There are different types of talking therapy, but chances are you’re more familiar with counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or psychotherapy. Some types of talking treatments are more suitable than others for particular people and situations, and so it’s important to explore your options before you opt for a less-effective therapy. It may be helpful to discuss your options with your GP, but here’s the basic run-down of each talking treatment and how they might be beneficial for you.
1. Counselling: As the best-known talking therapy, counselling is the most readily available at your GP surgery, with the NHS usually offering six to 12 hour-long sessions. In confidence, you talk to your counsellor about your situation and yourself, and he or she will support you and give you practical advice. This is a good complimentary wellness therapy for people who are otherwise healthy, but need help with current crises like anger, relationship problems, bereavement, redundancy, infertility and the onset of a serious illness.
2. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): In CBT, you change your mindset so that you can cope with difficult situations in a healthier way. With your therapist, you set goals and carry out tasks between sessions, over a period of six to 15 weeks. Again, this is more to do with your present than your past, which is why CBT can help you deal with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and some eating disorders, especially bulimia.
3. Psychotherapy: This is different to counselling and CBT in that psychotherapy involves talking more about your past to help you overcome problems you’re having in the present. There are many types of psychotherapy, but the main aim in all variations is to help you to understand yourself, your life and your relationships. As psychotherapy tends to last longer than CBT and counselling, it can be especially useful if you have long-term or recurring problems of which you don’t know the cause.
4. Family therapy: A therapist or a pair of therapists will meet with you all as a family, in order to understand your problems and enable you to communicate better with one another. This can be useful when one member of the family has a serious problem that’s affecting the rest of the group, such as child and adolescent behavioural problems, mental health conditions, illness and disability, domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction, and separation, divorce and step-family issues.
5. Couples therapy: When your relationship wellness is at risk, be it because of a big event (like an affair) or lots of little things, couples therapy can help you work through it. You and your partner speak to a counsellor, who can help you find where you’ve gone wrong, and work on ways to change your relationship for the better. As a result of couples therapy, many people learn more about their partner’s needs and how to communicate better.
6. Group therapy: For group therapy, you meet up with around 11 other people and a therapist, in order to share a common problem and get support and advice from people who know exactly what you’re going through. Not only does this mean that you’ll get better advice than you would if you just talked to a friend or someone who hasn’t gone through the same things, but just knowing you’re not alone in your experiences is, in itself, beneficial to your wellbeing. Plus, you may just find that you’re a social person, and prefer being in a group to individual therapy.