How Do You Know What Type Of Therapeutic Approach Is Right For You?
In the world of psychotherapy services there are several approaches or intervention modalities; These are paradigms that are based on different techniques and purposes when helping patients.
How do you know which one to choose if you are someone who is looking for professional psychological support? Let’s see a summary of these different therapeutic approaches.
If you have asked yourself the question of how to choose the therapy specialization that best suits you, the first thing you should know is that there is no reason to worry: as long as the professional or team of professionals has training to intervene in the problem that affects you. , it’s enough.
The task of choosing the form of intervention and the techniques to use is part of the work of professionals. of mental health, and you must focus on what you want to overcome.
That said, if you are interested in getting an idea of which are the most used therapeutic approaches, read on: here you will find a review of their main characteristics.
1. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
As its name indicates, cognitive-behavioral therapy aims to lead the patient towards improvement by allowing them to adapt through changes in their way of behaving and thinking.
This is one of the most used and effective forms of psychological intervention to a wide variety of problems, and part of the methods of behavioral therapy developed in the mid-20th century, although adding tools to also act on the mental processes most linked to subjectivity.
Contextual therapies are based on the proposals of cognitive-behavioral therapy although they take their approaches further, which is why they are also known as third generation therapies.
Although several types of therapy with their own tools and objectives are grouped in this category, they generally have in common the idea of not always aiming for the complete elimination of symptoms, but rather the most important thing in them is to enhance the patient’s well-being. leading him to not try to avoid emotional pain at all costs (since this gives more power to that source of discomfort) and also the idea that Much of the solution to a problem involves going beyond the individual and looking at their social and cultural context. One of the most important representatives of this group is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
3. Mindfulness
Mindfulness, or Full Attention, is a very versatile therapeutic resource and relatively easy to learn and apply. For this reason, it is used in very different contexts, and it is even common for contextual therapies to rely on it.
It is a set of practices that promote a state of calm consciousness in which, at the same time, We learn not to reject feelings that we would normally consider “negative,” and we also learn not to obsess over what we want to achieve at all costs. They are exercises inspired by the ancient Vipassana meditation, although in this case the nature of what is done is not religious in nature, but rather has the goal of reaching therapeutic objectives (so its use is also more systematic than traditional meditation). .
Gestalt therapy is one of the variants of therapies based on humanistic psychology. The latter is inspired by two psychological currents that complement each other: humanist philosophy, on the one hand, and existentialist philosophy, on the other.
Because of this, The humanistic approach is based on the idea that each person must work to give meaning to their life project. in good times and also in bad times, since we should not wait for a plan to come to us “from outside” about what to do.
Thus, this set of forms of psychological intervention emphasizes the importance of the patient’s subjectivity and their ability to give meaning to what happens to them. For this reason, Gestalt therapy is characterized by offering tools with which to become aware of one’s own emotions and redefine them to give them a constructive outlet according to the context in which one lives and one’s own values and interests.
5. Psychodynamic therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is influenced by the psychodynamic model of the mind initially developed by Sigmund Freud , although it has more specific and short and medium-term objectives than the intervention proposal of the father of psychoanalysis. This form of intervention has been shown to be effective, among other situations, with cases of Borderline Personality Disorder and with certain symptoms of depression.
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