What to Know About the Different Forms of Psychotherapy (2025)

Psychotherapy or talk therapy is a major form of mental health care. This treatment is made up of a number of interventions that relieve psychological, behavioral, and sometimes even physical conditions that affect mental well-being.

In most cases, talk therapy takes place in meetings between a patient and a mental health professional who may be a psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor, or another certified expert. These meetings usually employ a number of therapeutic techniques and approaches in an attempt to improve the patient’s quality of life.

Types of Therapy

To achieve the ultimate goal of improving the psychological, emotional, and social well-being of patients, therapists can choose different formats when conducting their sessions. These formats include:

Individual Therapy

These are one-on-one sessions where the therapist and patient navigate and hash out whatever issues may be affecting the individual.

Individual sessions can run anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more and, depending on the needs of the patient, might occur once per week, twice per week, or biweekly.

Group Therapy

This form of therapy involves one or more therapists who oversee a session of between two and 15 patients. These groups usually target a specific problem that is commonly shared by the members, although they can also focus on more general emotional issues.

Group therapy not only offers support but also provides the opportunity to learn strategies to manage problems from the group leaders as well as the other members of the group.

Couples Therapy

Couples therapy helps spouses and significant others resolve conflicts within their relationship in a healthy manner. This form of therapy also helps to improve communication within the relationship, as well as to enhance other areas of the union that may require change.

Family Therapy

In family therapy, healthy interactions within the family unit are forged. This form of therapy may also be helpful for families that have experienced major changes, such as the loss of a family member, or who have a sibling or parent who may require additional care due to an illness. Family therapy looks to encourage healthy understanding and communication between members and improve inter-family relationships.

Therapy Techniques

With more than one in five adults in the United States living with a mental illness, specific types of talk therapy may be required to manage and cater to each person's unique problems. The approach used may depend on the condition being treated, as well as the expertise of the mental health professional. The American Psychological Association classifies these approaches into five broad categories:

Psychodynamic Therapy

This approach to therapy looks to help clients understand more about themselves by examining the unconscious meanings of actions they engage in. This often involves delving into the person's past experiences to understand why they think and act the way they do now.

Psychodynamic therapy often uses the therapeutic relationship between the therapist and client as a way to explore and change patient's problematic ways of reasoning, feeling, or behaving. This might look like the therapist modeling an outside relationship or letting the client work through difficult emotions with the therapist as a guide.

Behavioral Therapy

Behavioral therapy adopts a number of techniques to help with identifying and changing negative or self-destructive behaviors in patients. This form of therapy is problem-focused, which means the goal of therapy is to identify tangible issues in the person's life and actively fix them.

It also focuses on the influence of different types of learning and conditioning on a patient's behaviors. In behavioral therapy, the client will learn to identify triggers and alter their behavior accordingly so that they are no longer acting out unhelpful or harmful actions in their lives.

Cognitive Therapy

This form of therapy emphasizes the examination and change of the patient's thought patterns.

Cognitive therapy looks to change negative and dysfunctional ways of thinking to avoid negative and dysfunctional ways of acting. By modifying these thoughts, patients can change how they feel about certain situations in their lives that usually trigger them or result in harmful outcomes. This identification and shift of negative thoughts can then help them act in healthier ways.

Cognitive therapy is often combined with behavioral approaches, such as in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In this approach, an examination of negative or harmful thinking is supposed to lead to positive changes in behavior.

Humanistic Therapy

At the core of humanistic therapy is the idea that people have the capacity to reach their full potential through proper nurturing, and its main tenet is that people are the experts in their own lives. Therefore, humanistic therapy is person-centered and focused on the individual's thoughts, beliefs, and goals.

This form of therapy may focus on a patient's search for a sense of meaning in life and may be an approach to take when searching for self-actualization, or the ability to recognize their full potential.

Integrative Therapy

Because therapists are ultimately interested in producing the best results for their clients, they may sometimes merge different approaches to psychotherapy, called "integrative" therapy because it integrates multiple therapeutic techniques. This is usually to produce a tailor-made technique for tackling whatever difficulty a client may be facing.

