What do all the letters after a therapist’s name mean?
How do I know what kind of therapy I want?
It’s hard picking a therapist to begin with and, even though we know what the acronyms mean, that doesn’t help you find what you’re looking for! I’ve defined the most common therapy styles as well as the styles that I use in my therapy sessions.
I don’t use all of them at once (that’d be too much for the both of us!) but it gives me a wide range of tools to help you with depending on what you’re coming in with.
Most therapists have a way of being that is unique to them as much as any personality. I like to use laughter and curiosity in my sessions but that might not fit everyone. Below are general definitions and what kind of therapist you can expect from it.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
A cognitive behavioral therapist’s main role is to help the client identify their thoughts and behaviors, specifically related to their relationships, surroundings, and life, so that they can influence those thoughts and behaviors for the better.
Therapists who use CBT work to teach clients to use many tools such as grounding techniques and focuses on identifying how thoughts relate to feelings relate to behaviors.
CBT is a very common skill set for therapists and most will be able to provide tools from this therapy style.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavioral therapy is a treatment style that has been specially adapted from CBT to treat individuals who suffer from extreme/intense emotions. It helps to identify and positively change negative thought patterns.
Therapists of DBT teach skills in interpersonal effectiveness (being able to communicate better with others), Emotional regulation, mindfulness, and distress tolerance (coping with intense negative feelings).
These therapists tend to be active in session and to give homework for the client to utilize between sessions such as communication techniques or coping skills.
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Motivational interviewing focuses on exploring and resolving ambivalence for change. It revolves around motivation within ourselves to make change more likely.
If you struggle with motivation for things in your life or therapy in general, this can help in finding what your actually motivated for (rather than what we’ve been told is important to us).
Person Centered
Also known as person-centered psychotherapy, person-centered counseling, client-centered therapy, and Rogerian psychotherapy.
Rather than view people as inherently flawed, Person Centered works to identify each person’s capacity and desire for growth and change. Therapists who use this style provide the client with unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy.
They tend to listen more and to give feedback based on what they hear rather than practicing techniques like deep breathing or grounding. Consider them more like a sounding board for your thoughts.
Gestalt
Gestalt is focused on increasing a person’s awareness, freedom, and self-direction. It focuses on the present moment and viewing current events through that lens rather than through the effects of the past (such as a bad relationship with your mom effecting future relationships with women).
Gestalt therapists work to teach their client’s to become aware of sensations and reactions within themselves and their environment and how to respond to them in a better way.
Gestalt therapists can be more direct and transparent with their clients which can seem forward or intense to some people. The goal is to give the client awareness of their behavior patterns that aren’t helping them.
Solution Focused Therapy
Also known as Solution Focused Brief Therapy, this is a goal directed, collaborative approach to therapeutic change.
Therapists who use this technique will focus on helping the client to change by working on solutions rather than focusing on the problems. This type of therapy tries to focus on hope, being future oriented, and motivation.
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
Also referred to as TF-CBT, is a treatment style that is used to help children and adolescents (and their parents) who have been effected by trauma. Therapists will work with clients to process the traumatic memories, overcome problematic thoughts and behaviors (“this is my fault/I caused this”), and develop coping and interpersonal skills.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
This therapy uses rapid eye movements to treat people struggling with PTSD, anxiety, stress, depression, sleep problems, phobias, and more. ART is particularly effective with trauma because it doesn’t rely on exposure to the traumatic event (having to hold a spider) in order to relieve the symptoms within the client.
It is a fast acting therapy too, which means that the client can feel the relief during the first session! Another key aspect of ART is that the therapist doesn’t need to know the specific problem the client is wanting to work on, as long as the client is motivated for change and can do the eye movements it will work (although it does help to have at least a few details).
Anger Management
As you might’ve guessed, this type of therapy focuses on managing and working through anger and rage. It has also been described as deploying anger successfully because anger in itself isn’t a bad thing, it’s just an emotion.
Most therapist have some level of training in anger and managing stressors but there are specialized trainings that dig deeper into the anger and the other factors relating to it. There is no particular style that uses this type of therapy so it’s largely dependent on the therapist you choose.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
This therapy is about exposing yourself to thoughts, images, objects and situations that make you anxious. Usually used for OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), ERP is used for many types of anxiety such as body anxiety, phobia’s, and fears.
Therapy with ERP tends to be straightforward and to focus on sitting with feelings rather than fighting them. A therapist who uses ERP tends to have more structured sessions in order to better assess and treat the symptoms.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is a therapy that revolves around figuring out where the actual problem is coming from and finding the motivation to make changes. It’s about accepting experiences that we typically avoid and committing to taking actions that enriches your life. Everything does not happen for a reason in ACT philosophy. You create the reason.
ACT therapists are very curious but they do it in a very nonjudgmental way. They spend time learning the context of the situations client’s bring to them as well as the function of the behaviors.