Psychotherapy, also known as Talk Therapy, is a mental health therapy. Sometimes it is utilised with medications or alone for treating mental problems. During a session of psychotherapy for mental illnesses, you talk to a licensed mental health expert of a doctor for recognising and changing disturbing thoughts.
Advantages of Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy helps individuals having mental disorders to:
Understand and recognise the life issues or events like a death in the family, a divorce, a loss of a job, a major sickness. These contribute to their mental illness and help them understand which factors of these issues they may enhance or fix.
Understand the emotions, behaviours, and thoughts that contribute to their mental disorders and understand the ways of changing them.
Learn healthy management tactics and problem-solving expertise.
Achieve a sense of control and pleasure in life.
Learn the ways of working with others to fix conflicts.
Psychotherapy can treat many mental disorders like addictions, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder), Anorexia, Bulimia, and other eating issues.
Formats of Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy can be provided in several formats:
Individual – This engages just you and the therapist.
Couples/Marital – This makes you and your partner learn what modifications in behaviours and communication can help and what you are capable of doing together. This kind of therapy also helps couples who are facing difficulties in their relationship.
Family – Since the family is the main part of the team that helps you stay better, it is often useful for your family persons to learn what you are undergoing, what they are capable to do for help.
Group – You and others receive this therapy together. Everybody shares what they experienced and learned. Others may feel similarly and have had the same experiences.
Three Major Types of Psychotherapy
Mental health experts can take different approaches to offer psychotherapy. After knowing about your disorder, the therapist will determine which method they will implement.
Several types of psychotherapy explored by mental health experts incorporate:
1. Interpersonal Therapy
It concentrates on the interactions and behaviours you have with your friends and family. This therapy aims to boost your communication skill and enhance self-confidence in a short time period. Generally, this treatment lasts 3-4 months and works great in reducing depression caused by social isolation, big life events, relationship problems, and mourning.
2. Psycho-dynamic Therapy
This treatment depends on the assumption that you have emotional disorders due to unconscious, unresolved conflicts, sometimes growing from childhood. This therapy aims to learn and better cope with these feelings by understanding the experiences. It lasts for several months, even years.
3. Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy
CBT helps individuals with mental disorders recognise and modify wrong perceptions that they may have about themselves and the world around them.
End-note
Both you and your therapist should agree on the targets for your treatment. He may need to schedule more sessions. A few therapists even may ask a lot of questions and prescribe medicines if required.