Cognitive analytical therapy or CAT makes a marriage of analytical therapy and behavioural therapy. It was developed in the UK by and English doctor, Anthony Ryle.
The practitioner will work with the individual to explore life events and habitual patterns, especially patterns of relating to help them to find possible links to current difficulties. The practitioner will use focused and effective techniques to enable the individual to find new tools for healthy coping mechanisms.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is a talking therapy, originally developed by Aaron Beck, which can teach us coping skills for dealing with many mental (and physical) health issues. CBT offers us support to deal with challenging thoughts and behaviours and helps us observe and change our negative patterns to enable more positive and responsive solutions.
Your practitioner might ask you to commit to working outside the session times and this may include completing worksheets, a diary or a journal.
CBT is often a short-term therapy solution where your practitioner will offer you a set number of sessions.
Developed by a British psychologist, Paul Gilbert in the early 21st century, compassion-focussed therapy seeks to help individuals who particularly struggle with shame and self-deprecation. And find it difficult to feel compassion both for self and with others.
The practitioner will use techniques and skills to support the client, helping to uncover ways to develop self-acceptance, safety and compassion and promote emotional and mental wellbeing.
Core Process Psychotherapy, developed by Maura and Franklyn Sills of the Karuna Institute, is a unique blend of Western psychology and Buddhist principles.
This therapeutic approach focuses on the integration of body, mind, and emotions to cultivate a deeper sense of wholeness within ourselves. It acknowledges and honours each individual's personal journey towards healing.
Communication is key in just about everything we engage in. Sometimes our individual life can be affected by anxieties, pressures and struggles, and relational difficulties can easily develop.
Our unowned distress and communication style can lead to all sorts of expression including tension, stress and angry reactions or withdrawal, isolation and detachment.
A couples therapist will work with each individual and the dynamics of your relationship. The practitioner will help you identify issues and behaviours and help you focus on solutions.
Developed from the pioneering psychiatrist Jacob Moreno’s psychodrama psychotherapy, drama therapy is an established form of psychotherapy to help with deeper self-understanding, emotional difficulties and problem resolutions.
A drama therapy practitioner can use this method of psychotherapy on a one-to-one basis or in a group environment.
Using various techniques including role play, the drama therapist will help facilitate insight and growth via creativity, imagination and verbal dialogue.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) has a direct link with the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture points. It was developed by Gary Craig in the 1990’s and relies upon working very closely with the bodies internal energy systems where the practitioner will ask the client to gently tap on a meridian point and use words or a phrase to focus attention on a given difficulty.
The EFT method allows our brain to focus on whatever our difficulty may be and change our response to the problem.
Originally developed by Francine Shapiro, EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) was formed to help those suffering with PTSD and trauma related distress. EMDR has proven to help with all sorts of mental health challenges including depression, addictions, anxiety and relationship issues.
EMDR practitioners follow a very specific set of constructs to alleviate and help the healing process. They work with their clients, examining past events and how these events affect the present, helping the client to understand why they may be experiencing their symptoms.
The EMDR therapist will help their client process negative memories and body sensations that are associated with traumatic events, allowing a release into a new perspective.
The Enneagram was originally used by the American philosopher George Gurdjieff to assist in his teachings about an individuals’ roles and life purpose.
An Enneagram practitioner uses the Enneagram personality model to help an individual understand their particular personality traits. It will help to identify unconscious behaviours, where someone might be caught; help ascertain core motivations; determine needs; characterise fears.
The therapist will work with you to establish a more rewarding and responsive way of being.
There are several methods used in family therapy, but the basic construct is to cohere a family unit that might be struggling with mental health or behavioural issues. A family unit can contain any combination of family members.
The basic principles will help the members to begin to understand relationship dynamics and help improve and understand interactions. The practitioner will encourage each member to talk about their hopes fears and expectations; help clarify what is being expressed; provide methods to enable a deeper understanding of each other; explore working together for constructive change; suggest strategies to amend behavioural patterns.
Gestalt therapy was founded by the German psychologist Fritz Perls, and he used Gestalt psychology as the basic frame for his system. Perls believed that focusing on the present moment, rather than the past, would enable, grant a deeper self-awareness and provide inner freedom for the individual.
