CBT focuses on changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. CBT helps people to understand how the way they think impacts their mood and aims to teach them to think in a less negative way about life and about themselves. CBT also focuses on the important role that activity and behaviour plays in our mental health.
What to expect: CBT is a very structured, logical approach to therapy. You can expect to closely examine your thoughts and develop practical ways to challenge and change unhelpful thoughts. You can also expect to examine your behaviours and start making change to these to include more helpful/adaptive behaviours and cutting down on unhelpful/maladaptive behaviours. CBT also has a strong focus on goal setting as well as homework.
Schema Therapy is a needs-based approach to therapy meaning that we all have psychological needs, and that if these needs aren’t met then we are likely to experience symptoms of psychological distress as well as demonstrate dysfunctional behaviour that compensates for these needs not being met.
What to expect: You and your therapist will explore which of your needs aren’t being met, as well as why they aren’t being met. This typically involves the role we play in neglecting our own needs. Together, you and your therapist will then develop new strategies for meeting your psychological needs.
The key approach of ACT (pronounced as the word ‘act’ rather than the initials ‘A-C-T’) is acceptance of what is out of one’s personal control, and the commitment to action that is going to lead to a rich, valued-filled life.
What to expect: In ACT you can expect to examine your values closely; those things in life that are important to you. One of the key understandings of ACT is that pain is an inevitable part of life, however suffering (our attempts to avoid pain that actually increase it) can be lessened. In ACT you can expect to learn techniques to create some distance from difficult thoughts, as well as acceptance strategies of pain. Mindfulness is also a core component of all ACT work.
Hypnosis can be defined as a relaxed, altered state of consciousness, somewhat like a deep meditative state. Clinical hypnosis (sometimes referred to as hypnotherapy) is the use of hypnotic techniques for therapeutic benefit. Hypnosis induces an altered state of consciousness that allows the brain to be more receptive to suggestions of change, and is an effective way of accessing the subconscious to facilitate therapeutic change. Clinical hypnosis has made particularly large advancements in the past 50 years with multiple scientific studies and meta-analyses showing clinical hypnosis to be effective and safe with long-lasting benefits.
Clinical hypnosis has also been shown to be helpful across a large variety of conditions and issues, including:
Gestalt therapy is a holistic and relational approach that focuses on your subjective experience, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social context of your life, and your self-regulating adjustments.
What to expect: Gestalt psychotherapists place emphasis on what is occurring in the present moment to enhance your self-awareness and to understand how your past experience is shaping you in the here-and-now. This occurs through a mutual exploration of your cognitive, physical and emotional experiences in the therapy room to deepen your understanding of yourself and your capacity to respond to life with greater flexibility and choice.
Gottman Therapy is one of the leading approaches to couples therapy, and research continually demonstrates it as the most effective approach.
What to expect: In Gottman Therapy you can expect to work with your partner on aspects of your relationship that you are hoping to improve. Tasks to improve aspects such as communication, affection, imtimacy, conflict, and negotiation are all potential areas of focus.
Traditionally, psychology has focused on ‘fixing’ issues when they needed fixing. Building resiliency is about focusing on strategies that maintain strong mental health and wellbeing.
What to expect: When exploring resiliency you can expect to explore topics such as gratitude, mindfulness, self-compassion, physical activity, as well as many others.
EMDR therapy is a comprehensive psychological approach that aims to help clients re-process difficult or traumatic memories (and the associated emotions, thoughts, and sensations that come with them). EMDR therapy was originally developed for use with individuals experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but studies have shown that it can also be very helpful in treating other mental health concerns, as well as difficult life experiences that people might not think of as “trauma” in its classic sense.
What to expect: EMDR involves a technique called bilateral (meaning, left to right) stimulation, which activates the left and right brain hemispheres of the brain. Bilateral stimulation is usually done through eye-movements (the clinician guides the client to move their eyes right to left repeatedly for a period of seconds) but can also be done using sounds (through a device that beeps in the left and right ears alternately) and touch (through tapping on the left and right sides of the body alternately). At the same time as doing bilateral stimulation, the client is asked to focus on a snapshot of the target memory, a negative thought this brings up for them, and any emotional or physical sensations that arise. This taxes working memory, which allows the brain to make different connections and process the information in a way that it has previously been unable to.
Does one of these interventions sound like it could help you? Feel free to reach out to our admin team to set up an appointment today.