Mental Health Treatments and Therapies

While each method/therapy uses a different approach, the goal is to help the client with the issues that brought them to counseling.  The therapy or treatment plans will depend upon the type of mental health disorder they are struggling with, what their individual needs are, and what therapy their counselor or doctor selects for their treatment plan.

Mental health therapies offer:

• Understanding behaviors and emotions that contribute to the illness, and how to modify them
• Understanding and identifying problems or events that contribute to the illness and help understand which aspects of those problems can be solved or improved
• Regaining a sense of control by learning coping techniques and skills

Different approaches to therapy include:

Psychodynamic therapy is based on the assumption that a person is having emotional problems because of unresolved, generally unconscious conflicts, often stemming from childhood. The goal of this type of therapy is to recognize those difficulties and to find ways to resolve them or cope with them better. Psychoanalysis involves an intense, open-ended exploration of a patient’s feelings, often with multiple sessions in a week.

Psychodynamic therapies help patients:

• to explore the full range of their emotions
• to talk about feelings that are troubling or feelings that they may not have acknowledged in the past
• focus on recognizing and addressing defense mechanisms — reactions and behaviors they use

Interpersonal therapy focuses on the behaviors and interactions a patient has with family and friends. This therapy is used to improve communication skills and increase self-esteem.  This type of program only lasts a few months, and works well for clients dealing with mourning, relationship conflicts, major life events, and social isolation.

Psycho-dynamic and interpersonal therapies help patients resolve;

• Loss,
• Relationship conflicts
• Role transitions

Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps people with mental illness to identify and change inaccurate perceptions that they may have of themselves and the world around them. The purpose of this form of therapy is to change the thought processes therefore changing negative behavior.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is recommended for patients:

• Who think and behave in ways that trigger and perpetuate mental illness
• Who suffer from depression / anxiety disorders
• Who the mental illness causes suffering, or a disability

Medication therapy dose not cure mental illness, however, it can be used to in manage symptoms of the illness and can help a person manage their daily lives.  Most treatment plans include both medication and psychotherapy.