Psychotherapy

Psychotherapies That Work

We believe in psychotherapy. We think it is underutilized in the treatment of people with mood disorders. We don't, however, believe in counseling, by which we mean getting together with someone and talking about how you are feeling and getting support, encouragement and empathy. We don't find that this approach helps people with mood disorders. What we have tried to do is to learn and use approaches to treatment that have been shown to work.

Often the question is raised about psychotherapies and medications: which is better. Sometimes it is framed in terms of "is this a psychological problem or is this a chemical imbalance." We don't think that that question makes sense. All problems are psychological, and, since our brain is made of chemicals, all problems are chemical. The question we like is a pragmatic one: what is going to work and which approach fits my needs the best. A recent study in the Archives of General Psychiatry makes it clear that both psychotherapy and medication therapy work in a biological fashion, but they work in different ways that may often be complimentary to each other.

Beginning Psychotherapy

The process of change is a very difficult one and, unfortunately, the beginning of that process is by far the hardest part. There is a great deal of effort and little gained. We have sketched an image that is sometimes helpful for people who are at the beginning of that process.

For more information about specific conditions and psychotherapy look here:

Cognitive Psychotherapy

Cognitive psychotherapy is one of the best studied forms of psychotherapy. It has been shown to be effective for a number of mood and anxiety conditions. This information from the Beck Institute offers some practical information about cognitive therapy.

Models of the Mind

We plan to add more images or models of how the mind works, and of how therapy might work here. For now we have:

The Parent, Adult and Child model of interactions