Today, we are going to talk about the different approaches to psychotherapy available. Depression is a devastating and common mental illness that drains joy from life. It springs from a number of causes and contributing situations, but in all cases it’s a serious disorder that affects about 6.7 percent of Americans over age 18.[1] Depression comes in several major types, but all of them can be incapacitating. The most effective treatment for depressive disorders involves medication and psychotherapy[2].
Common Approaches to Therapy for Depression
Cognitive Therapy: The fundamental idea behind cognitive therapy is that our thoughts affect our emotions. The way we cognitively interpret everything in the world has a big effect on how and what we feel. Although medication can be helpful, maintaining good mental health requires a client with depression to actively retrain their thinking. Cognitive therapy is a way to do that by identifying persistent negative thought patterns, called cognitive distortions. Cognitive therapy also helps replace those negative habitual thoughts with more helpful ways of thinking that improve the client’s mood[3].
Behavioral Therapy: Behavioral therapy focuses on changing behaviors that cause problems by identifying them and replacing them with better behaviors. Naturally, depression doesn’t arise because of a person’s behavior, but maintaining unhealthy behaviors can make depression much worse. A lack of coping skills and poor self-care skills impairs a person’s ability to do all they can to manage their own mental illness, and self-care is crucial. No amount of medication and therapy can force a person’s psychological state to spontaneously improve. Learning to manage stress, anxiety and persistent negative thinking is
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) identifies the way a client’s thinking and behavior interact. The way a person thinks affects what they do. What a person does then has consequences that change or reinforce how they feel. Thoughts, behaviors, and feelings in people with depression tend to reinforce the depression. Consider a depressed person who wakes up thinking that terrible things are going to happen during the day. With a sense of dread, they go about their day, while interpreting everything that happens as a negative experience[4]. Learning to reframe events in a more neutral light helps alleviate stress, and in treating depression, all improvements are welcome.
Interpersonal therapy (IPT) is a therapeutic approach that aims to help people with depression address maladaptive, rigid thought processes and behaviors as they relate to their relationships with other people[5]. Isolation and the collapse of personal relationships is common in depression; even if depression remits, it can be difficult for clients to re-establish those relationships. Interpersonal therapy helps clients learn better ways of building, establishing and maintaining social support.
All three of these therapeutic approaches are time-limited and problem-focused; that is, they are geared to treat problems the client is currently experiencing in a fairly short span, anywhere from six to twenty visits, by resolving as many issues contributing to the client’s depression as possible. In all three approaches, clients learn skills from the therapist, then practice those skills at home in daily life.
If you or a loved one has experienced any symptoms of depression, please seek help from your local Spokane healthcare professional. Reach out to Damaris through her contact page or calling 509-342-6592.
[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/196765
[2] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/208460
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032797001997
