If you are considering exploring whether therapy is right for you, one of the things you might be wondering is what type of therapy to try. You might read descriptions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Compassion Focussed Therapy, but be none the wiser as to what these different types of therapy mean. So to help make this clearer, below is a run down of some of the different models of therapy that The Walden Clinic offers. One of the benefits in working with clinicians trained in multiple models, is that they will be able to integrate these approaches to provide you with a tailored intervention that will best meet your needs.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
At the root of CBT is the idea that we are all influenced by our early life experiences. These shape the way we view ourselves and the world around us. They lead to the development of certain ‘core beliefs’ about ourselves and others, which influence the choices that we make.
CBT is interested in how our thoughts (cognitions) interact with our feelings and behaviour. During therapy, you will explore what thoughts and behaviours may be maintaining your difficulties. You will then be supported to evaluate them and consider alternative ways of understanding a situation and responding to it. CBT is a collaborative model of therapy, with session tasks undertaken between therapy sessions to help aid change.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has a strong evidence-base; research studies have found that it helps with lots of different types of mental health difficulties. It can be particularly helpful for people who present with different types of anxiety (e.g. OCD, social anxiety, health anxiety, panic disorder and generalised anxiety), depression and eating disorders. Specialist CBT adaptations have been developed for disorder-specific difficulties, which your psychologist at The Walden Clinic is trained in, including CBT-Eating Disorders and Trauma-focussed CBT.
Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT)
Compassion Focussed Therapy draws on evolutionary psychology, biochemistry, social psychology, Buddhism philosophy, and can work well alongside different CBT techniques. CFT recognises that some of the difficulties that people present with can be influenced by an imbalance in three emotion regulation systems: the threat system, drive system and soothing system. People who present with a range of mental health difficulties may have very active threat and drive systems, but find it more difficult to engage their soothing systems, which is necessary to help regulate the other two systems.
At the core of CFT is the idea that developing compassion for themselves and others requires strength and wisdom; it involves identifying suffering and moving towards it to try to alleviate it. CFT is particularly helpful for people who have an active self-critic and high levels of shame, which are often present in different mental health presentations (e.g. depression, eating disorders, trauma). It is centred not just on changing what someone thinks about a situation, but how they feel about it.
Techniques used in the therapy include mindfulness, imagery, soothing rhythm breathing and functional analysis.
EMDR
EMDR is a model of therapy developed to help individuals process and reduce emotional distress associated with past traumatic experiences, when memories associated with these events can get ‘stuck’ and are often accompanied by a strong emotional response. The process involves focusing on a specific traumatic memory whilst engaging in bilateral stimulation (stimulating both sides of the brain), such as eye movements, tapping or sounds. Returning to the memory allows desensitisation to it, which helps to reduce the emotional impact of it. Bilateral stimulation also allows other parts of the brain which are necessary to fully integrate and process a memory to remain ‘online’, thus new meaning can be given to the traumatic experiences. Once past trauma memories have been resolved, your therapist will explore current triggers, using the model to address current areas of sensitivity, and finally create templates for future experiences that the client may be concerned about. Whilst originally developed for helping people with PTSD and Complex PTSD, EMDR can be used to help with a variety of conditions, including anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, and other mental health issues.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy involves understanding the stories, or ‘narratives’, that people develop about their lives. It seeks to understand the meaning that people place on their experiences, and what aspects of these narratives influence the choices that people make. It sees the problems people experience as being external from the person, and views the person as the expert in their own lives.
Techniques from this approach can be integrated with other therapy models to help build a non-blaming, and curious approach to understanding someone’s difficulties. Externalising the problem, and establishing unique outcomes (e.g. any actions or intentions that do not fit with someone’s dominant problem narrative) can help to empower the person to make changes in their lives. Narrative therapy works well with trauma, anxiety disorders, depression and emotion regulation difficulties.
Solution Focussed Therapy (SFT)
As the name might suggest, Solution Focussed Therapy is focussed on solutions to people’s problems, rather than the problems themselves. It is goal-orientated and future focussed. You will be helped to think about what might be different in your life if the problems were not there, your hopes for the future and what things you want to achieve. You will also consider what would need to happen or be different in order to achieve these goals. One of the techniques used in SFT is to consider what skills people already have to bring about these solutions, thinking about times they have previously coped or challenged their difficulties effectively.
Brief Strategic Therapy (BST)
Similar to Solution Focussed Therapy, Brief Strategic Therapy is also interested in the solutions people have tried to address their difficulties, but that may not have been effective. BST understands that when people engage in certain behaviours (e.g. avoidance, restriction, binge eating, purging), they are doing so in an effort to cope and solve their problems, but that these ‘attempted solutions’ ultimately cause them harm and become part of the problem. BST helps to identify alternative solutions to problems and promote change through strategic interventions. It can be a particularly helpful approach for binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa.
If you are interested in exploring the therapeutic models further in order to address your difficulties, please do not hesitate to Contact Us to find out more.
