MENTAL HEALTH & THERAPY DEFINITIONS

Attachment Therapy
A process-oriented form of psychotherapy that considers the links between an infant’s early experiences with his or her primary caregivers, and his/her resultant adult capacity for healthy emotional and physical relationships. The aim of this therapy is to establish (or re-establish) relationships based on trust and support, and through this method alleviating depression and anxiety. More info.

Behavioural Activation
A personalised form of therapy that concentrates on changing patterns of behaviour in the client’s life, eliminating those that have the propensity to increase depression, resolve issues that are an obstacle to ‘reward’ and enhance activities that are associated with pleasure. More info.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a brief form of therapy that aims to help you manage current problems (rather than delving into your past) by breaking issues down into smaller parts. It then helps you to develop practical ways to resolve them, improve your state of mind and to change negative patterns as a means of improving the state of your emotional health. More info.

CBTe
CBTe is “enhanced” CBT and is often used for the treatment of eating disorders. It is highly individualised to suit the person and the problem to hand and is usually delivered in around 20 sessions over 20 weeks. More info.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
DBT is broadly based on the same ideas as CBT but is designed to help those whose emotions may be causing them intense suffering. The main principle for DBT is that it aims to encourage self-acceptance, whilst also bringing about a change in the individual. More info.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR was developed when it was noticed that eyes involuntarily move rapidly when a disturbing thought is experienced and therefore anxiety is reduced if eye movement is brought under control. It is often used as an effective treatment for anxiety, trauma and PTSD and usually delivered in a series of 60 minute sessions.

Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy has grown in popularity since the realisation that the use of hypnosis in conjunction with therapy can result in greater treatment effectiveness. The rationale for this mode of therapy is that introducing positive language, imagery and thinking to an individual when she or he is in a heightened state of suggestibility is an effective means of bringing about lasting change.

Integrative Therapy
Integrative psychotherapy is the incorporation of elements from different schools of thought. It may additionally refer to the process of amalgamating the emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and physiological systems within a person in their treatment pathway.

Interpersonal Therapy
Interpersonal therapy is a method of treating depression that focuses on the individual’s personal relationships, on the basis that they lie at the centre of his or her psychological problems. The goal of this methodology is to help the individual to improve those relationships through better communication, thereby alleviating causes of depression.

Life Coaching
A life coach will normally work with a client towards achieving a specific outcome. This could be a particular personal or professional goals, or it could be to curtail weaknesses, bolster strengths and help to bring about clarity with regard to the direction to take.

Psychodynamic Therapy
This approach centres around the idea that individuals must resolve difficult issues - including certain unconscious ones - by working through them in their therapy. It leans heavily on importance of the therapeutic relationship as a key to understanding relational difficulties in particular.

Relapse Prevention
Relapse Prevention Skills are important to develop in anyone who is in recovery for addictive behaviour. The skills are taught to be incorporated into a recovering person’s daily life in order to reduce the threat posed by cravings.

Schema Therapy
Schema therapy is designed around four theoretical pillars: Early Maladaptive Schemas (dysfunctional/self-defeating themes that have been present since childhood); Coping Styles (a person’s behavioural responses to the maladaptive schemas); Modes (a state of mind that manifests as a way of being); Basic Emotional Needs (these, if unmet in childhood, result in the creation of the Early Maladaptive Schemas). The ultimate goal of Schema Therapy is to help clients to meet their Basic Emotional Needs and to substitute the maladaptive coping styles with adaptive patterns of behaviour.

Systemic (Family Therapy)
Systemic Family Therapy aims to look at a family unit as a whole and to address and dysfunctional relationships and communication styles within it’s members in order to help the individuals as well as the collective.