COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY (CBT)
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.
It is most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be useful for other mental and physical
health problems.
CBT cannot remove your problems, but it can help you deal with them in a more positive way. It is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a vicious cycle.
CBT aims to help you crack this cycle by breaking down overwhelming problems into smaller parts and showing you how to change these negative patterns to improve the way you feel.
Unlike some other talking treatments, CBT deals with your current problems, rather than focusing on issues from your past. It looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind on a daily basis.
SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY
Solution-focused brief therapy – also known as solution-focused therapy – is an approach to psychotherapy based on solution-building rather than problem-solving. Although it acknowledges present problems and past causes, it predominantly explores an individual’s current resources and future hopes – helping them to look forward and use their own strengths to achieve their goals.
As its name suggests, solution-focused brief therapy is considered a time-limited approach, however the technique is often incorporated into other long-term therapy types and effects can be long-lasting. It was developed in America in the 1980s by husband and wife team Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, along with their team at the Brief Family Center. Together they founded the therapy on seven basic philosophies and assumptions.
These are:
- Change is both constant and certain.
- Emphasis on what is changeable and possible.
- Clients must want to change.
- Clients are the experts and outline their own goals.
- Clients have resources and their own strengths to solve and overcome their problems.
- Therapy is short-term.
- Focus on the future – history is not essential.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychotherapy involves regular personal interaction and the use of psychological methods and techniques particularly, to help change behavior and overcome problems in desired ways.
Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual’s well-being and mental health, to assist with the change of unhelpful behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills.
There are many different psychotherapy techniques involving one-to-one sessions, between client and therapist . Psychotherapists may be mental health professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, or professional counselors. At Talk in the Bay all Psychotherapists are members of a professional organisation and abide by a strict code of ethics.
Psychotherapy May include:
- Respecting the patient’s struggles offering a client positive regards and empathy
- Exploring and paying attention to what a client says (as well as what they don’t say) and their body language, as well as asking questions to better understand the client and clear up contradictions.
- Explaining to a client’s any cognitive distortions that may be shaping the session, as well as considering any other factors (sociological, interpersonal, developmental, etc.) that could shape their client’s thinking
- Presenting interpretations to the client so they can agree or disagree with them, challenging any destructive or dishonest behaviours, and offering alternative healthier behaviours to deal with things
SCHEMA THERAPY
For Individuals
Schema Therapy helps you to understand and gain clarity of where and why difficulties have developed in life and provides a treatment plan for healing.
Founded by Jeffrey Young, schema therapy looks at how early maladaptive schemas or life-traps, which began during childhood and were maintained by coping strategies which may have been helpful in getting through difficult situations as a child. However as an adult these coping strategies can be unhelpful and cause difficulties in relationships specifically in close relationships. In schema therapy this is referred to as clashing of the ‘coping modes’.
At Talk in the Bay, your schema therapist will help to understand and develop healthier coping strategies to start to heal these life-traps or schemas. You may be asked to complete questionnaires, which together with what you tell your therapist will be used towards developing a case conceptualisation to guide you through the therapy. In schema therapy the relationship you build with your therapist is fundamental to the success of the therapy as you learn and understand how difficulties from the past are affecting your life and discover ways to overcome these by learning healthier coping strategies to replace any unhelpful strategies.
SCHEMA THERAPY
For Couples
Schema Therapy helps you to understand and gain clarity of where and why difficulties have developed in life and provides a treatment plan for healing.
Founded by Jeffrey Young, schema therapy looks at how early maladaptive schemas or life-traps, which began during childhood and were maintained by coping strategies which may have been helpful in getting through difficult situations as a child. However as an adult these coping strategies can be unhelpful and cause difficulties in relationships specifically in close relationships. In schema therapy this is referred to as clashing of the ‘coping modes’.
At Talk in the Bay, your schema therapist will help to understand and develop healthier coping strategies to start to heal these life-traps or schemas. You may be asked to complete questionnaires, which together with what you tell your therapist will be used towards developing a case conceptualisation to guide you through the therapy. In schema therapy the relationship you build with your therapist is fundamental to the success of the therapy as you learn and understand how difficulties from the past are affecting your life and discover ways to overcome these by learning healthier coping strategies to replace any unhelpful strategies.
ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy and has been described as the fourth wave in therapy following CBT.
ACT recognises that life can be painful or difficult at times. It encourages people to embrace their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or feeling guilty for them.
ACT develops psychological flexibility and is a form of behavioural therapy that combines mindfulness skills with the practice of self-acceptance.
The aim of ACT is to maximise human potential for a rich, full and meaningful life; to cultivate health, vitality and wellbeing through mindful values-based living and committed action.
APPLIED BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS (ABA)
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a data driven science of all behaviour.
ABA focuses on the individual, their behaviour and the environments they interact with. It effectively quantifies emotional or psychological issues in terms of the behaviours that they are expressed through.
In ABA behaviours (public and private) are learned and are reinforced by environmental conditions (where, who and when). The goal of ABA is to increase behaviours that are helpful to the individual and decrease behaviours that may be harmful, based on theories and techniques of operant conditioning.
ABA is rooted in data collection which is pulled from observation, and formal assessments, as well as, ongoing progress monitoring. The decisions made in therapy are a direct result of the data and graphs that are created, providing an objective decision making opportunity for the therapist overseeing the clients care.