The Role of Therapist in Mental Health Treatment

Types of Therapy

Mental health therapy is of many types, based on the approach your therapist has to use toward a specific issue.

There are several types of mental health therapy, each with its own approaches and techniques tailored to different needs and conditions. Here are some common types:

• Psychodynamic Therapy

• Explores unconscious thoughts and feelings to understand how past experiences influence present behaviour.

• Treatment may go on for a few months or years

• Interpersonal Therapy

• Addresses interpersonal issues with an aim to improve your communication skills

• Works on self-confidence and personality

• Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

• It helps in changing your assumptions towards others

• Provides new perceptions and teaches better coping tactics

• Works well for depression and anxiety disorders

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

• It helps you accept yourself as you are before encouraging positive thinking in you

• Increases flexibility to accept your current grief or loss

• Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

• Used for people showing severe mental disorder symptoms

• Focuses on noting down unhealthy habits and working towards a change

• Regulation of emotions and self-awareness

• Supportive Therapy

• Unleashes the potential of your emotional health

• Improves self-esteem and reduces anxiety

• Human Therapy

• Focuses on discovering yourself with all your flaws

• Getting rid of unhealthy life patterns

• Sensorimotor Therapy

• Establishes the link between physical and emotional feelings

• Very effective in treating emotional disorders and trauma

• It helps give a direction to your psychological behaviour

• Child-Parent Psychology

• Focuses on strengthening the parent-child relationship

• Regulates the behavioural issues of the child

• Therapy Using Animals

• Dogs and horses commonly used

• Encourages a comfortable atmosphere by reducing anxiety

• Therapy using music and art

• Encourages expression of thoughts through music and art media

Role of a Therapist

An expert in mental health therapy has to wear many hats when treating the mental disorders of people.

• Accurate Diagnosis

One of the most important parts of mental therapy is an accurate diagnosis of the condition. A therapist talks with you and your family to understand the nature of your emotions. He/she conducts psychological tests to know the exact mental health issue you are facing so that the next steps can be followed properly.

• Chalking out the treatment plan

Therapists chalk out customised treatment plans for you based on your current issues, requirements, the intensity of your mental condition, etc. These treatment plans may include talk therapies, goal-setting, journal writing, and more.

• Therapy Sessions

This is the main role of mental health therapists. They encourage you to talk or open up about your past trauma, your perceptions, emotional behaviour, and other issues. These therapy sessions can go on for many sittings based on your condition.

• Checking the progress

Mental health therapy involves checking on the patients regularly for the progress made. Therapists may continue with the same treatment or add/decrease the intensity of the treatment based on your response/progress.

• Continuous support

People with mental health conditions often require someone to emotionally hold on to them, even when they have recovered. Mental health therapists do this job for you. They are there for you to listen, guide, motivate, and support you in your life so you can cope with your condition effectively.

• Increasing mental health awareness

One of the main roles of therapists is to encourage people to opt for mental health treatment to recover from problems like anxiety, depression, and trauma. They make people more aware of mental wellness and urge them to watch out for related symptoms so that they can seek professional help right away.

Benefits

So, how can mental health therapy help you? It can help you in the following circumstances:

• Holistic recovery from ailments like cancers

• Effective management of physical, mental, and emotional stress and trauma

• Better management of loss of loved ones

• Effective coping techniques

• Encouragement to quit vices like smoking, drinking, and substance abuse

• Developing new perceptions and positive thinking

• The feeling of lightness after opening up about past wounds and trauma

• Reduced episodes of violent behaviour

• Better management of childhood trauma

• Developing an overall positive attitude toward yourself and others

• Identifying issues and resolving them

• Better interpersonal and communication skills

• Reduced mental health symptoms of depression

Tips for effective therapy sessions

Mental health therapy can be effective only if you follow these tips:

• Attend all sessions without fail.

• Establishing perfect coordination with your therapists is a must.

• Help therapists for an accurate mental health diagnosis by noting down stress triggers.

• Develop trust in your therapist and communicate transparently with him/her.

• Always focus on the positive effects of therapy.

• Let your therapist know if you are not comfortable talking about past trauma.

• Homework, if any, should be done without fail; these activities will help your therapist track your progress and modify treatments.

• Mental health therapy doesn’t yield results overnight. So, be extremely patient with yourself during the sessions.