Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy
This therapy focuses on exploring the patterns of dysfunctional emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that maintain maladaptive behavior, which manifests through various emotional and psychological problems. Through a collaborative and goal-oriented process, I will help you learn new functional patterns and achieve positive changes in your life. There is empirical evidence that this therapy is effective for treating a variety of problems, including depression, anxiety, and personality disorders.
We will talk about your thoughts and feelings and the things that worry you. As you progress in the therapeutic process, I may ask you to do tasks during the week (activities, readings, or practices to further develop what you learn during your sessions) and encourage you to apply what you have learned in your daily life.
This therapy commonly includes these steps:
Identifying problematic situations or disorders in your life. It is possible that together we will spend some time deciding which problems and goals you want to focus on.
Paying attention to your thoughts, emotions, and opinions related to these problems. To do this, you may need to observe what you tell yourself about an experience (internal dialogue), your interpretation of the meaning of a situation, and your opinion about yourself, other people, and events. I may suggest that you keep a journal of your thoughts.
Identify negative or unhelpful thoughts. To help you recognize patterns of thinking and behavior that may be contributing to your problems, I might ask you to pay attention to your physical, emotional, and behavioral responses in different situations.
Rationalize negative or unhelpful thoughts. I will likely encourage you to ask yourself whether your opinion about a situation is based on facts or on an inaccurate perception of what’s happening. This step can be challenging. You may have ways of thinking about your life and yourself that have been deeply ingrained for a long time. With practice, helpful thought patterns and behaviors will become a habit, and you won’t need to make as much effort to achieve them.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy
This is a therapy that has proven to be very effective, especially for depression, in line with scientific evidence. The underlying belief of this therapy is that psychological symptoms (like depression) are often a response to the difficulties we have due to a flawed interaction with others. The resulting symptoms can affect the quality of these interactions, causing a vicious cycle. The hypothesis behind this therapy is that once a person is able to interact more effectively with those around them, the psychological symptoms will improve.
Skills and techniques that are addressed:
Emotion identification: For some of us, accurately identifying the emotion we are feeling at a given moment can be difficult. I will help you identify emotions from an impartial perspective.
Expression of emotion: This involves learning to express your emotions in a healthier way.
Coping with past problems: Sometimes, relationships from the past can affect the way we interact in the present. Part of the therapy involves looking into your past to see if any patterns have formed.
Analysis of relationship patterns: This examines the way the patient interacts with others and identifies dysfunctional relationship patterns that may be contributing to problems.
Conflict resolution: Conflict resolution skills are taught to improve relationships and reduce interpersonal tension.
Effective communication techniques: Effective communication skills are taught to improve the quality of interpersonal relationships.
Role-playing: Role-playing exercises are used to practice communication and conflict resolution skills in a safe environment.
Interpersonal conflicts: Conflicts can appear in a wide variety of settings, including family, social, marital, school, or work, etc. They usually arise from different expectations in a given situation. If these types of conflicts cause significant distress, it is worth analyzing them.
Role transitions: This refers to a change in personal circumstances, for example, falling ill, a change of job or being unemployed, a change in civil status, or a life event that requires adaptation. These changes can be experienced as losses, leading to depression or anxiety. In therapy, I will help you use tools to help you navigate the transition to a new reality in a healthy way.
The grieving process: When someone close passes away, the feelings of pain and loss are completely natural. If the pain persists, or is considered to last longer than the "normal" time for grief, it may be something that can be treated during therapy. I will help you process grief in a healthy way.
Interpersonal deficits: This category includes relationships that a person feels are debilitating in some way, or relationships that they do not have. This could be a bad relationship with a sibling or a lack of friends they feel they can trust, for example. Interpersonal Therapy can help identify these deficits and offer ways to solve them, such as tools to develop quality friendships and/or set boundaries with toxic relationships.
How can I help you?