Brief Therapy
Brief therapy is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on specific objectives, oriented towards the present and seeking insight from the patient, that is, to become aware of the conflict and generate solutions.
It begins with a quick assessment and generates a single therapy objective. Unlike conventional processes, which generally work on several correlated points. Also, the duration of the process is much shorter and only requires a few sessions, which generally do not exceed five appointments.
Although the therapy is focused on solutions, and has specific objectives, the patient may not know what is happening to him or her and the therapist helps him or her to see the root of the problem and together generate the objective to work on.
This type of therapy can help people of any age, even couples or groups. And it works with problems of anxiety, depression, self-esteem, interpersonal conflicts, among others.
Cognitive-behavioral Therapy
This is a type of psychotherapy that has as its main postulate the intrinsic relationship between thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
In therapy, we work mainly with the patient's thoughts, to become aware of them and understand the effect they have on our emotions and behaviors and thus be able to respond and act in a clearer and more controlled way.
Example:
- If a person thinks that every time he goes to work he can suffer a serious accident, it is likely that he will be scared and stressed on his way and, on his way there will be surprises and he will be careful of everything and everyone.
Thought: When I go to work I can suffer a serious accident
Emotion: Fear
Behavior: Surprises and excessive care
A therapist with this approach can help work on this relationship between thought-emotion-behavior to change patterns of behavior and beliefs for a fuller life.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a technique that is based on evidence, that is, on the scientific method.
This type of therapy is highly recommended for treating disorders such as anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, among others.
Couples Therapy
Therapy process aimed at members of relationships, who may be spouses, boyfriends, friends, separated, in the process of divorce, etc.
During the process, we will try to get to the root of the problems that seem to have no solution, to begin to generate strategies and agreements between the parties to move towards the resolution of conflicts.
For this process to occur, it is very important to work on communication between the couple, establishing clarity in the messages that the members communicate. The therapist acts as a mediator and assists the communication between the couple.
Ideal situations to attend couples therapy:
- When it seems that a problem has no solution: to be able to apply certain techniques and work towards the resolution.
- If they have been experiencing a problem repeatedly: so that they can contact the lesson and integrate it.
- Before getting married: to establish agreements and expectations between the two, and to acquire efficient tools for communication and conflict resolution.
- Before having a child: to work on adaptability to the changes to be experienced, the new roles and responsibilities.
- When the relationship feels stagnant: it can help you grow as a couple and rediscover yourself.
- When you experience problems about sexuality.
- When deciding to divorce: so that the separation is less painful and to know how to find closure.
Life as a couple is a path that is full of challenges and difficulties, but at the same time, it is the path that yields the most rewards when you decide to grow as a couple.
Gestalt
Gestalt therapy is a branch of humanistic psychology that seeks the development of the individual through an understanding of oneself.
It emphasizes that the individual takes responsibility for himself and his actions and is focused on the present (here and now).
During the therapy, the patient will be freed from unfinished processes and chains of the past to allow him a fully and freer way of life (thanks to the responsibility he takes).
It is important to mention that part of the objective is the acceptance of the individual in his entirety, therefore it is not sought to change the personality but to face any situation from the resources that one already has.
Example:
-If a patient begins a Gestalt therapy process because he feels shy around others.
With the help of the therapist, he will discover his part of responsibility and how this condition only depends on him. Together with an analysis of the situations experienced in the present. Together, they will generate strategies, based on the patient's skills, so that he or she can feel comfortable in social environments.
This therapy is suggested to treat emotional conflicts, grief, low self-esteem, difficulty relating socially, anxiety, depression, among others.
Humanistic Therapy
This is a branch of psychology that focuses on the personal development of the individual, and that, although it works on anxiety, depression, isolation, etc., it will seek to help the patient grow from these conditions.
It is based on humanism and existentialism and maintains a holistic stance towards the individual; not only disorders and conflicts are observed, but a being with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual elements. This is why the subjective aspect of the individual takes on a lot of importance within the therapeutic process and the meaning and significance of what the person experiences is taken into account. And also, it is a therapy focused on the present and not so much on the traumatic events of the past.
