Depression is a psychological condition that is characterized by prolonged periods of sadness and mood swings and lack of motivation. Psychotherapy is considered as the most effective therapy for treating depression. It addresses the root cause of the depressive feeling and provides talk therapy to help you overcome depressive episodes. However, there are multiple types of treatment for depression that deal with different levels of severity of the conditions.
Your unique condition, severity level, and personal preferences determine the most suitable therapy for you. So, it is important to understand the different types of psychotherapy to seek the best treatment for depression. The following section of the blog discusses the types of psychological treatment that are practiced widely by behavioral health therapists.
Common Psychotherapies for Depression
There are multiple types and approaches of psychotherapists. Depending on the individual condition of the patient’s psychotherapists suggest appropriate treatment plans. Here are some of the most common psychotherapies.
1. Cognitive Therapy
Depression is a feeling of sadness that is caused by a loop of negative thoughts. Cognitive therapy helps patients to modify the pessimistic judgment and change the way of self-perception. This enables patients to overcome depressive thought patterns and mindsets. It is a short-term session lasting for six weeks to four months. The sessions are structured to achieve specific therapy goals and patients are assigned some mental and behavioral practices as homework.
2. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Behavioral therapy focused on changing behavioral patterns that helps foster self-confidence and positivity. In cognitive-behavioral therapy both cognitive and behavioral therapies are practiced to treat depression and anxiety disorders. It is considered as the most effective treatment of depression having lasting effect and prevents relapsing of depressive symptoms.
Your therapist might ask you to practice journaling of events that made you respond negatively. Additionally, they might ask you to note down different response patterns like automatic negative reactions, all-or-nothing thinking and overgeneralization. This pattern recognition helps in planning effective treatment approaches. It is a goal oriented short course and includes homework like practicing mood uplifting activities, reading, practicing music and so on.
3. Interpersonal Therapy
Interpersonal therapy focuses on relationships with interpersonal discord, a cause of depression nowadays. Your therapist would analyze your relationship with your partner, family members and close ones to understand the relationship dynamics. Based on this analysis your therapist would provide a possible solution to resolve relationship issues.
4. Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy patients’ past childhood experiences are considered to analyze present depressive responses. It is based on the notion that unattended childhood traumatic experiences lead to later life depressive responses. Therapists ask patients to keep all past experience in perspective to deal with present problems. This is a long-term therapy and is not as focused as the other psychotherapies. It fosters emotional capabilities and self-awareness.
5. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
We tend to avoid dealing with the problems that cause depression. We try to live in denial and often depression is not validated by the patients as well as family members. Dialectical behavioral therapy urges patients to acknowledge, accept and validate their depression.
This helps them to deal with the problems head on. Patients get to learn healthy coping mechanisms from stress and anxiety. The session includes activities like practicing mindfulness and crisis coaching by therapists. These skills enable patients to face and deal with challenging life situations.
Conclusion
The blog has explained five common psychological treatments for depression. Hope this proves insightful to you. It is important to seek reputed and certified behavioral health therapy to obtain effective treatment. Additionally, getting early therapy is important to avoid exacerbation of the conditions.