A Gestalt practitioner works with the individual to achieve a more whole and balanced perspective with the prospect of richer personal growth, a deeper environment interconnection, and healthy relationship experiences. Using empathy and unconditional positive regard the practitioner will help his clients to develop self-trust, self-acceptance and improved self-awareness.
Various techniques might be used by the Gestalt practitioner including the ‘Here and Now’ technique where the practitioner works with the client to appreciate the past and its influence on the present and learning to let go of the past and focus on the here and now. Also the ‘Empty Chair’ technique is used to address unresolved conflicts or issues, where the client imagines the empty chair occupied by a part of themselves or another individual and converses to gain insight and understanding of their emotions and thoughts.
An umbrella term, humanistic approach is used to encompass several therapeutic modalities which include existential therapy; Gestalt; person-centred therapy; solution-focussed therapy; transactional analysis. The American psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers both influenced the development of the humanistic approach.
The practitioner uses a here and now approach and helps the individual to gain greater self-awareness, self-acceptance and deeper self-understanding.
The integrative practitioner will use maps, models and techniques from multiple modalities and will use models to suit the client and their unique needs. It is considered a flexible and inclusive psychotherapeutic approach and offers the client a holistic methodology as it unifies emotional, physical and mental well-being.
The origins of MBCT lie with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness-based stress reduction program.
The MBCT practitioner uses the principals of cognitive therapy and mindfulness meditation by combining strategies and mindfulness techniques to help individuals alleviate feelings of distress, find deeper self-understanding body and self-awareness.
The American psychologist Carl Rogers developed person-centred therapy which is also referred to as humanistic therapy. He believed that any individual could self-actualise and reach their full potential (with suitable conditions).
In order to help the client self-actualise the practitioner provides unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruent feedback. The therapist will support the client in the exploration of their issues, feelings, thoughts, mindsets and behaviour patterns to deepen self-awareness, build self-confidence and develop independence.
The original founder of psychodynamic psychotherapy was Sigmund Freud. Practitioners using the psychodynamic approach are likely to include therapeutic approaches used by several psychologists including Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott and Erik Erikson.
The psychodynamic approach is directed by a core principle that the unconscious holds entrenched memories and feelings that affect our behaviour.
The aim of psychodynamic therapy is for the client to gain deeper self-awareness and insight into their life and issues. The therapist will help the client to unpack past experiences, traumas, and defining events, facilitating the client to recognise and understand how past experiences impact the present. The psychodynamic practitioner will facilitate making the unconscious conscious; helping to resolve issues and develop healthy new behaviours.
Psychosexual therapy is a talking therapy.
Difficulties in your sexual relationship can lead to feelings of isolation and distress. Sometimes it is difficult to speak about such intimate problems even with your partner.
A psychosexual therapist will offer you support to improve physical intimacy and any sexual difficulties you’re having. They can help you identify and work with any preoccupations, thoughts, feelings, emotions and psychological issues which are manifesting physically and affecting your sexual relationship.
Offering a transpersonal approach to therapy, psychosynthesis was developed by the Italian psychiatrist and neurologist Roberto Assagioli. He developed several models including his famous egg diagram which maps the human psyche on interconnected levels.
A psychosynthesis practitioner will help the client focus on self-development and personal growth. They work with the client to help synthesis various aspects of the Self, and this will include working with the past to gain insight into the present and also working with meaning purpose and values.
Crucial to the therapy work is Assagioli’s Act of Will which involves nine stages of will, but the practitioner will draw on a range of techniques which can include guided imagery, meditation, and artwork to enable and guide the client to foster awareness, connection and ultimately self-actualisation and self-realisation.
Systemic therapy can often be used as a generic title to describe family therapy or couples therapy, but it is far more than this as it can extend to any system or group where relational dynamics are at work.
Systemic therapy works to re-regulate a dysfunctional system and focuses on interactions between the group. The practitioner will help to identify patterns and communication methods that are causing issues and work with the members to find new and positive ways of relating.
Transpersonal therapy was developed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow and is considered a holistic approach with an emphasis on spirituality.
A practitioner will work with the client using various techniques that can include meditation, guided visualisation, dreamwork, artwork and mindfulness.