The humanistic therapist will seek to facilitate the process of change by guiding the patient to discover their own resources and tools to grow from their conflicts. Self-knowledge and self-realization are processes that develop during the therapy process.
Example:
-A patient comes to a humanistic therapist because the psychiatrist diagnosed him with a depressive episode (depression).
The therapist can help the patient to become aware of the meaning of his depression, which for the purposes of this example, we can think of the hypothetical case of feeling worthless. Through this emotional conflict, in the work during session the patient can be helped to re-define his identity and to rediscover himself and his reality thanks to the objectives achieved in therapy. This is a brief example but each case is different in therapy.
This therapy is suggested to treat anxiety, depression, crises (identity, existential, etc.), emotional conflicts, etc. And also for those who seek personal growth, rather than conflict resolution.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy is a type of psychotherapy that uses language as a means to understand the patient and the problem. At the same time, it is through the analysis of language that the patient becomes aware of what he or she suffers from.
That is, from the position that we are beings that need to generate narratives to remember, think, communicate, etc. Therefore, narrative therapy seeks to have the client redesign the narratives by adding values and skills.
This is achieved by questioning existing narratives to deconstruct and analyze their points individually, placing the patient as the expert of his or her life, full of resources and skills to solve any problem.
This therapy is very careful not to blame the person and to make it clear that people are not the problem, but rather separates the problem from the person.
Psychoanalysis
This is a term coined by Sigmund Freud, who developed the theory and therapeutic method. It is based on the exploration of the unconscious between the patient and the psychoanalyst. The patient through “free association” and the therapist through interpretation.
Free association is the method closely linked to psychoanalysis, which seeks to get the patient to speak freely and autonomously about ideas that consciously arise, without giving so much importance to the narrative and its meaning, but rather to the unconscious content that pushes to emerge into consciousness.
In this exploration between the patient and the therapist, the unconscious psychic processes that originate ways of feeling and acting that are conflicting for the patient are sought to be discovered.
This therapy is often taken by people who want to know themselves better, work on issues of sexuality; post-traumatic stress, insomnia, anxiety, depression, psychosomatic disorders, among others.
Systemic Therapy
It is a therapeutic branch of psychology that comprehensively studies the individual as part of a family system and its subsystems, such as couples, friends, society, etc, to determine the origin of conflicts and to generate strategies to change the relationship dynamics within these systems.
A system is understood as a group of people, regardless of the number, with a common identity and objective, who maintain interaction and communication, for example: a basketball team, a group of friends, a company; having as the main system, the family.
Therefore, the system of which the patient is part, is analyzed to understand the behavior of the individual based on the relationships that he maintains in the systems of which he is part of. At the same time, the patient always works in relation to the role that he plays in his systems.
As part of the therapeutic process, the position that each individual plays within the system is analyzed to understand the functions and roles that correspond to him and at the same time, guidelines are generated and tools are provided to work on the roles and functions that do not correspond to each member.
Examples:
-If an older brother takes responsibility for his younger siblings, it could be thought that the parents have given him a role and functions proper to a parent and the scale of hierarchies within the family system has not been respected.
-If someone feels alone, it would be necessary to analyze what role and functions the person is taking or denying to be in that position.
The most common is that this therapy is taken for family and couple conflicts, although it is not limiting and can help us with any human conflict because we are all part of a system.
Thanatological Therapy
It is a type of therapy that emotionally accompanies any person who is going through a significant loss.
Clarifying that not only thanatological therapy accompanies in relation to death, but also, losses such as leaving the place of birth, a retirement process, children growing up and leaving home, etc.
During the accompaniment, a lot of attention is given to the pain, taking care that the person is not victimized; also, always respecting their rhythms and beliefs, so that regardless of whether they profess any religion or not, thanatological therapy is suitable for anyone and any age.
Pain is something that occurs during loss and as one of the objectives of the therapy is to redefine the pain by understanding that it is only a natural human experience and that it can be full of healthy and constructive meanings.
This therapy is suggested for people who are close to death and also for close relatives of the person who is about to die. As well as for people who have experienced or are about to experience important and transcendental changes in their lives.