The goal of ACT is to accept what is out of one’s control and work on action that will add to one’s life. By working through mindfulness techniques, identifying important values, and working on acceptance and taking action, one can create a more enriching and positive mindset that will positively impact their life. ACT can be used with a variety of concerns such as personality disorders, depression and anxiety as well as many others.
The goal of CBT is to work through unhealthy thought patterns to come up with a more realistic and rational way of thinking. CBT works from the perspective that one’s perception of a situation is often out of touch with the reality of the situation. The skills and strategies used in CBT will help the individual adjust their current way of thinking and use that in other situations.
CBT is most helpful with concerns such as: depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorders and a host of other concerns.
DBT is a skills based therapy model. The 4 areas that DBT focuses on are: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness. This therapy model works well for individuals who have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Depression, PTSD as well as certain eating disorders.
This type of therapy works from the perspective that the feelings of one family member effects all family members. This type of therapy help families work together to identify and work through group dynamics. This model allows all members of the family to express how they feel about a situation and works to have other members of the family understand the different perspectives. This type of therapy works well for families who are struggling with a particular situation or if a member of the family has a mental health or physical diagnosis that effects the other family members.
This type of therapy acknowledges that we as individuals have parts to us like parts of a family. Each part holds a different role that often in conflict with one another. The goal is to restore balance within the individual. This type of therapy works well for many diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, panic disorders as well as health concerns.
This type of therapy addresses conflict within couples or families. This type of therapy is similar to solution focused therapy as there is a specific concern bringing the couple or family to therapy. This type of therapy works well for couples or families who have a specific concern, are struggling with marital, family, financial issues as well as addiction, mental health or physical health concerns.
This type of therapy uses mindfulness techniques such as meditation or breathing exercises to help ground a client to work through negative thought processes. This type of therapy is often incorporated with other types of therapy and work well for individuals who have depression, anxiety or chronic illness or disabilities.
This type of therapy works well with individuals who are struggling with addiction. The therapist works with clients to identify the client’s reasons and motivation for change in a supportive environment. The therapist guides the client through the different levels of change and works with them to continue to identify their own motivations for change. This type of therapy works well for individuals who have addiction, health concerns that are depended to on change such as diabetes.
This type of therapy works for individuals who fall out of the social majority. This includes people not of the dominant race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability status, income or any other social factors. The therapist recognizes the client’s identity as it relates to these factors and sees the individual and works to learn about their culture and how the individual’s culture and identity affect them. This type of therapy can be incorporated with other therapy practices and works well for individuals who don’t identify with the social majority.
This type of therapy sees the client taking control of the sessions and topics of discussion to develop their own solutions about issues. The therapist encourages and supports the client in a non-judgmental way and facilitates conversation rather than move conversation in directions the client doesn’t want to explore. The therapist will reflect back what the client is discussing and the client will gain insight from that reflection. This type of therapy works well for individuals who struggle with depression, grief, stress or other concerns.
This type of therapy focuses more on factors of optimism rather than the negative symptoms an individual may be feeling. This type of therapy is used in conjunction with other types of therapy and focuses more on strengths than weaknesses. Factors of optimism may include free will, spirituality, happiness, creativity as well and many other factors. These factors are explored while acknowledging more negative emotions however focuses on having the individual develop more of a positive outlook. This type of therapy works well incorporated with other types of therapy and works well for a variety of diagnoses.
This type of therapy is more focused on the present and how the present will effect ones future. This type of therapy is very goal oriented and works to allow the individual to see solutions to issues and how they can factor into those solutions. While this form of therapy does not work well as a stand-alone therapy for individuals with concerns such as depression or other mental health diagnoses. The idea of goal setting can be incorporated into other therapy techniques to help individuals with mental health diagnoses see solutions to shorter term problems.
The focus of strengths based therapy is to identify strengths rather than weaknesses and using these strengths to build self-esteem and resilience. This type of therapy works well with individuals with histories of abuse, low self-esteem, individuals with disabilities or chronic illnesses.