What is Psychotherapy? Types, Benefits, Expectations, Tips

There are many psychological and mental health issues that require the attention of a therapeutic professional to unravel the mystery of the mind. Today, we’ll discuss what is psychotherapy; its types, benefits, expectation, tips, and how to choose a therapist.

What is Psychotherapy?

Therapy or psychotherapy is a treatment addressing mental health issues and psychological disorders. The treatment comprises therapy, medication, or both in combination to manage mental health issues. During the therapeutic session, a person should talk to the licensed professional to recognize the troubling thoughts and resolve them.

Psychotherapy has become a distinct profession in its own way, and many mental health professionals offer the services of psychotherapy. They comprise psychiatric nurses, mental health counselors, social workers, family/marriage therapists, counselors, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists. However, p-therapy helps you to treat the following mental health disorders;

• Personality disorders
• Addictions
• Schizophrenia
• PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
• Eating, bulimia, anorexia, and other disorder
• Anxiety
• Bipolar disorder
• Depression

Psychotherapy also helps you to deal with the following issues;

• Resolving conflicts
• Finding ways to address problems in the healthier ways
• Recognizing the root cause of the problem like childhood trauma, divorce, and illness
• Understanding ideas, emotions, and behavior behind a person’s sickness and learning ways to change them

Types of Psychotherapy

Some of the main types and approaches that the therapists use to treat their patients are as follows;

Psychodynamic Therapy

The idea behind psychodynamic is that people face mental issues because of their unconsciously unresolved conflicts, and they often have roots from childhood. Here you manage your experiences by talking and sharing your experiences.

Interpersonal Therapy

The focus of interpersonal therapy is on the interaction and behavior you have with your friends and family members. The objective is to improve your self-esteem and communication during the time of 3 to 4 months. However, it helps you to deal with the transition of role by becoming a parent or caregiver, relationship conflicts, grief, and loss.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

CBT helps you to recognize mental issues and change the wrong perception in your mind whether it’s real or imaginary. The therapist helps you to change your perception and redefine things. However, CBT is for people suffering from interpersonal problems, disability, unable to take medication, anxiety/depression disorder, etc.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

DBT is like CBT that therapists use for tough to treat and high-risk patients. The meaning of dialectical is to bring two contrary therapeutic approaches in one therapy like change and acceptance in order to get better results. However, DBT helps you to change self-harming behaviors like suicidal behaviors. You can amplify the skill of DBT by interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance.

Supportive Therapy

The therapist helps you to manage your difficult/troubling thoughts and anxiety in supportive therapy. It also improves your self-esteem. However, complementary and alternative form of therapy is also equally helpful. Some of the other therapies that you can use in combination are; art and music therapy and animal-assisted therapy.

Formats of Psychotherapy 

Some of the main formats of psychotherapy are as follows;

Individual

As the name implies, here you work solely with the therapist

Group

Here you and other people get together in a therapy session. Everyone in the group shares their experiences, others listen, and feel their side of things.

Couple/Marital

It helps partners, spouses, and couples to find out the reason behind the change in behavior, communication, or any type of struggle. How they can make things better.

Family

Family is the key element of any society and team. If the family is going through some difficult time or any type of struggle, then the member should have family therapy in order to learn and understand feelings.

Benefits of Psychotherapy 

Some of the main benefits of p-therapy are as follows;

• Teaches you problem-solving and healthier ways of coping techniques
• Achieving pleasure and a sense of control in life
• Recognizing life-changing problems and events like divorce, losing the job, death in the family, or any other major illness; and they’re causing the. Therapy helps you to understand the root cause of the problem and try to solve them
• Comprehending ideas, emotions, and behaviors that are causing mental illness, and learning ways to modify them

How to Choose a Therapist 

There are hundreds of thousands of licensed therapists offering services in the US and across the world. You should select such therapist who you like and feel comfortable in his/her company. You can find them by checking out referrals. Some of the things you should keep in mind are as follows;

• Virtual appointment
• Treatment approach
• Areas of expertise
• Number of years of experience
• Hours for appointments that the therapist offers
• Whether they accept insurance, or not
• How much the therapist charges hourly or per appointment?

Expectation during Psychotherapy 

The duration of the therapy session comprises 40 to 50 minutes. Usually, it’s a guided conversation, and the therapist would ask you a series of questions while starting out in order to inquire about the background and history of your issue. It’s better if both of you set goals and objectives than what you want to achieve after the session.

Tips for Effective Therapy 

Some of the tips for an effective therapy session are as follows;

• Participate & Attend: you should participate and attend all the scheduled appointments
• Work with therapist: set goals and objectives in the beginning, and keep reviewing them in order to check your performance
• Recognize Source of Stress: note down your positive and stressful trigger points
• Prioritize: focus on the effective and positive behavior
• Allocate Time: you should set time for healthy and recreational activities
• Communication: share your feelings, needs, and wants with the trusted person, or write it in a journal
• Be Positive: your focus should be on lowering the stress level and bringing positive results
• Honest & open: you should openly and honestly share your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. If you don’t feel good expressing your thoughts and feel embarrassed, then you should let your therapist know.
• Treatment Plan: when it becomes difficult to talk about your feelings, then you may think of skipping one session. It’s better if you stick to your plan
• Instant Results: it’s important to keep in mind that resolving emotional feelings and issues take a lot of time and hard work. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect any instant results
• Do the Homework: if your therapist asks you to note down your thoughts in a journal/notebook, then you should do it. Such homework assignments help you to apply the techniques after learning

Conclusion: What is psychotherapy? Types, Benefits, Expectations, Tips

After an in-depth study of what is psychotherapy; its types, benefits, tips, and expectations; we’ve realized that therapy plays a significant role in dealing with mental health issues. If you’re thinking about therapeutic treatment; then you should keep in mind the abovementioned guidelines and tips.