What Psychotherapy Can Help With

Whether combined with medication or used as a solo treatment, psychotherapy is often recommended as an effective way to manage and improve the symptoms of mental health conditions such as:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Eating disorders
• Sleep problems
• Bipolar disorder

Psychotherapy may also be effective in helping with personal and emotional growth, and improving coping, self-esteem, and relationships.

Benefits of Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is often praised as an effective treatment method for a number of reasons. Some of these include the following:

• Psychotherapy has been found to be just as effective as medication in treating conditions such as certain types of depression and anxiety.
• Beyond mental health conditions, psychotherapy can also help clients view the world in less harmful and more positive ways.
• Therapy is an effective way of improving interpersonal relations with family, peers, colleagues, and others.
• Psychotherapy can teach clients to be more accepting of themselves and ingrain techniques necessary to show self-compassion.
• By going to therapy, healthy methods of expressing difficult emotions may be learned.

Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

Whether used for managing mental health conditions or as a method of improving the quality of life, psychotherapy has been found effective in the following ways:

• Reduces the symptoms of mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.
• Usually produces long-term benefits that linger even after sessions have been discontinued.
• Offers better protection against a relapse of certain mental health conditions when compared to just taking medication.
• Helps manage some symptoms and maladaptive or harmful behaviors in vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children. This is an especially important alternative in circumstances where there may be safety concerns around consuming medications.

Things to Consider

Your mental health is an important part of your well-being at any stage of your life. This is why therapy is an advisable option to improve your psychological well-being from childhood all the way to old age. However, there are particular instances where going to therapy becomes especially important. These include:

• If you constantly feel helpless or sad
• If you are drinking in excess, or engaging in other dangerous behaviors
• If you find it difficult to concentrate on work or everyday activities
• If you are dealing with a significant life transition such as a death in the family, a break-up, or a divorce
• If you are experiencing persistent insomnia, or the unusual need to sleep throughout the day
• If your challenges don't improve regardless of support from friends and family

For children, it may be wise for them to attend therapy when they exhibit traits that interfere with their school life or interaction with family and their peers.

How to Get Started

If the benefits of therapy might be worthwhile to your present circumstances or any challenges you are facing, there are a few things you need to know about the journey you are about to begin.

Where to Find a Therapist

Selecting a therapist to properly care for your mental health is one of the most important steps you'll take in your process of self-improvement. It can take some research, patience, and persistence to find the right therapist. You can start by talking with your primary care provider. University or medical center departments of psychiatry or psychology may be another resource.

You could also use an online therapy directory to search for a provider in your area who fits your specific needs, or you could turn to an online therapy company for easy access to a therapist.

There are currently many options online, but verifying a clinician's credentials and trusting your intuition on the match is important. It might take you a few tries to find the right therapist for you; know that this is normal and that finding a therapist with whom you connect is very important.

What to Expect on the First Appointment

After identifying likely candidates for your choice of therapist, a preliminary conversation can give an idea of their qualifications, the style of treatment they will likely adopt, and how easily trust and comfort are established with that therapist. If you find that you struggle with being at ease with a candidate, you can always skip them for someone better suited.

At your first appointment with your therapist, they will ask you about your mental health history, what brought you to therapy, and what you would like to accomplish while working with them. Be open and honest so that they know how best to help you.

Questions to Ask the Therapist

While speaking with a prospective choice, there are a number of questions you can ask to make sure their methods align with your expectations. They include:

• What are your credentials?
• Are there any specific therapeutic techniques you employ?
• Do you have experience treating my specific condition or concern?
• What are the goals of my therapy?
• How long can I expect to be in treatment?
• What metrics will be adopted to define progress during meetings?
• How will my dissatisfaction with treatment be handled if I have any?
• Will medication be recommended?

Of course you can ask any questions you might have, but these can provide a useful framework for your treatment.

You should also know that beyond physical meetings, there are measures such as telephone, internet, and mobile services to help with treatments for mental health. These are especially useful in areas where mental health professionals are scarce, in what are known as therapy deserts.

Similar lines of questioning may be adopted in these cases. However, you should know that this form of treatment may not be as effective for some people as in-person consultations, especially for those living with more serious mental health conditions.

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