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What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy, or "talk therapy", is a way to treat people with a mental disorder by helping them understand their illness. It teaches people strategies and gives them tools to deal with stress and unhealthy thoughts and behaviors. Psychotherapy helps patients manage their symptoms better and function at their best in everyday life.

Sometimes psychotherapy alone may be the best treatment for a person, depending on the illness and its severity. Other times, psychotherapy is combined with medications. Therapists work with an individual or families to devise an appropriate treatment plan.

What are the different types of psychotherapy?

Many kinds of psychotherapy exist. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach. In addition, some therapies have been scientifically tested more than others. Some people may have a treatment plan that includes only one type of psychotherapy. Others receive treatment that includes elements of several different types. ...More

Fast Facts: Learn! Fast!

What is psychotherapy?

  • Psychotherapy, or "talk therapy", is a way to treat people with a mental disorder by helping them understand their illness.
  • It teaches people strategies and gives them tools to deal with stress and unhealthy thoughts and behaviors.
  • Psychotherapy helps patients manage their symptoms better and function at their best in everyday life.
  • Sometimes psychotherapy alone may be the best treatment for a person, depending on the illness and its severity. Other times, psychotherapy is combined with medications.
  • Therapists work with an individual or families to devise an appropriate treatment plan.
  • Many kinds of psychotherapy exist. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach.

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  • Articles
    • What is Psychotherapy?
    • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
    • Dialectical Behavior Therapy
    • Interpersonal Therapy
    • Family-Focused Therapy
    • Are Psychotherapies Different for Children and Adolescents?
    • What Other Types of Therapies Are Used?
    • Choosing A Psychotherapist: Determining Which Professional is Right for You

  • Questions and Answers
    • Found Out my Therapist Had a Disciplinary Action in the Past
    • Stay in Therapy Because I Like it?
    • Is Any of This Real?
    • Bipolar Medications That do not Cause Sexual Dysfunction
    • Very Harmful Transference
    • Too Much Sorrow
    • OCD
    • Transference II
    • Am I A Sadomasochist?
    • Ending Therapy
    • 126 more
      • Is Erotic Transference Permanent?
      • Erotic Transference and Borderline Personality Disorder
      • Im Scared I'm Mad
      • How Much Should a Therapist Care or Reach Out?
      • Middle-Aged Female Never In Love
      • I Feel Like a Question Mark
      • Anxiety
      • Therapist Was Fired
      • When to Leave Therapy?
      • Guys Think I Am Too Much for Them to Handle
      • New Diagnosis...My Doc Says I Am Not Bipolar. Should I Go Back to My Medication?
      • PTSD
      • Am I Wallowing in Depression?
      • What Should I do? Noah
      • What more can I do?
      • How Can I Trust Again??
      • What Is Wrong with Me?
      • Transference
      • Should I Switch Therapists? Sara, Nov. 4, 2008
      • A young adult needs to find help, but cant find it.
      • Terminating Therapy after 17 years
      • Is there help for a person who has always been a 'little depressed'
      • Lovely, however... - Julie C. - Jul 14th 2008
      • Can I survive without all these horrible meds?
      • Where can I get the energy
      • Was my therapist wrong or am I just freaking out?
      • Does a therapist have to report me as suicidal if I tell her I self injure?
      • AM I BEING ABUSED BY MY THERAPIST?
      • My Son's Problem
      • Can a psychologist tell his patient that he is attracted to her?
      • Tolerating emotion
      • Furious that my therapist didn't warn me about erotic transference
      • I don't know who my true self is!
      • Is it OK to give my therapist a gift?
      • What is the true meaning of being defensive?
      • What to do when your therapist quits?
      • Wanting a better life
      • Highly Intelligent but Socially Handicapped: The Psychology of the Nerd
      • 20 Year Old Female: no friends, depressed, what should I do?
      • Worried about thoughts
      • Counter-Transference Issues?
      • What is wrong with me?
      • Advice about past therapy
      • Depression Treatment
      • how do i deal with the fact that my therapist is dying?
      • OCD Treatment
      • What treatments are available after you've tried the medicines of last resort?
      • I\'m in love with my therapist
      • Do I have a mental health problem?
      • Adopted and dealing with Mother issues
      • therapist isn\'t listening to med concerns...
      • Afraid to touch people
      • fear of expiration
      • Weird Feelings Towards Therapist
      • SPECIFIC PHOBIA
      • GETTING FAMILY TO UNDERSTAND
      • how can i get my former eating habit back
      • Will this ever end
      • Is This An Eating Disorder
      • Is there any help?
      • Can you help?
      • Dark Fantasies
      • Social Phobia
      • should a depressed person marry?
      • Am I just a bad person
      • Anxiety
      • Stuck in a mental rut...
      • Loss of Patience
      • Quitting Therapy
      • about my childhood and why I am like this, but what can I do to change
      • Depression/dysautonomia?
      • Worried about my therapist
      • Am I Depressed or What?
      • 13 Yearl Old
      • Depressed?
      • What is your theoretical perspective?
      • Graduating Therapy
      • Want To Make Love With My Therapist
      • Shy Rural Student
      • Poetry Therapy
      • Struggling With Feelings And Thoughts
      • Anxiety
      • Panic
      • Seriously Jealous
      • Non-medication Help For Depression
      • Bulimic
      • Mastery Of Anxiety And Panic
      • Bad Health And A Bum Husband
      • Sick Of Feeling This Way
      • Very Determined Panicker In The South
      • Alternatives For Anxiety Treatment
      • Electroconvulsive Therapy
      • Nine Gallons In Two Weeks
      • Desperate
      • Unable To Keep Eye Contact
      • Attachment And Trust
      • Wild Mood Swings
      • 18, Sad and Hopeless
      • PTSD Getting Worse
      • Should I Continue With Therapy?
      • In Love With My Therapist
      • Do I Still Need Therapy If I'm Medicated?
      • My Mother Is Ruining My Life
      • A Cure For Claustrophobia?
      • How To Treat Avoidant Personality
      • I'm Attracted To My Therapist
      • I Love My Therapist
      • MPD and Hypnosis
      • Treatment of Trichotillomania
      • Meds Don't Seem To Work So Now What?
      • Panic Attacks
      • PTSD and Night Terrors
      • Feeling Depressed and Insecure
      • My Therapist Doesn't Like Me
      • OCD And Behaviour Problems
      • Psychotherapy Doesn't Work
      • Medicine Doesn't Work Anymore
      • The Goal of Therapy
      • I'm Going Crazy
      • Absent Therapist
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      • Two Clinicians
      • Finding a Therapist
      • Protectionist Therapist
      • How Do I Find Help?
      • No One Believes Me...

