The approaches below are the ones a reader is most
likely to meet by name. Each entry says what the approach works with and how a
course of it is usually shaped.
None of them is presented here as better than another. Which approach suits a
person is a decision for that person and a qualified professional together, and
it depends on what is being worked on as much as on the approach itself.
Cognitive behavioural therapy
Cognitive behavioural therapy works with the links between what a person thinks, how they feel and what they do. Sessions are usually structured, run to a number agreed at the start, and often include something to try between meetings.
Because the work is organised around a written or spoken plan, both people can see what is being worked on and how far it has gone. That makes it easier to review and easier to stop at an agreed point.
- Usual shape
- A set number of sessions, agreed at the start
- Between sessions
- Practical tasks are common
- Main focus
- Present-day patterns rather than history
Counselling
Counselling gives a person a confidential space to talk something through with a trained listener. It is often shorter than the other approaches and less structured, and it is frequently organised around one particular difficulty.
The counsellor's role is to listen closely and to help the person find their own way through, rather than to direct them towards a conclusion.
- Usual shape
- Open-ended or a short agreed block
- Between sessions
- Usually nothing set
- Main focus
- One named difficulty or life change
Psychodynamic therapy
Psychodynamic therapy looks at how earlier relationships and long-standing patterns shape how a person feels and behaves now. It usually runs for longer than the more structured approaches.
It also pays attention to what happens between the two people in the room and treats that as part of the material to be understood, rather than as a distraction from it.
- Usual shape
- Longer, often open-ended
- Between sessions
- No set tasks
- Main focus
- Patterns formed over time
Group and family formats
The same approaches can be delivered with more than one person present. A group brings together several people working on related difficulties; family and couples work brings in the people a difficulty exists between.
The format changes what is possible. There is less privacy than in one-to-one work, but the relationships themselves can be worked on directly rather than only described.
- Usual shape
- A fixed block or a standing weekly group
- Who attends
- Several people, or a family or couple
- Main focus
- The relationships in the room