The 10 Most Effective Types Of Psychological Therapy
There are a large number of psychological therapies that can help people overcome their psychological problems. While some therapists only use one approach, others may use a mix of different psychological treatments to meet their patients’ needs.
However, despite the diversity of therapeutic offers, Not all forms of psychotherapy have been shown to be equally effective; some have much more empirical evidence in their favor, drawn from years of research into the effects they have on patients.
Therefore, here we will see a review of the different types of most effective psychological therapy, taking into account the number of problems for which they have been shown to be useful and the degree of evidence that exists about their benefits.
The vast majority of the population associates the figure of the psychologist with a person who writes down in a notebook everything that a patient tells him while sitting on a couch. However, Psychotherapy is not just listening to a person and giving them advice. A psychotherapist is a mental health professional with solid theoretical and practical training, and is specialized in the cognitive (thinking), affective (emotions) and behavioral (behavior) areas.
This means that psychotherapy is not simply “an art” based on the sensitivity and empathy of the psychologist and the therapeutic bond he creates with the other person. The effectiveness of the treatment depends, in large part, on the knowledge and technical skills of that professional, as well as the type of therapy applied.
The most effective types of psychotherapy
In the world of psychology, many theories and perspectives of therapeutic application coexist. In this article you can see the most effective types of psychotherapytaking into account that effectiveness has to do with the usefulness of each of them when treating specific disorders: there are no therapies that work for everything.
1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most widely used psychological therapies today. This therapeutic model belongs to what is known as the second generation of behavioral therapies, and is characterized because it considers that abnormal behavioral patterns have their origin in the existence of a series of Distorted and dysfunctional thought patterns and processeswhich together with the learned behavior patterns cause great suffering to the patient.
Specifically, from this proposal it is understood that to generate therapeutic changes it is necessary to intervene both in observable habits and routines and in the thinking schemes that shape our way of interpreting things and setting goals.
Thus, the objective of this type of therapy is to modify beliefs, dysfunctional thoughts and habits with a series of cognitive and behavioral techniques. For example, training in social skills, expository techniques, modeling or cognitive restructuring, among others.
2. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
If I have previously said that cognitive behavioral therapy belonged to the group of so-called second-generation therapies, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is considered a third-generation therapy. These therapies focus on the person’s dialogue and functional context, and seek acceptance and non-judgmental attitude as a way to improve people’s emotional health.
MBCT was developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale, as an eight-week program for relapse prevention in patients with depression, emotional stress and anxiety. It combines meditation and mindfulness exercises with learning cognitive therapy skills, such as detecting and interrupting maladaptive thinking patterns that lead to depression or anxiety.
3. Dialectical Behavior Therapy
This psychotherapeutic approach belongs to the category of Cognitive Behavioral Therapies and was designed specifically to intervene in cases of Borderline Personality Disorderin whose treatment it has been shown to be very effective. It combines elements of Mindfulness with the tools of cognitive-behavioral psychology (on which most of this proposal is based) and anxiety management strategies.
4. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and commitment therapy also belongs to third generation therapy, and aims to create a full and meaningful life for the patient, accepting pain as something normal. It has its origin in Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and pays close attention to language and cognition.
Therefore, he understands language as something that has positive potential for human beings, but can also create a lot of suffering. It focuses on self-discovery and clarification of values as essential elements when doing therapy. Likewise, what is socially or culturally accepted is questioned, because it causes the patient to attempt to control their private events and causes great suffering.
5. Systemic Therapy
Systemic therapy is used above all for family and couple problems (although also in individuals), as it is a more holistic and integrative approach, which takes into account the relationships between members of a group. Therefore, a systemic therapist can work with multiple family members at the same time or with a partner, although it can also intervene only in one person, although the therapy will continue to focus on the area of personal interactions.
The therapy focuses on relationships within the family and the couple, and observes how they interact and what their relational styles and communication patterns are, taking into account the different systems that make up their context. In addition, it is based on the constructivist current, which means that it places a lot of emphasis on the way in which meaning is constructed from personal experiences.
To go deeper: “Systemic therapy: what is it and what principles is it based on?”
6. Brief Therapy
Brief therapy emerged thanks to systemic therapy in the 1970s. It was at that time when the latter began to be applied to treat an individual alonewithout the whole family being present. This form of therapy is a brief, simple, but effective model that allows people to become empowered in the face of change thanks to a series of procedures and techniques. The idea is not to spend effort and time on something that could have a quicker solution.
7. Interpersonal psychotherapy
Interpersonal psychotherapy is a therapeutic model devised by Klerman, Weissman and collaborators, and is based on the critical analysis of the social elements that influence the development of psychopathologies. Work on connections between symptoms and current interpersonal problems, such as relationship problems.
The focus of this form of therapy is current social relationships and how expectations within these relationships may be causing pathological symptoms in a patient. Treatment involves solving relationship problems or find new relationships or activities as compensation.
It has been shown to be especially effective in intervening in cases of bulimia and binge eating disorder, as well as in major depression. A variant of this, called Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, is used to treat patients with Bipolar Disorder.
8. Biofeedback
Technically, biofeedback is not so much a form of psychotherapy as a tool used in psychotherapy that also has a broader use. In any case, it is one of the most valuable resources that psychologists can use when intervening in certain problems.
Its application is relatively simple: it consists of making the person aware, in real time, of the psychological or physiological processes that are taking place in their body. That is to say, a perception – reaction – perception loop is created which makes it easier for the person to adjust their behavior (partly, involuntarily) to what is desirable, to return to balance.
Biofeedback has been shown to be especially effective in treating cases of chronic pain.
You may be interested: “Biofeedback: what is it and what is it for?”
9. Training in relaxation techniques
In many cases, a good part of the usefulness of psychotherapy depends on the way in which the person learns to manage their emotions and regulate their physiological state. In this sense, training through relaxation techniques is very versatilesince it can be applied in cases of chronic pain, phobias and many kinds of Anxiety Disorders.
On the other hand, it must be taken into account that anxiety problems are very common and that they are very easily capable of contribute to the appearance of other mental health disorders. Thus, this therapeutic tool can be used to prevent various situations that would erode well-being.
To learn more about this therapeutic option, you can read the following article: “6 easy relaxation techniques to combat stress.”
10. Reminiscence therapy
This type of psychotherapy is widely used to treat cases of dementia and neurodegenerative diseases that affect memory and are in the initial stages. For example, It is very effective in patients with Alzheimer’s diseasesince it helps stop the symptoms (in the sense that it slows down their progression).
Its role is to consolidate self-concept and reinforce mental processes linked to the feeling of one’s own identity, stimulate language and improve self-esteem.
Bibliographic references:
Change, D. J. (2010). Empirical evidence on the use and effectiveness of telepsychiatry via videoconferencing: implications for forensic and correctional psychiatry. Soc Sci Med 71: pp. 1308 – 1315.
Huhn, M.; Tardy, M.; Spineli, L.M. (2014). Efficacy of Pharmacotherapy and Psychotherapy for Adult Psychiatric Disorders A Systematic Overview of Meta-analyses. JAMA Psychiatry, 71(6): pp. 706 – 715.
Wampold, B.E.; Flückiger, C.; Del Re, AC; Yulish, NE; Frost, N.D.; Pace, B.T. et al. (2017). In pursuit of truth: A critical examination of meta-analyses of cognitive behavior therapy. Psychotherapy Research. 27 (1): pp. 14 – 32.
