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Talking Therapies
Talking therapies involve talking and listening. Most of us want
somebody to talk to, who listens and accepts us, especially when we
are going through a bad time. Sometimes it is easier to talk to a
stranger than to relatives or friends. Some therapists will aim to
find the root cause of your problem and help you deal with this,
some will help you change your behaviour or negative thoughts.
Others simply aim to support you through a crisis or time of change.
Talking therapies generally work well in combination with
antidepressant treatment.
There are a number of different types of talking therapy, and these
are summarised in the table below:
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Counselling |
Usually "one to one"- one therapist talking to one client,
rather than in a group. Counselling is often for a set
number of sessions, and focuses on helping people find
their own solutions. Counselling can be very helpful in
getting support at a time of change, but won't usually
enable people to make major changes to the way they think.
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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy |
"One to one" or group sessions; time limited; can involve
using self-help; uses a collaborative approach.
CBT aims to help people identify unhelpful assumptions or
"automatic thoughts", and to make connections between these
thoughts and the way they act and feel.
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Psychotherapy (includes psychoanalysis and psychodynamic
psychotherapy) |
One to one or group sessions; not time limited – can take
place over several months or years. Psychoanalysis is based on
a Freudian approach to unconscious
wishes & conflicts. Psychodynamic therapy tends to focus
more on recurrent patterns in the relationships that people
make. Both approaches are based on the idea that we learn
about relationships (for good or ill) quite early in life,
and tend to repeat the same ways of relating to people (at
work, with friends, in intimate relationships) throughout
life.
Psychotherapy has the potential to profoundly change the way
people think and feel.
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Interpersonal Therapy |
One to one or group sessions; time limited; considers the
relationship-based issues.
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Counselling
Counsellors help people think about the problems they are
experiencing and find new ways of coping with difficulties. They
give support and help people find their own solutions, rather than
offering advice or treatment. It may focus on a specific problem
like bereavement or post-natal depression or on a decision, crisis
or conflict. You are encouraged to talk about the feelings you have
about yourself and your situation, and the counsellor helps you find
ways to tackle them.
Counselling can help both ordinary problems of living and life
crises. It can help you stay well and prevent mental health
problems. Many people find counselling useful in helping them adjust
to life events such as bereavement, post-natal depression, illness,
disability or loss. Some people who have experienced supportive
counselling say that it helped them through a difficult time, and it
can help you become aware of and guard against too much stress in
your life.
For more
information on counselling please click on the links below:
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
MIND Leaflet ‘Making Sense of Counselling’
COSCA – Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland
Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy
(also referred to as CBT or Cognitive Therapy)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) aims to help people change
patterns of thinking or behaviour that are causing problems. It is
based on the principle that the way we feel is partly dependent on
the way we think about events (our cognitions). Changing how you
think and behave also changes how you feel. CBT therapists look at
the links between behaviour, feelings and thoughts, which all affect
each other.
More research has been done on cognitive behavioural therapy than on
some other therapies and it has been shown to be effective for a
variety of mental health problems. This evidence doesn’t mean it is
better than other therapies, but simply that others have not been
studied so closely. In particular, it can help with depression,
anxiety, panic attacks, as well as other mental health difficulties.
For more
information on CBT please click on the links below:
British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies
(BABCP)
MIND Leaflet ‘Making sense of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy’
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
Interpersonal
Therapy (or IPT) is a kind of talking therapy which considers the
relationship-based issues which are often central to the experience
of many depressed people. IPT uses a practical, time-limited and
focused approach to the treatment of depression. It looks at any
difficulties people have in maintaining relationships and resolving
relationship difficulties whilst feeling depressed. The main aim of
IPT it to help people learn how to link their mood with
interpersonal contacts.
IPT Edinburgh
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What can I do to get better? 
