Psychological Therapies in a Nutshell

By Samantha De Bono

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

... focuses on thoughts, emotions, physical feelings and actions, and teaches clients how each one can have an effect on the other. CBT is useful for dealing with a number of issues, including depression, anxiety and phobias.

Psychodynamic Therapy

... evolved from Psychoanalytic Therapy and seeks to discover how unconscious thoughts affect current behaviour.

Person-Centred Counselling

... focuses on an individual's self worth and values. Being valued as a person, without being judged, can help an individual to accept who they are, and reconnect with themselves.

Gestalt Therapy

... roughly translated to 'whole' , focuses on the whole of an individual's experience, including their thoughts, feelings and actions. Gaining self-awareness in the 'here and now' is a key aspect of Gestalt Therapy.

Transactional Analysis

... is based on the theory that we each have three ego states: Parent, Adult and Child. By recognising ego-states, Transactional Analysis attempts to identify how individuals communicate, and how this can be changed.

Integrative Therapy

... allows the therapist to explore a clients experience from a variety of different therapies, taking the appropriate therapy technique to suit the client's need because what works with one client, won't necessarily work with another. Therefore, Integrative Therapy uses skills from each of the therapies in accordance with the continuing personal and professional development of the client and the therapeutic relationship.