On Choosing a Therapist pt. 2

Here’s a helpful glossary of acronyms and abbreviations you might find on your therapist’s bio. 

With that, it may also be helpful to highlight a brief definition of theoretical approaches. Though many counselors operate from a single theory, most are able to use interventions and techniques from various approaches. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, what matters more than whether you are committed to particular orientation is that THEY are.  None of these theoretical orientations really differ with respect to evidence about their effectiveness – so don’t be intimidated by selecting a therapist with an approach you’re not sure about.  There are many others, of course; but here are a few of the main ones (I’ll spend some more time on my own approach in a future post):

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – This is an orientation focused around being able to focus on the present by mindfully accepting feelings and thoughts without judgment while acting based on your own values.

Adlerian Therapy – This is an approach that attempts to overcome feelings of inferiority (and the unhealthy ways we compensate for them) to fulfill personal life goals in the context of improved social belonging.

Attachment Theory – This is an orientation that seeks to understand our relationships in light of our original childhood attachment to our first caregivers. By identifying the various “styles” of relating developed in infancy, it helps us to understand our patterns of relating in the present.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – This is an umbrella term for many different approaches focused on identifying and challenging maladaptive thoughts, beliefs and feelings and the associated behaviors in order to better adapt to life’s difficulties.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) – This is a special kind of CBT developed to treat severe mood problems, as with borderline personality, eating disorders and post-traumatic stress. It operates in stages that alternate between building distress tolerance and encouraging behavioral change, addressing the most self-destructive behavior first and moving on to ways of achieving life goals.

Existential Therapy – This form of treatment focuses on confronting our mortality and seeking to create meaning in our lives by owning our choices and coming to terms with our freedom.  

Family Systems Theory – This kind of therapy focuses on the family unit and the individual roles people play in order for the system to work, as well as the way the system impacts each individual.

Feminist Theory – This is an approach that recognizes the political injustices internalized by those who exist in oppressive societies in order to understand and reframe their personal suffering.

Gestalt Therapy – Rather than focusing on past events or future decisions, Gestalt therapy attempts to draw your attention to the here and now experiences as windows into the whole person’s outlook on the world, with an emphasis on personal responsibility.

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFST)– This form of therapy sees the fragmented parts of a person that step up to take on different challenges in life in order to bring these parts together into an integrated and truer version of ourselves

Interpersonal Neurobiology – This is an orientation that tries to understand our identity at the intersection of all our relationships, recognizing the ways our brains are shaped through interaction with others.

Jungian Therapy – This is an approach to therapy that attempts to recover a unified sense of the true self from a divided personhood in an exploration of the unconscious mind. Because the unconscious mind is shared with the human culture, Jungian therapy incorporates myths and symbols from human history to help people connect their inner wholeness with the wholeness of humankind.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) – This is a collaborative approach often used in dealing with addictions that attempts to work through ambivalence to create motivation for change.

Narrative Therapy – This is sort of therapy that helps you to identify the stories you tell about your life and learn to tell different stories that create meaning, reframe problems and remove judgment.   

Psychodynamic Therapy – This is an umbrella term for many approaches that, in some ways, is the mother of all therapy (with roots in Freud’s original psychoanalysis). It attempts to motivate change through the insight and conscious emotional processing which comes from identifying patterns of thoughts and behavior learned from the past but now operate unconsciously in the present, where you re-enact unresolved inner conflicts. Attachment theory, Adlerian and Jungian therapies are all psychodynamic theories.