What are the different types of therapeutic approaches?

Have you ever scrolled through a therapist’s bio and read a list of therapeutic approaches that they use? Were you uncertain what they all meant? In today’s article I am going to go over some of the more common types of therapy so that you can feel more confident about what options are available.

But, before we get into that… a little background primer:

Since the start of psychotherapy, different influential leaders in the field have proposed theories to explain why people struggle with their mental health. These theories provided a basis for different approaches and modalities for alleviating mental and emotional pain. Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Carl Jung were some of the first to popularize theories of psychology in the Western world. Since then, other various theories and perspectives have taken hold and made a major impact on how we understand mental health.

With this in mind, let’s go over some popular and commonly used therapy approaches.

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)

EFT is a therapy modality that has grown significantly over the past decade. EFT is rooted in attachment science and prioritizes helping individual’s gain access to their emotions and improve relationship bonds.

Through dialogue, an EFT therapist will encourage dialogue focused on emotional experience and helping to establish the meaning behind emotions. EFT therapists will work to form a safe and secure connection with their clients and will model emotional accessibility.

To learn more about EFT, you can visit the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) website

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a structured and therapeutic approach to addressing an individual’s unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. The therapist will work with the client to identify problematic cycles of thoughts, behaviours, and feelings. Once these cycles are identified, the therapist will help the client to break the cycle with specific interventions.

CBT interventions can include gaining awareness, learning to challenge assumptions, utilizing logic, developing healthy coping mechanisms, and exposure. Through ongoing practice, individuals can gain confidence in their ability to stop themselves from entering unhelpful cycles.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

IFS is a therapeutic approach that addresses the multiple internal parts (sub-personalities) of a person’s being. An IFS therapist will listen to their client and help a client to identify the various parts that play integral roles in the person’s life. The IFS model distinguishes three (3) different groups of parts: exiles, managers and firefighters. Exiles are the parts of a person that are vulnerable and fragile. They are often younger parts that experienced trauma. This is the part that carries burdens of feeling unworthy, shameful, guilty, and abandoned. Managers and firefighters are the parts that try to protect the exiles. Managers do this by trying to control (perfectionism, people pleasing, caretaking, anxiety). Whereas firefighters do this by reacting when they feel threatened (anger, addictions, obsessions).

The goal of IFS is to help the client’s parts find harmony and to gain access to The Self which is the part that is competent, secure, self-assured, relaxed, and able to listen and respond to feedback. Using a trauma informed model, a therapist will help their client to get to know their parts and reorganize the role of their parts.

To learn more, you can visit the IFS institute.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT is based on a mindfulness-based behavioral model. A therapist who uses ACT focuses on helping their client to create a rich and meaningful life by accepting pain and committing to action that is aligned with their values. The basic assumption is that pain is inevitable and that by trying to “run” from pain, greater harm ensues.

Using ACT, a therapist will help their clients separate themselves from the problem, identify their values, develop mindfulness strategies, and commit to strategies that are productive and helpful.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a structured therapy that incorporates eyes movements and other forms of rhythmic left-right (bilateral) stimulation (e.g., tones or taps) to help a client process traumatic events from the past.

Therapists who are trained in EMDR will bring their clients through a series of phases which include history taking, preparation, assessing the target memory, processing the memory, and evaluating treatment.

By processing past events and coming to adaptive functioning, the goal of EMDR is for the client to experience less distress and increased mental and emotional regulation.

Somatic Therapy

Somatic therapy is a form of therapy that focuses on how emotions appear within the body. Using this approach, therapists will help their clients develop a greater awareness of where and how emotions are held in the body. Through mindfulness-based techniques, therapists will help their clients make sense of their experiences and build tools and resources for regulating the nervous system.

Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy is an approach to counselling that is centered on separating a person’s problems from themselves. By doing so, a person can create distance from their problem and therefore gain perspective about how it is impacting them and what they can do to change it. A narrative therapist will encourage their clients to create new narratives about their problems that are more empowering and helpful. In this process, clients can begin to gain more confidence and less distress over their life circumstance.

Final Notes

While by no means is this list exhaustive, hopefully it helps to provide you with a basis of what types of therapy approaches exist and how they are used. What you will find is some therapists utilize one or two approaches exclusively, while others are integrative and will draw on various forms of therapeutic approaches.

From my perspective, regardless of therapeutic modality, one thing I consider vital is the therapeutic alliance that exists between client and therapist. This means that the client feels safe, secure, seen and heard throughout the process. In psychology, this term is known as “person-centered therapy.” As you go on your journey of trying counselling, know that how you feel in therapy is of the utmost importance and that you can ask any questions about your therapist’s approach along the way.