Finding the right Counselor

The type of counselor you need may vary on your current life stressors or situations. It may depend on your personality and feelings of connection. Do you jive with your therapist after a few sessions? If not, you may want to talk about fit, or consider asking for a referral to another therapist. The best place to start is to figure out what counseling theory your potential therapist is anchored in. Below are a few common psychotherapy approaches (out of about more than 400), which can drastically change the way your counseling process feels to you.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps people identify and change thinking and behavior patterns that are harmful or ineffective, replacing them with more accurate thoughts and functional behaviors. It can help a person focus on current problems and how to solve them. It often involves practicing new skills in the “real world.” CBT can be helpful in treating a variety of disorders, including depression, anxiety, trauma related disorders, and eating disorders. For example, CBT can help a person with depression recognize and change negative thought patterns or behaviors that are contributing to the depression.

Dialectical behavior therapy is a specific type of CBT that helps regulate emotions. It is often used to treat people with chronic suicidal thoughts and people with borderline personality disorder, eating disorders and PTSD. It teaches new skills to help people take personal responsibility to change unhealthy or disruptive behavior. It involves both individual and group therapy, usually used in day-treatment programs or in-person outpatient therapy settings.

Gestalt Psychotherapy is a phenomenological approach which emphasizes that people must be understood holistically and contextually. Gestalt counselors help people become more of who they really are by helping them to stop trying to be what they are not. The counselors role is to enable clients to develop present moment awareness of and direct contact with their internal world. This theory encourages the therapist to focus more moment-by-moment flow of experience, as opposed to more ridged, structured counseling relationships.

Interpersonal therapy (IPT) is a short-term form of treatment. It helps patients understand underlying interpersonal issues that are troublesome, like unresolved grief, changes in social or work roles, conflicts with significant others, and problems relating to others. It can help people learn healthy ways to express emotions and ways to improve communication and how they relate to others. It is most often used to treat depression.

Jungian Psychotherapy is a unique approach which emphasizes the cultural and spiritual elements, premised on the collective unconscious, universal archetypes, myths, fairy tales and themes/personality traits within self; which all can be used for psychological healing. The goal is to build a relationship between the conscious and the unconscious (the ego and the self). Jungian counselors can help you analyze archetypal, mythic and legendary themes to help you become more aware of material in the personal unconscious and collective unconscious.

Psychodynamic therapy is based on the idea that behavior and mental well-being are influenced by childhood experiences and inappropriate repetitive thoughts or feelings that are unconscious (outside of the person’s awareness). A person works with the therapist to improve self-awareness and to change old patterns so he/she can more fully take charge of his/her life. This

Psychoanalysis is a more intensive form of psychodynamic therapy. Sessions are typically conducted three or more times a week.

Supportive therapy uses guidance and encouragement to help patients develop their own resources. It helps build self-esteem, reduce anxiety, strengthen coping mechanisms, and improve social and community functioning. Supportive psychotherapy helps patients deal with issues related to their mental health conditions which in turn affect the rest of their lives.

Systemic Family Counseling Theory is a very broad approach to counseling, with several additional theories within this umbrella theory. In general, systemic counselors view a person as inherently part of several larger relational systems, which may include the nuclear family, general family, work/social community, cultural groups etc. Systemic counselors propose that a person’s problems or symptoms are inherently related to the dynamics of these systems. The goal in counseling is to help individuals and families create an internal systemic shift, which allows for new relational patterns that do not require the symptom for the system or its members to feel balanced and connected.

Descriptions and summarizations of theory’s listed above:

American Psychiatric Association

Theory and Treatment Planning in Counseling and Psychotherapy, second edition (Gerhart, 2015)

Many therapists will share they are eclectic and pull from different theories to provide you the most well rounded form of therapy. We recommend finding a therapist who has a primary theory. Their primary theory will inform their ability to create their case conceptualization of you, inform the development of your treatment plan, while influencing specific interventions they will use to support you through your counseling process.

Grounded Therapy Network, LLC was founded to provide intentional, theory based counseling to communities in the Michigan and surrounding states. We are a growing network of Mental Health Professionals, beginning in Telehealth therapy, collaborating to provide effective counseling and therapy to our community. Thank you for reviewing our resources, we hope to you think of us next time you or a friend need counseling.