Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy, or “talk therapy” or “counseling,” can help you understand and resolve issues, and develop constructive coping strategies to use when facing problems in your life, in your relationships, or in relation to your health. Psychotherapy can help improve your support structure when struggling with a relationship, health or work issues or when you are facing difficult or stressful episodes, such as those triggered by life transitions (moving to a new location, starting college, starting a new job, facing divorce, dealing with the death of a loved one, or facing a new health diagnosis or treatment).
Individuals facing a specific mental health concern (mood disorder, phobia) as well as health issues requiring behavioral changes can benefit from psychotherapy. As a general rule of thumb, it may be time to seek the help of a licensed psychotherapist if the issues you are facing are causing you pain, disrupting your daily life functions, diminishing your quality of life, or causing feelings of helplessness or desperation.
At Endeavor Psychology we realize that just reaching out to schedule a psychotherapy appointment is a major step in addressing the problems facing our clients. We are happy to consult with you to discuss your goals, describe what you can expect from psychotherapy and help you determine whether this practice is a good fit for you.
Benefits Of Individual Therapy
If you are considering psychotherapy, you may be wondering what the potential benefits of therapy are. After all, psychotherapy does involve a commitment on your part and you want to be sure that you are investing your energy in a treatment that is likely to work.
Fortunately, many researchers, clinicians and professional associations have studied the benefits of psychotherapy. For your benefit, we have summarized some of the key findings and reflections that we believe may help you understand the benefits of therapy.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is the most common form of therapy. CBT is backed by years of research showing its effectiveness in addressing many presenting issues, such as depression and anxiety. Our therapists are well practiced in utilizing CBT with child, adolescent and adult individuals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the connection among thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, utilizing skill development to address problematic thoughts and behaviors. By developing coping skills, individuals are able to positively influence their mental health and well-being.
Collaborative and Proactive Solutions
Our therapists utilize Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (formerly Collaborative Problem Solving) created by Dr. Ross Green, which is a collaborative approach to child and family therapy, where therapist, child, and caregivers work together as a team to identify the lagging skills getting in the way of meeting expectations. The team works together to address each unsolved problem as partners with empathy and understanding and prioritizing the skills that need to be built in order to meet the collective concerns.
Interpersonal Therapy
Interpersonal Therapy targets an individual’s interpersonal relationships – with family members, friends, partners, work colleagues and others – and the way the individual sees his or herself. Interpersonal therapy typically involves helping clients:
- Identify emotions they bring to relationships and understand where it is coming from
- Expressing their emotion to others in a healthy way
- Dealing with unresolved issues from past relationships and understanding how those relationships affect their present mood, behavior, and present relationships
At Endeavor Psychology, we realize that relationships can play a direct and critical role in an individual’s mental and physical health. We integrate Interpersonal Therapy extensively into our treatment approach, focusing on helping clients identify, understand, and manage relationship problems and generally improve how our clients communicate with and relate to others.
In their book Discovering Psychology (2010), Don H. Hockenbury and Sandra E. Hockenbury include a meta-analysis (a study that pools results of hundreds of other studies into a single analysis) to examine the benefits of psychotherapy. The analysis found that:
- On average, individuals who complete psychotherapy treatment are better off than 80% of those not receiving treatment
- The benefits of psychotherapy are realized in a relatively short timeframe; approximately 50% clients show significant improvement by the 8th weekly session and 75% show significant improvement by the end of a 6-month treatment period
- Gains that clients make as a result of psychotherapy have long-standing benefits, lasting long after the end of therapy
While psychotherapy can offer a number of benefits to clients, related to their specific therapeutic goals, the following are common areas in which psychotherapy has proven to be effective:
- Helping individuals better understand themselves and their personal goals and values
- Developing skills for improving relationships.
- Helping clients overcome and manage mental health challenges.
