Psychotherapy

Your therapist will use one or more types of the therapies below, depending on your individual case.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) refers to the reframing of negative and unhealthy thought patterns, resulting in positive and more adaptive behaviours in a variety of situations.

Cognitive interpersonal therapy rests on three main principles: we tend to (unconsciously) provoke and maintain the very relationship problems that we struggle with; we tend to minimize our role as an individual within the relationship when it comes to conflict, because self-examination is painful and we may even be being rewarded in some way by the stresses of the relationship, and we all have more power than we think to improve troubled relationships if we are willing to stop blaming the other person and focus more on changing ourselves.

Exposure therapy involves the successive approximation towards the feared object or situation. In the short term, this can create more stress, but over time, a person can become habituated or accustomed to the feared object such that anxiety becomes minimal or non-existent.

Emotion-focused therapy works with adult relationships and attachments. Clients look at patterns in the relationships and work towards a more secure and trust-based bond so as to move the relationship in a healthier, more positive direction.

Sometimes called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), this type of therapy combines aspects of cognitive behavioural techniques with mindfulness strategies and teaches the client to be able to separate themselves from their thoughts and feelings. Clients learn how to recognize, interrupt, and then change automatic patterns of thinking and behaviour that can be negative and destructive.