  • Book & Media Reviews
    • Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy
    • Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy
    • 101 Healing Stories
    • 101 Things I Wish I'd Known When I Started Using Hypnosis
    • A Primer for Beginning Psychotherapy
    • A Therapist's Guide to Understanding Common Medical Problems
    • ACT With Love
    • Already Free
    • Assessment and Treatment of Childhood Problems, Second Edition
    • Bad Therapy
    • 161 more
      • Becoming Myself
      • Before Forgiving
      • Being a Brain-Wise Therapist
      • Biofeedback for the Brain
      • Body Psychotherapy
      • Body Sense
      • Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis
      • Brain Change Therapy
      • Breaking Apart
      • Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy
      • Building on Bion
      • Care of the Psyche
      • Choosing an Online Therapist
      • Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders
      • Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy
      • Clinical Pearls of Wisdom
      • Co-Creating Change
      • Compassion and Healing in Medicine and Society
      • Confessions of a Former Child
      • Confidential Relationships
      • Confidentiality and Mental Health
      • Confiding
      • Contemplative Psychotherapy Essentials
      • Couch Fiction
      • Counseling with Choice Theory
      • Critical Issues in Psychotherapy
      • Crucial Choices, Crucial Changes
      • Decoding the Ethics Code
      • Depression 101
      • Depression in Context
      • Do-It-Yourself Eye Movement Techniques for Emotional Healing
      • Doing CBT
      • Doing It
      • E-Therapy
      • Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy
      • Energy Psychology Interactive
      • Essays on Philosophical Counseling
      • Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling
      • Everyday Mind Reading
      • Exercise-Based Interventions for Mental Illness
      • Existential Psychotherapy
      • Expressing Emotion
      • Facing Human Suffering
      • Fairbairn's Object Relations Theory in the Clinical Setting
      • Family Therapy
      • Favorite Counseling and Therapy Homework Assignments
      • Flourishing
      • Flying Colors
      • God & Therapy
      • Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Therapists
      • Handbook of Counseling and Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients
      • Healing the Heart and Mind with Mindfulness
      • Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain
      • Heinz Kohut
      • How and Why Are Some Therapists Better Than Others?
      • How People Change
      • How to Give Her Absolute Pleasure
      • How to Go to Therapy
      • If Only I Had Known
      • In Session
      • In Therapy We Trust
      • In Treatment: Season 1
      • Incorporating Spirituality in Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • Is Long-Term Therapy Unethical?
      • Issues in Philosophical Counseling
      • It’s Your Hour
      • Learning from Our Mistakes
      • Letters to a Young Therapist
      • Logotherapy and Existential Analysis
      • Love's Executioner
      • Man's Search for Meaning
      • Meditations on Self-Discipline and Failure
      • Metaphoria: Metaphor and Guided Metaphor for Psychotherapy and Healing
      • Mindfulness
      • Mindfulness and Acceptance
      • Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression
      • Mindworks: An Introduction to NLP
      • Mockingbird Years
      • Momma and the Meaning of Life
      • Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People For Change
      • Multiculturalism and the Therapeutic Process
      • Of Two Minds
      • On the Couch
      • One Nation Under Therapy
      • Our Inner World
      • Outsider Art and Art Therapy
      • Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors
      • Philosophical Counseling
      • Philosophical Midwifery
      • Philosophical Practice
      • Philosophy and Psychotherapy
      • Philosophy for Counselling and Psychotherapy
      • Philosophy Practice
      • Philosophy's Role in Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • Plato, Not Prozac!
      • Process-Based CBT
      • Psychologists Defying the Crowd
      • Psychology, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis, and the Politics of Human Relationships
      • Psychosis in the Family
      • Psychotherapy
      • Psychotherapy
      • Psychotherapy As Praxis
      • Psychotherapy East and West
      • Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents
      • Psychotherapy for Personality Disorders
      • Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
      • Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
      • Rationality and the Pursuit of Happiness
      • Recovery Options
      • Rent Two Films and Let's Talk in the Morning
      • Saving the Modern Soul
      • Second-order Change in Psychotherapy
      • Self Matters
      • Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy
      • Self-Determination Theory in the Clinic
      • Sexual Orientation and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
      • Strangers to Ourselves
      • Taking America Off Drugs
      • Tales of Psychotherapy
      • The Art of Hypnosis
      • The Case Formulation Approach to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy
      • The Compassionate Connection
      • The Crucible of Experience
      • The Education of Mrs. Bemis
      • The Fall Of An Icon
      • The Gift of Therapy
      • The Great Psychotherapy Debate: The Evidence for What Makes Psychotherapy Work
      • The Husbands and Wives Club
      • The Love Cure
      • The Making of a Therapist
      • The Mummy at the Dining Room Table
      • The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy
      • The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain
      • The New Psychoanalysis
      • The Philosopher's Autobiography
      • The Portable Coach
      • The Portable Ethicist for Mental Health Professionals
      • The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life
      • The Problem with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
      • The Psychodynamics of Gender and Gender Role
      • The Psychotherapy Documentation Primer
      • The Real World Guide to Psychotherapy Practice
      • The Schopenhauer Cure
      • The Talking Cure
      • The Therapeutic "Aha!"
      • The Therapist's Guide to Psychopharmacology, Revised Edition
      • The Therapist's Ultimate Solution Book
      • The Unsayable
      • The Wing of Madness
      • Theory and Practice of Brief Therapy
      • Therapy
      • TheraScribe 4.0
      • Thinking about Thinking
      • Thrive
      • Toward a Psychology of Awakening
      • Tracking Mental Health Outcomes
      • Treating Attachment Disorders
      • What the Buddha Felt
      • What Works for Whom? Second Edition
      • Why Psychoanalysis?
      • Yoga Therapy