- Instituting and maintaining important health behaviors and lifestyle changes
In her Huffington Post Article, “What Good Can Psychotherapy Do?”, Mary Benatar, Ph.D., LCSW reflects on the contributions that psychotherapy can make and explores research suggesting why an effective psychotherapeutic relationship can help. We’ve excerpted some of the key insights from her article below, but click here for a link to her full article
“Within most adult folks there is an inner wisdom that would offer great assistance in resolving the impasses of our life. Therapy is about accessing our inner, innate wisdom, not replacing it with someone else’s. I can think of many instances where I felt that there were no solutions. I was trapped. In retrospect I knew the solutions and just found them totally unpalatable. I could not end that destructive friendship, it was just too important to me. I could not resolve a domestic or an economic problem, I just wasn’t strong enough.
Excerpt from “What Good Can Psychotherapy Do?” by Mary Benatar, Ph.D., LCSW (January 2013)
So what are the elements of psychotherapy that enable that inner compass?
1. The magic of relationship: When researchers have tried to isolate the “active” ingredient in successful psychotherapies, across many theoretical approaches (CBT, psychoanalysis, mind/body approaches) they frequently come up with the same answer: “it’s the relationship, stupid,” the connection between therapist and patient is the key remedial.
Neuroscientists have a more exact way of stating this. It’s about “limbic (a key brain structure) resonance.”[1] Simply stated, therapy is not so much about the rational, linear, thinking mind. It’s more like music. In the best situation the therapist hears the particular “melodic essence” of the individual, playing softly in the background and is able to tune in and hum along, maybe even in harmony. Just this tuning in is deeply healing. How many people in your life have actually heard your “melodic essence?”
2. A therapist listens differently than other people: I heard a story once of a psychotherapist describing his occupation as one of listening — “I listen for a living.”
A therapist’s training and experience sharpen and educate their musical ear. It has been called “listening with the third ear,” among other things.[2] When things go well, a good therapist hears what others do not, even the speaker.
A therapist may hear anger where others only hear hopelessness, fear where others hear anger, shame where others hear belligerence. Truly thrilling for both the patient and the therapist is the moment when a door opens and the narrator gets a slightly different perspective, a different way of hearing their own feelings/problems. “Maybe its not my inadequacy, maybe I am feeling truly alone in this intimate relationship.” “Perhaps my adversary doesn’t hate me, perhaps they are deeply ashamed of their failures in life and feel humiliated.” And most powerfully, “maybe there is meaning embedded in my confusion and in my unremitting pain.” Meaning can set one free.”
When we experience negative thoughts or feelings, it is not uncommon for those thoughts to begin influencing our beliefs and the way that we interpret the world. As a result, our negative beliefs may lead to problematic behaviors. When we let destructive thoughts, emotions and beliefs affect our actions, it can have a negative impact on various parts of our life, including relationships, work, school, and health.
For example, a person who has persistent negative thoughts about romantic relationships may begin believing that he/she is not capable of being in a healthy, loving relationship. As a result of these negative thoughts and beliefs, he/she may seek out relationships that are unhealthy, lacking love, respect or commitment.
In order to counteract these negative thoughts and behaviors, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will focus first on helping the client identify the problematic thoughts and beliefs that may be contributing to “maladaptive” (dysfunctional or unhealthy) behaviors. Therapy then focuses on addressing the actual behaviors that are contributing to the problem. The client begins to develop and incrementally implement new skills that they can use in their own lives to achieve healthier and more positive outcomes and lead happier lives.
At Endeavor Psychology, we have had years of experience using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and a number of other proven therapies to help clients identify and challenge patterns of thought, belief, decisions and behaviors that may be impeding their full potential to achieve happiness, reach goals and lead a high quality of life.
We use an “integrative” model of psychotherapy that draws largely on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but also incorporates Interpersonal Therapy and client-focused therapeutic approaches, which draws on our clients’ strengths.
Our approach to therapy leverages a holistic understanding of the individual, recognizing the intricate relationships between body and mind. Therapy takes into account not just what clients are experiencing emotionally and physically, but also how their support networks, social and work relationships, and communities shape their experiences and impact their mental and physical health.