Home » Mind & Soul » Female Depression » Types of Therapy

Types of Therapy

© Mari Brodersen

Research indicates that treatment with both medication and psychotherapy ("talk" therapy) is more effective than either one used alone. So far, we've looked at only half of that equation. It is time now to take a brief look at some of the more common talk therapies. There are many and varied talk therapies, so I will give only a brief overview of each.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT is one of the talk therapies that most insurance policies will cover. It is a melding of behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy. Behavioral therapy focuses on identifying certain behaviors and modifying them. Cognitive therapy emphasizes how thought patterns can cause us to have a distorted perspective about what's going on in our lives.

CBT challenges faulty perceptions, teaches how to monitor oneself, and involves "homework." Homework may take the form of bibliotherapy (reading books that the therapist thinks may be helpful)or writing down observations of one's own behaviors.

CBT is a structured and short-term therapy, which is often accomplished in a certain specified number of sessions.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy or IPT is like CBT in that is a short-term and structured treatment. IPT's premise is that depression occurs within an interpersonal context. We are all involved in relationships of varying intensities and types with family, friends, spouses teachers, students, employees, employers, neighbors, and so on. None of us exist in a social vacuum, so it is not surprising that depression can occur in, for example, a marriage or a family. Though it can occur within this context, IPT does not say that relationships cause depression.

IPT focuses on how a person functions within relationships and social contexts, rather than on the individual's personality.

Jungian Psychotherapy takes its name from Carl G. Jung, the psychiatrist who pioneered it. Jungian psychotherapy focuses on one's personality and is open-ended (as opposed to having a pre-set number of sessions). Most people are familiar with terms such as "anima," "complex," "introversion," "individuation," "archetype," and "extraversion" - which have come from Jung's works.

Jungian psychotherapy, also called Jungian psychoanalysis, is strongly based on the person's dreams, which are seen as a guide to the person's unconscious processes. The premise is that individuation can begin to occur when one is made aware of unconscious motivations.

Jungian psychotherapy is used to treat depression and anxiety, but is also utilized by those who wish to more fully understand themselves in order to improve their lives.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming(NLP) focuses on how the brain functions and on the person's experiences of life. Its purpose is to help create new ways of understanding how communication affects one's thought processes, as well as to gain more control over automatic functions of one's own neurology.

The copyright of the article Types of Therapy in Female Depression is owned by Mari Brodersen. Permission to republish Types of Therapy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.