Psychological Therapy: 10 Types Of Psychotherapy To Take Care Of Your Mental Health
Have you ever thought about doing psychological therapy? What does psychological therapy consist of? Discover the different types of most effective psychological therapies to take care of ourselves.
In general, one thinks of the psychological therapy from the perspective of illness, so that it is not usually taken into account as a method for personal improvement. It is not usual for someone to go to psychology or psychiatry if it is not because they have stopped having that mental health (or supposedly). Furthermore, it is not strange that those who have psychological problems hide it, try to ignore it, or resort to any other resource, rather than seeking professional advice, to undergo psychological treatment to help them regain their mental balance.
Luckily more and more people realize that receiving a psychological treatment It is not taboo. In addition, there are different types of psychological therapy that can help us in many aspects, from solving a mental problem or disorder to improving various areas of our lives. But what does psychological therapy entail?
A psychological therapy It consists of mental health treatment. That is, through psychological therapy people can improve their mental well-being. Which means improving our mood, cognitive potential, emotional condition, our personality, the way we see and relate to the world, with people, with events, our way of understanding and practicing sexuality, among many others. areas.
Through the different types of psychological therapies that exist, people talk to a mental health professional to help them identify and change those worrying thoughts that affect their daily life.
When do we need psychological therapy?
Perhaps the mere fact of wondering if it would be indicated to go to one of the different types of psychological therapies may be a sign that, indeed, it is so. Let them be affected areas of life such as work, coexistence, relationships, this is a clear warning that we should go to psychological therapy.
We not only have to carefully examine what is happening to us. Often you have to deal with all the prejudices about what it means to go to psychological treatment. In many cases people believe that resorting to the help of these therapeutic techniques is only for crazy people, but really, therapy is not a treatment for madness (what is madness?), it should be a space in which to expose what is worrying us or making us feel bad and reach a resolution, through different means and with different consequences.
Do psychological therapies or psychological treatment It does not consist only of speaking, although the word takes a privileged place and helps to free oneself and find questions and answers where before there were voids, negative thoughts, fears. It is about learning about one’s own person, according to who he is and what he wants to do.
What does psychological treatment consist of?
There is a mistaken belief that it is the psychologist during psychological therapy the one that must solve our problem, in a similar way to that when we go to the doctor we expect that the pill he prescribes will solve the symptom. Although this may be appropriate in some cases, it is not always appropriate and even less so with psychological problems.
Living is a complicated process that requires continuous decision-making, some of which are influenced by the others since they are all part of an interdependent process. Modifying behavior patterns and the way we respond to life’s challenges requires a deliberate effort of determination and observation to change what keeps us in trouble or prevents us from being happy.
Solving a psychological problem through therapeutic techniques involves hard personal work of change, which is mostly done outside the office where it is carried out. psychological therapy
Types of psychological therapy
There are different types of psychotherapy or psychological therapy that professionals use to try to help their patients during sessions. Among the most used and effective we find the following.
1. Psychodynamic therapy
In these types of psychotherapy It is based on the assumption that emotional problems are unresolved conflicts, which are generated unconsciously, mainly during childhood. The objective of one of these types of psychological therapies is to get people to understand these feelings and know how to manage them.
2. Interpersonal therapy
Are psychological therapies They focus on those behaviors and interactions you have with your family, friends and partner. The objective of this psychological therapy is to ensure that patients improve their self-esteem and communication skills in a short time.
3. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
In these types of therapy, people can identify their mental illnesses and identify or change the bad perceptions they have of themselves as well as the world around them. In this way, this psychological treatment Try to direct attention from these thoughts that in the end people believe define them.
This psychological therapy It is only used in those patients who have a situation that is very difficult to treat. These types of pisoctherapy consist of trying to change unhealthy behaviors by carrying out a series of activities.
5. Supportive therapy
In this psychological therapy the therapist uses this therapeutic treatment to make the person learn to manage their anxiety and unhelpful thoughts on their own. Another therapeutic objective is to try to reinforce the self-esteem of the patient in question.
6. Animal-assisted therapy
This alternative types of therapy They consist of assisting people who suffer from a mental illness with animals such as dogs, cats and horses so that the relationship with them allows them to help relieve anxiety, depression and provide them with some comfort.
7. Art and music therapy
Another of the types of alternative psychological therapies It consists of using different artistic disciplines to try to help people who have a psychological problem. This happens because art helps us better express and process pain and other feelings.
8. Existential therapy
This is a philosophical approach to a psychological therapy where concepts such as responsibility for your choices or the freedom to make decisions and their consequences are considered. In this way, through this therapeutic psychology, people focus on trying to find greater meaning in life.
9. Person-centered therapy
This approach works from the belief that emotional distress arises from criticism or showing disapproval of your choices or actions in life. This ends up making acceptance and growth difficult. Through this psychological therapy People can accept themselves and change in a positive way because they work with personal growth.
10. Gestalt Therapy
He psychological treatment Gestalt therapy consists of focusing on unresolved problems in our lives, such as family or relationship conflicts, seeing how these affect your emotional well-being. These therapeutic techniques focus on the present moment and often involve role-playing or visualization exercises that allow for change in the patient.
How does a psychologist help you? Benefits of psychological treatment
The therapeutic psychology It has many benefits for our lives. But in many cases, in order to obtain the advantages and effects of psychological therapies, the person will have to be very active during the sessions. Among its benefits for our mental health we can find the following.
Improve our social and communication skills : Obtain psychological help It can allow us to improve the way we communicate with others and to know how to say what we want.
Healthier thinking patterns : Humans have a natural tendency to have more negative thoughts than positive ones. In this way, when performing a psychological consultation At home (online) or in a center, people can learn strategies to deal with these types of thoughts.
Self-knowledge : On many occasions people spend a lot of time disconnected from ourselves. The psychological therapies They can help us know ourselves in more depth, something that will make us make better decisions and have a life more in line with what we really want.
Greater ability to make healthy decisions : By knowing ourselves better and having better communication with others, people who come to a psychological therapy They tend to be more capable of making healthier decisions.
Learn coping strategies to manage stress and anxiety: With our current pace of life, stress and anxiety are very common. On many occasions, a psychological treatment It is focused on improving our coping strategies because of it.
Stronger family ties : Our family is very important to have good mental health. For this reason, go to our psychological quotes It can benefit us to improve our relationship with our family members.
These are some of the benefits that we can obtain from a psychological treatment As we can see, psychological therapies are not only for treating different mental health disorders.
Do I need psychological help?
Go to a psychological treatment together with a mental health professional can help you in a wide variety of situations. Among the best known are the following.
Overwhelming feelings of sadness or helplessness
Tea you feel anxious most of the time
Has difficulty coping everyday challenges or to concentrate on work or studies
Are using drugs or alcohol in a way that is not healthy
You are in risk of harming yourself yourself or others
You feel that your situation will never improve despite receiving help from friends and family
Have you experienced a abusive situation
You have a mental health condition, such as schizophrenia, that affects your daily life
Although these are usually some of the reasons why people may go to psychological therapy, the reality is that this type of treatment is useful for anyone who wants to change or improve in some aspect. As we have mentioned, the psychological treatment It is not only for people who suffer from mental illness or emotional problems, but for those individuals who want to improve their emotional balance.