  • Videos
    • “Evidence-based” Treatment: What Does It Mean?
    • Getting Help - Psychotherapy
    • Rorschach & Freudians
    • Psychotherapy - Sigmund Freud
    • Psychotherapy - John Bowlby
    • Psychotherapy
    • Interview with Rollo May on Existential Therapy
    • Achieving Psychotherapy Effectiveness

  • More Information
    • An Interview with Bruce Ecker, M.A., L.M.F.T., on Coherence Therapy
    • An Interview with Bruce Ecker, MA, on Memory Reconsolidation and Psychotherapy
    • An Interview with Jon Frederickson, MSW, on Experiential Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
    • An Interview with Joshua Lerner, MA, LCSW, on the History of Object Relations Theory
    • An Interview with Kirk Schneider, Ph.D., on Existential Humanistic Psychotherapy
    • An Interview with Leslie Greenberg, PhD, on Emotion-Focused Therapy
    • An Interview with Wilma Bucci, Ph.D., on Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Science
    • Boundaries and Dysfunctional Family Systems
    • Cognitive Restructuring
    • Humanistic Psychotherapy
    • 23 more
      • Learning Theory
      • Post-Cognitive Psychotherapy
      • Repression
      • Transference
      • Wise Counsel Interview Podcast: Myrna Weissman, Ph.D. on Interpersonal Psychotherapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Alan Rappoport, Ph.D. on Control-Mastery Theory
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Annie Fahy, MSW on Motivational Interviewing
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Becky LaFountain, Ph.D. on Adlerian Psychology and Psychotherapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Dr. Jürgen Kriz on Self-Actualization and Person Centered Psychotherapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Fern Cohen, Ph.D. on whether Psychoanalysis is Dead
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Jeffrey Young Ph.D. on Schema Therapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with John Clarkin, Ph.D. on Transference-Focused Therapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Jonathan Engel, Ph.D. on the History of American Psychotherapy - Part 1
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Jonathan Engel, Ph.D. on the History of American Psychotherapy - Part 2
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Laris Macpherson on the Therapy Client's Experience
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Marsha Linehan, Ph.D. on Dialectical Behavior Therapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Natalie Rogers, Ph.D. on Expressive Arts Therapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Otto Kernberg, MD on Transference Focused Therapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Raul Moncayo, Ph.D. on Lacanian Psychoanalysis
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Richard Shulman, Ph.D. on Volunteers in Psychotherapy
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Shinzen Young on Mindfulness Meditation
      • Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Steven Hayes, PhD on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

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