Deciphering Therapy: Types as Tools in your Mental Health Toolbox

31st January 2024 by Natalie

CBT, CFT, EMDR, SFT… what are all these things?! Chances are, if you've ever been involved with any kind of therapy or have done a search for it, you will have come across at least one of these abbreviations, probably several of them. Ever wonder what they all mean? They all stand for different models or 'types' of therapy. The issue is, as professionals, we're often really bad at noticing when we use abbreviations that most people understandably won't understand. If you look at most directory sites or webpages for psychologists, you'll often see a huge list headed 'Types of therapy offered,' but how many of us would really know what this is all about? Do we pick one? Is it potluck? Does it depend on the difficulty we have? Does the therapist decide? As I write this, I'm having visions of an overwhelmed child in front of a pick'n'mix…

What is a therapy 'type'?

When we talk about 'types' of therapy in psychology, we're saying that there are different ways to help people with their thoughts and feelings. It's a bit like having different tools for different types of jobs. Therapists use different types of therapy based on what works best for each person, combined with the findings from research studies that look at how well people do when they have therapy.

To keep with the toolbox analogy, sometimes you only need one tool for a specific job. Other times, you're going to need to use lots of different types of tools combined to make any noticeable progress with that DIY project. Some therapists will be trained to use one type of therapy, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). As Clinical Psychologists, we are trained to use several different types and know how to combine them effectively to best help someone. This is why each person's therapy journey will look different from the next.

In terms of client choice, this is absolutely something we will pay attention to and try to offer some guidance on too. Sometimes people will reach out to me requesting a specific type of therapy, and that's great, like when you go to the DIY shop specifically looking for a flat-headed screwdriver. Other times, you know what the problem is, but not which tools will work best to fix it.

A word of caution on types of therapy: increasingly, we're seeing people approach us for a specific therapy. At the moment, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is very popular, while poor old CBT is getting a bit of a bad rep. BOTH types of therapy are very effective for a range of difficulties and have lots of research evidence behind them. EMDR is a newer type of therapy, and thanks to an increasing awareness of mental health needs and social media, several well-known figures have put it out there that this has really helped them. This is fantastic, but bear in mind that no one therapy will be able to solve the needs of all people. There are some difficulties for which I wouldn't be recommending EMDR. It can also be harder to access as it isn't a core part of our training, so fewer psychologists are trained and able to provide it.

Meanwhile, CBT has come under some scrutiny for being 'very NHS,' and for some people, it can feel that CBT has a strong emphasis on structure and alleviating symptoms with perhaps less focus on the underlying reasons why the difficulty developed in the first place. Nevertheless, the amount of evidence for CBT as an effective therapy is vast, and I can account for this having been both a therapist and a client working with CBT.

In future blog posts, I'll be taking each of those abbreviations and explaining a bit about each one. Hopefully, the idea of 'types of therapy' is now making a bit more sense.

If now is the time have more of a chat about therapy types and which might be right for you, contact me to book your free 15 minute consultation. I offer both online sessions and face-to-face in Worcester.