Therapeutic Approaches
Major schools and methods of psychotherapy — from classical psychoanalysis to contemporary body-oriented therapies.
20 approaches
- Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis explores how unconscious processes — repressed desires, childhood conflicts, and defence mechanisms — influence current behaviour and emotions. Through free association, dream analysis, and transference, the patient gains awareness of hidden patterns that generate suffering.
- Group Therapy
Group therapy brings together several people with one or two therapists. Yalom identified 11 therapeutic factors of the group, including universality, group cohesion, altruism, and interpersonal learning. The group becomes a social microcosm where new ways of relating can be practised.
- Play Therapy
Play therapy uses play as children's natural language to express feelings, explore experiences, and resolve conflicts. In a safe environment with selected toys, the child re-enacts difficult situations and processes associated emotions. Can be directive (therapist-guided) or non-directive (child-centred).
- Art Therapy
Art therapy uses the creative process — drawing, painting, sculpture, collage — as a medium for expression and emotional exploration. No artistic skill is needed: the value lies in the process, not the product. Especially useful for people who struggle to verbalise emotions, including children and trauma survivors.
- Psychodynamic Therapy
Modern psychodynamic therapy is a briefer, focused version of psychoanalysis. It explores how early relationships and unconscious conflicts shape current relational patterns. The therapeutic relationship itself becomes an instrument of change, working through transference and countertransference.
- Family Systems Therapy
Systems therapy understands the individual within the context of their family system. One member's symptoms reflect dynamics of the whole system: triangulations, alliances, diffuse or rigid boundaries, and transgenerational patterns. The therapist works with the family as a unit to restructure dysfunctional interactions.
- Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy focuses on present experience and moment-to-moment awareness. It uses experiential experiments, empty-chair dialogue, and body attention to help the person become aware of emotional patterns and complete unfinished business. The goal is integration and authentic contact with self and others.
- Person-Centred Therapy
Person-centred therapy rests on three core conditions: empathy, unconditional positive regard, and therapist congruence. Rogers believed that in a safe, non-directive environment, the person activates their natural tendency toward growth and self-actualisation. The therapist neither directs nor interprets but accompanies.
- Existential Therapy
Existential therapy addresses the ultimate concerns of human existence: death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. Rather than focusing on symptoms, it helps the person confront existential anxiety and find authentic meaning. Frankl developed logotherapy, focused specifically on the search for meaning.
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a structured, goal-oriented therapy that identifies and modifies distorted thinking patterns and maladaptive behaviours. Therapist and client work together to challenge irrational beliefs and develop more effective coping strategies. It is the most empirically supported treatment for depression, anxiety, OCD, and many other disorders.
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Sensorimotor psychotherapy integrates body processing with cognitive and emotional techniques to treat trauma. It works within the window of tolerance, helping the person recognise and regulate somatic trauma responses — muscle tensions, defensive postures, and movement patterns — and expand self-regulation capacity.
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
SFBT focuses on building solutions rather than analysing problems. It uses the miracle question, progress scales, and exceptions to the problem to help the client identify what already works and expand on it. Typically lasts 3–8 sessions.
- Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Motivational interviewing is a collaborative conversation style that strengthens a person's own motivation and commitment to change. It uses open questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summaries (OARS) to explore and resolve ambivalence. Widely used in addictions, health care, and behaviour change.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT uses mindfulness, acceptance, and behaviour-change strategies to increase psychological flexibility. Rather than eliminating difficult thoughts and emotions, the client learns to accept them while committing to actions aligned with personal values.
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
DBT combines cognitive-behavioural techniques with mindfulness and dialectical acceptance. Originally developed for borderline personality disorder, it teaches skills in emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness. It includes individual therapy, skills groups, and phone coaching.
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements, taps, or sounds) while the client recalls traumatic experiences. This facilitates reprocessing of disturbing memories, reducing their emotional charge. Recommended by WHO and many clinical guidelines as a first-line treatment for PTSD.
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS views the mind as a system of sub-personalities or "parts" — exiles (pain carriers), managers (preventive protectors), and firefighters (reactive protectors) — led by a core Self with qualities of calm, curiosity, and compassion. Therapy helps build relationship with each part to release emotional burdens.
- Schema Therapy
Schema therapy integrates elements of CBT, attachment theory, Gestalt, and psychoanalysis to treat deep emotional patterns (early maladaptive schemas) formed in childhood. It uses experiential techniques such as imagery rescripting and chair work to meet unmet emotional needs.
- Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy understands that people make sense of their lives through stories. The person is not the problem; the problem is the problem. Through externalisation, deconstruction of dominant narratives, and search for unique outcomes, the client re-authors their life story toward a more empowering account.
- Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Somatic Experiencing addresses trauma through bodily sensations. Levine observed that animals discharge stress energy through trembling and involuntary movements, while humans often retain it. Therapy guides the person to complete defensive responses (fight, flight, freeze) that remained incomplete during trauma.