Marital and Family Therapy

It may look like a craft class, but art therapy is a serious technique that uses the creative process to help improve the mental health of clients. Art therapy can be used on children and adults to treat a wide range of emotional issues, including anxiety, depression, family and relationship problems, abuse and domestic violence, and trauma and loss. Commonly found in hospitals and community centers, art therapy programs are based on the belief that the creative process is healing and life-enhancing. As they paint or draw, a skilled therapist can use the client's works of art and their approach to the process as springboards to help them gain personal insight, improve their judgment, cope with stress, and work through traumatic experiences.

Attachment-based therapy is form of therapy that applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory, which explains how the relationship a parent has with their child influences development.

A child's primary language is not verbal.  Toys are their words, and play is their language. Children's behaviors are frequently an expression of what's going on inside them. Child-Centered Play therapy gives children an opportunity to make sense of their thoughts, feelings, and life experiences in a way that is comfortable, safe, and non-threatening. In the process, children also frequently learn to develop greater trust in themselves, their abilities, and their relationships.

Life coaching is an increasingly popular profession. Though psychologists also often consider themselves life coaches, these therapists don't focus on treating mental illness. Instead, they help individuals realize their goals in work and in life. An executive coach, for example, may be enlisted to help a chief executive become a better manager, while a "love" coach may map out a plan to help a client find romantic fulfillment.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy stresses the role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. It is based on the belief that thoughts, rather than people or events, cause our negative feelings. The therapist assists the client in identifying, testing the reality of, and correcting dysfunctional beliefs underlying his or her thinking. The therapist then helps the client modify those thoughts and the behaviors that flow from them. CBT is a structured collaboration between therapist and client and often calls for homework assignments. CBT has been clinically proven to help clients in a relatively short amount of time with a wide range of disorders, including depression and anxiety.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the treatment most closely associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Therapists practice DBT in both individual and group sessions. The therapy combines elements of CBT to help with regulating emotion through distress tolerance and mindfulness. The goal of Dialectical Behavior Therapy is to alleviate the intense emotional pain associated with BPD.

Many practitioners take an eclectic approach to therapy, drawing upon various aspects of cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic methods to create their own custom-made approach. Such therapists often work with their clients to create a treatment plan that encompasses different techniques to best address the client's particular problems and to appeal to their sensibility.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is an approach to therapy that helps clients identify their emotions, learn to explore and experience them, to understand them and then to manage them. Emotionally Focused Therapy embraces the idea that emotions can be changed, first by arriving at or 'living' the maladaptive emotion (e.g. loss, fear or shame) in session, and then learning to transform it. Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples seeks to break the negative emotion cycles within relationships, emphasizing the importance of the attachment bond between couples, and how nurturing of the attachment bonds and an empathetic understanding of each others emotions can break the cycles.

Expressive arts therapy is the use of the creative arts as a form of therapy on the basis that people can heal through use of imagination and creativity. Expressive arts therapy would include art therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy, music therapy and writing therapy.

Family and Marital therapists work with families or couples both together and individually to help them improve their communication skills, build on the positive aspects of their relationships, and repair the harmful or negative aspects.

Family Systems therapists view problems within the family as the result not of particular members' behaviors, but of the family's group dynamic. The family is seen as a complex system having its own language, roles, rules, beliefs, needs and patterns. The therapist helps each individual member understand how their childhood family operated, their role in that system, and how that experience has shaped their role in the current family. Therapists with the MFT credential are usually trained in Family Systems therapy.

Gestalt therapy seeks to integrate the client's behaviors, feelings, and thinking, so that their intentions and actions may be aligned for optimal mental health. The therapist will help the client become more self aware, to live more in the present, and to assume more responsibility for taking care of themself. Techniques of gestalt therapy include confrontation, dream analysis, and role playing.

The Gottman theory for making Relationships work shows that to make a relationship last, couples must become better friends, learn to manage conflict, and create ways to support each other's hopes for the future.

The humanistic method takes a positive view of human nature and emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual. Therapists in this tradition, who are interested in exploring the nature of creativity, love, and self-actualization, help clients realize their potential through change and self-directed growth. Humanistic therapy is also an umbrella term for gestalt, client-centered therapy, and existential therapy.

Imago Relationship Therapy is a form of marriage therapy that takes a relationship approach rather than an individual approach to problem solving in a marriage. Imago therapy is a wonderfully effective and safe approach to helping relationship partners grow into understanding each other more fully and relating more honestly as they evolve into greater wholeness as individuals within the relational context they share. Imago is also relevant for single individuals as we are all in many relational contexts.

