment while both the individual and the therapist take an active role in finding the answers the individual entered therapy to find.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT):
This type of therapy was created for those suffering from borderline personality disorder, and seems to be one of the most effective treatments available for this disorder. DBT teaches the individual behavioral skills for interpersonal relationships and ways to effectively cope with sudden surges of emotion. It focuses on distress tolerance and emotional regulation, and usually targets behaviors in a descending heirarchy:
* decreasing high-risk suicidal behavior
* decreasing responses that interfere with therapy
* decreasing behavior that interferes with quality of life
* dealing with PTSD responses
* enhancing respect for self
* acquisition of behavioral skills taught in the group
Those involved in this type of therapy generally meet with a therapist once a week and participate in a group session once a week.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR):
EMDR focuses on restructuring thought patterns and associations related to traumatic events and memories.
Existential Therapy:
This therapy focuses on free will, responsibility for choices, and search for meaning and purpose through suffering, love, and work. Searching with and finding one's own answers is encouraged.
Family/Marital Therapy:
The therapist applies therapeutic principles while engaging the participation of family members. Constructive aspects of the family's relationships are reinforced, while destructive elements are identified and altered. Family members are taught better communication skills, and ways of coping outside of the therapist's office.
Gestalt Therapy:
Gestalt therapy emphasizes what is happening in the here and now to help individuals become more self-aware and learn responsibility for and integration of thoughts, feelings, and actions. The goal of this therapy is to develop more internal vs. external support.
Play Therapy:
This is a therapeutic technique most often used when working with children. Through play therapy a child can create a world they can master, practice social skills, overcome frightening feelings and/or experiences, and symbolically triumph over traumas. This therapy works well for children that may not have the verbal skills needed for other types of therapy, and lets them express themselves in a safe and fun way.
Psychoanalytical Therapy:
The basic principle behind psychoanalysis is to make conscious what is unconscious through free-association therapy sessions. The individual is encouraged to share with the therapist whatever pops into his/her head. It may also include dream interpretation.
