While there are many different types of therapy to treat depression and other mood disorders, psychotherapy can be an effective form of treatment for depression because it can help you to delve into the possible underlying reasons for you to present dealings and learn new skills to cope with those feelings.
But finding out which type of psychotherapy is best for you is going to depend on a number of factors including the severity of your symptoms, your personal preference and your therapy goals.
Before we dive too deeply you should know what psychotherapy is, this is often called talk therapy or talk counseling. This is because it involves an individual and a counselor or psychotherapist sitting in a room together talking. If you have any questions about psychotherapy and whether it might be right for you should reach out to a wellness center, such as the Lotus Wellness Center, and ask them about your counseling needs.
Psychotherapy is the process of treating a psychological disorder with verbal and psychological techniques, and most types of psychotherapy are about fostering a relationship between the therapist and client. Often these types of talk therapies focus on getting individuals to identify an overcome their negative thoughts, feelings, and behavioral patterns.
Psychotherapy is its own professional field, but other professionals can use this modality as well. This includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, substance abuse counselors, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers and psychiatric nurses. So it has a wide range of usability.
Psychotherapy for Depression
Cognitive therapy is the idea that thoughts can affect emotions, so if you choose to look at the silver lining in every experience you might feel more positive as opposed if you only focus on the negative. Negative thoughts can contribute to and exacerbate depression, and it is very hard to feel good when you’re stuck in a constant look of negative thoughts. Cognitive therapy helps people learn to identify common patterns of negative thought, called cognitive distortion and turn them into more positive ones to improve their mood.
Behavioral therapy is not focused on negative thoughts, it is centered on chaining behaviors and affecting your emotions. This is a central focus of behavioral treatment for depression, entails helping patients engage in activities that are going to enhance their feelings of well-being.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is just putting cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy together. This is because these therapies work well together to treat depression and anxiety disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on addressing both the negative thought patterns and behaviors that contribute to your depression. This means that your therapist might ask you to keep a journal to track events of the week and may ask you to write down self-defeating and negative reactions to the event.
Dialectical behavioral therapy is mostly based on cognitive behavioral therapy. However the key difference is that it asks individuals with depression to acknowledge and accept their negative thoughts and behaviors. Through the practice of validating these behaviors individuals can come to terms with the negative emotions and learn to cope with stress and regulate the reactions to it and even improve their relationships with the people around them.
If you have any questions about counseling, please speak to a counselor today.