Integrative therapy refers to therapy in which elements from different types of therapy may be used. Therapists 'integrate' two or more therapeutic styles (e.g. Cognitive and Family Systems) to bring about a personalized and practical approach to healing.

Integrative therapy (with a small 'i') may also refer to the process of 'integrating' the personality by taking disowned or unresolved aspects of the self and making them part of a cohesive personality whole. It reduces the use of defense mechanisms that inhibit spontaneity and allows flexibility in solving emotional problems.

IPT is a short-term psychotherapy in which therapist and client identify the issues and problems of interpersonal relationships. They also explore the client's life history to help recognize problem areas and then work toward ways to rectify them.

There are specific Interpersonal therapies, such as Imago therapy, which focus on intimate relationships.

Interpersonal therapy is not to be confused with transpersonal psychology, which is the study of states in which people experience a deeper sense of who they are, or a sense of greater connectedness with others, nature or spirituality.

For clients with chronic pain, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and other health issues such as anxiety and depression, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or MBCT, is a two-part therapy that aims to reduce stress, manage pain, and embrace the freedom to respond to situations by choice. MCBT blends two disciplines- cognitive therapy and mindfulness. Mindfulness helps by reflecting on moments and thoughts without passing judgment. MBCT clients pay close attention to their feelings to reach an objective mindset, thus viewing and combating life's unpleasant occurrences.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a method of therapy that works to engage the motivation of clients to change their behavior. Clients are encouraged to explore and confront their ambivalence. Therapists attempt to influence their clients to consider making changes, rather than non-directively explore themselves. Motivational Interviewing is frequently used in cases of problem drinking or mild addictions.

Narrative Therapy uses the client's storytelling to indicate the way they construct meaning in their lives, rather than focusing on how they communicate their problem behaviors. Narrative Therapy embraces the idea that stories actually shape our behaviors and our lives and that we become the stories we tell about ourselves. There are helpful narratives we can choose to embrace as well as unhelpful ones. Although it may sound obvious, the power of storytelling is to elevate the client- who is the authority of their narrative -rather than the therapist, as expert.

A therapeutic intervention that can help children by teaching parents basic play therapy principles and methods. Parents learn to become a constructive force for change in their children's behaviors and attitudes by utilizing basic play therapy skills in once-a-week 30-minute play sessions with their children. Throughout the process, parents receive on-going training and direct supervision from a trained play therapist.

Generally for children ages 3 to 11, play therapy is a form of counseling that relies on play to help therapists communicate with children and understand their mental health. Because children develop cognitive skills before language skills, play is an effective way to understand a child. The therapist may observe a child playing with toys -such as playhouses and dolls- to understand the child's behavior and identify issues.

Is a relatively new form of psychology that has its emphasis on the practical realization of the positive influences in one's life, such as positive character strengths, optimistic emotions, and constructive institutions. This approach is based on the belief that happiness is derived from various factors, both emotional and mental. Positive psychology aims to help people identify the happiness moment to moment, rather than only in retrospection. Clients who receive this type of treatment are able to experience a greater sense of joy and liberation during their current life circumstances, and they strive to stay focused on the positive emotions they experience in the present moment.

In my practice, psychological testing and evaluation includes personality assessments, clinical syndrome assessments, relationship (couple/marital) assessments, career assessments and college major assessments.

Relational life therapy offers strategies to combat marital dysfunction and restore harmony in relationships. Couples -those recovering from affairs, traumatic events, or a lull in passion- can find RLT helpful. To repair discord, the therapist identifies the main conflict upsetting the couples' emotional intimacy. Once the partners see how they both contribute to the problem, the therapist teaches them skills to improve the ways they relate to each other. Couples may see a change in their relationship within three to six months.

Sand Play therapy establishes a safe and protected space, where the complexities of the client's inner world can be explored. Often young children, clients place miniature figurines in a small sandbox to express confusing feelings and inner experiences. This creates a visual representation of the client's thoughts and feelings and can reveal unconscious concerns that are inaccessible. The therapist does not interpret, interfere with, or direct the client's sand play but maintains an attitude of receptivity and acceptance, so the client can bring unconscious material into consciousness without censure.

Solution-focused therapy, sometimes called "brief therapy", focuses on what clients would like to achieve through therapy rather than on their troubles or mental health issues. The therapist will help the client envision a desirable future, and then map out the small and large changes necessary for the client to undergo to realize their vision. The therapist will seize on any successes the client experiences, to encourage them to build on their strengths rather than dwell on their problems or limitations.