FAQs
What is psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy involves a relationship in which individuals seek professional assistance for the purpose of bringing about changes in their feelings, thoughts, attitudes, and/or behavior. The task of the psychotherapist is to help such individuals make the changes that they desire. Sometimes a patient who enters therapy knows what needs to be changed, but does not know how to go about making these changes. Other times, he or she is not sure of what changes are required in order to improve behavior, mood, or relationships with others. A psychotherapist helps such individuals figure out what changes are necessary and how to go about achieving them.
Why do psychotherapies differ in their treatment approach?
How psychotherapists help patients depends upon the therapist's training, theoretical orientation, and specialty area. A therapist's specialty orientation affects their therapy style and focus, as well as the methods and techniques he or she uses in psychotherapy. Our clinical assessment and treatment services are grounded in an approach that combines a cognitive-behavioral (CBT) and emotion-focused orientation. As documentation of our competency in both cognitive behavioral as well as other clinical psychology approaches, note that we are both board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in the specialty of Cognitive-Behavior Psychology, as well as in the specialty of Clinical Psychology.
What does it mean to be "board certified" by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP)?
Similar to physicians who can be board certified in a medical specialty, psychologists can be board certified in one or more of 13 recognized specialties in professional psychology. Board certification by ABPP indicates that one has demonstrated professional competency in this area and has undergone stringent evaluation in one or more of these specialty areas. For more information regarding board certification in psychology, click here.
What is cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT)?
CBT places a strong emphasis on the principles of learning and how faulty learning may cause problems in a person's life. This approach also involves evaluating how effective a therapy is by monitoring a patient's progress. A "behavioral" approach to treatment focuses on a patient's current circumstances as one important factor that affects a person's behavior. Behavioral procedures generally are geared to improve upon a person's self-control by expanding their skills and abilities. Often this is accomplished with the help of homework assignments and practice of new behaviors in a patient's environment as part of treatment. A "cognitive" approach to treatment views problems as stemming from maladaptive and dysfunctional thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that have been learned earlier in life. Consequently, such ways of viewing the world can affect a person's behavior and emotions in negative ways. The goal of cognitive therapy is to modify a person's way of thinking so that a change in behavior and emotions can occur. This is achieved by monitoring tasks, such as tracking thought patterns and performing experiments in everyday life, in order to determine if the ideas or beliefs are actually valid.
CBT combines behavioral and cognitive approaches to treatment and focuses on helping people become more aware of their emotions and how such feelings influence their thoughts and behavior. CBT includes many different techniques and interventions that have been found to be scientifically sound. It helps people achieve specific goals and changes.
Goals might include:
- New ways of acting or behaving, such that the likelihood of future behavior problems is significantly reduced and new skills are developed (such as assertiveness, communication, self-management, or parenting skills).
- New ways of managing feelings, such as helping a person to understand and better manage feelings of fear, depression, anxiety, shame, or hostility. A focus on feelings may also help people experience more positive emotions, such as joy, gratitude, or peace.
- New ways of thinking, such as learning to solve relationship problems or change negative thinking.
- New ways of coping, such as being able to more accurately identify problems, change cognitive distortions, tolerate and use negative emotions more effectively, and change destructive relationship patterns.
CBT usually focuses on the current situation, rather than the past. However, consistent with our integrative psychotherapy approach, it is important to note that early emotional learning experiences can significantly contribute to current thoughts, feelings, and actions. Some CBT strategies work on changing views that were learned early in one's life experience and replacing ways of living that do not work well with behaviors that are more effective in order to provide individuals with more control over their lives.
For more information on CBT, click here for website for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies ,the Academy of Cognitive and Behavior Psychology, or the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.
What will happen during assessment and treatment?
Our assessment services involve a few sessions that involve attempts to better understand your values, strengths and weaknesses, and to discover ways to help you meet your treatment goals. This may involve psychological testing, having you complete rating scales or questionnaires, or asking you to imagine yourself in a problem situation in order to describe what you would do if confronted with such a problem. This information will help us to identify the best manner in which we can help you to identify, understand, and cope with the problems and difficulties of everyday life.
After an initial assessment period, we will share with you the results of our assessment and provide you with a plan for therapy. Often this treatment plan will include teaching skills that will provide you with ways to manage stress, cope with strong negative emotions, change your thoughts or behaviors, and reduce symptoms of distress. Therapy may also involve suggestions about techniques that will help you reduce behavior that is a risk to yourself and others or provide you with support to change habits that you find difficult to break. The duration of treatment varies with the type of problems you are experiencing.
What about my relationship with my therapist?
In therapy, you can expect that we will always work from a position of trust, confidentiality, and respect for your dignity. We will attempt to help you with any problematic thoughts, feelings, or behaviors that you are experiencing. In addition, we adhere strongly to the code of ethics espoused by the American Psychological Association. On rare occasions, in concert with this ethical code, confidentiality may need to be limited if we assess that you are at immediate risk for harming yourself or someone else. In such cases, such issues would be discussed and explained to you.
What is Problem-Solving Therapy?
Problem-solving therapy (PST) is a form of cognitive-behavioral treatment that we co-developed, scientifically evaluated, and disseminated over the past 25 years. It is one of several CBT approaches that we use in our practice and often serves as a framework for developing an overall treatment plan. PST is initially focused on helping people to become aware of their emotions and learn how to their emotions can help them with their life goals, rather than becoming overwhelmed with negative feelings. PST is also geared to help individuals learn and apply various adaptive problem-solving attitudes (for example, "realistic optimism" and hope) and skills (for example, how to creatively think of possible solutions to difficult problems) in order to (a) effectively resolve stressful life problem, (b) reduce emotional distress, and (c) reach important life goals. This approach has been scientifically found to reduce depression, improve relationships, decrease anxiety, manage strong emotions, and improve the coping ability of individuals suffering from various medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, and stress-related disorders. For more information, click here for our website on PST.
