Cognitive therapy is a psychosocial (both psychological and social) therapy that assumes that faulty thought patterns (called cognitive patterns) cause maladaptive behavior and emotional responses.
The treatment focuses on changing thoughts in order to solve psychological and personality problems. Behavior therapy is also a goal-oriented, therapeutic approach and it treats emotional and behavioral disorders as maladaptive learned responses that can be replaced by healthier ones with appropriate training.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) integrates features of behavior modification into the traditional cognitive restructuring approach.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy attempts to change clients' unhealthy behavior through cognitive restructuring (examining assumptions behind the thought patterns) and through the use of behavior therapy techniques.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a treatment option for a number of mental disorders, including depression, dissociative identity disorder, eating disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, hypochondria, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder without agoraphobia.
Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy was originally developed by Dr. Albert Ellis and his colleagues via the Albert Ellis Institute in New York City.
REBT is the original and most highly developed form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. REBT is a powerful tool that can be combined with meditative approaches for those so inclined in order to enhance our internal experience of the world.
NLP is perhaps the newest and most cutting edge of therapy techniques. Constantly evolving, NLP is based on the work of Fritz Perls Gestalt Therapy, Milton Erickson’s hypnotherapy (now known as Ericksonian Hypnosis), Virginia Satir’s Conjoint Family Therapy, and Gregory Bateson’s Cybernetics.
Developed originally by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, NLP continues to evolve as others explore its seemingly endless applications to the functioning of mind and emotions.
Time Line Therapy was developed by Tad James, who was trained by Richard Bandler, and is an outgrowth of NLP.
TLT is the technology for the 21st century. It is fast, powerful and effective in getting rid of negative emotions from the past, limiting decisions, phobias, traumas, and any other “baggage” that limits our growth, our potential as human beings, and our ability to relate to others.
TLT can also be used for creating the future in order to get what it is that you want, and in exploring the past in order to determine how you got where you are, if that is important to you.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – This approach to therapy emphasizes the needs that we all have as human beings and how our needs continue to evolve and grow as we do. It looks at how each need creates a different feeling both when met and unmet and how we go about dealing with our feelings and needs.
This model of therapy and of what motivates humans to strive for what they want or need, helps us to assess developmental deficits but also helps us to know what to do in order to work toward maximizing our potential as human beings, or what Maslow called “self-actualization”.
This approach to therapy looks at the events from the past: our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of events, and how they continue to affect us today in how we relate to others.
Adlerian Therapy – Alfred Adler was one of Freud’s contemporaries as a student and later colleague, along with Carl Jung. While Adler did not create the cult of personality that accompanied Freud and Jung, his contributions to psychodynamic therapy have continued to the present day. His approaches to child rearing and harmonious family relationships are still being taught today. He proposed an egalitarian and even handed approach by emphasizing that children had rights the same as adults, taking responsibility and allowing children to experience the consequences of their behaviour.
He also formulated the idea of inferiority and superiority complexes, birth order factors and styles of parenting that are still being used today. As with other robust therapies, his ideas continue to be expanded upon and developed today.
Attachment Theory – John Bowlby proposed the theory of attachment as an alternative to the Freudian “drive” theory. This created a great deal of controversy within the neo-Freudian community at the time, but today Bowlby’s ideas have become the most exciting development in psychology for a long time.
Attachment style determines how we will relate to ourselves, how we will relate to others – and especially those closest to us, our model of how the world works and how we go about nurturing and cherishing ourselves and others. As such, it is the underlying and determining factor in how we are going to spend the rest of our lives and predicts many of the problems that we are going to encounter. Healing disorders of attachment is fundamental to healthy living.
EMDR is a treatment approach that has been widely validated by research for the treatment of traumatic memories. While its primary use has been with patients suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it has also been found useful in processing more "ordinary" painful memories and is effective in working with a wide range of chronic psychological difficulties.
How does EMDR work? There is still much to be discovered about how and why EMDR works. One theory is that when a disturbing event occurs the memory of the event can get locked into the nervous system with the original image, sounds, thoughts and feelings involved.
This locked in material can combine fact with fantasy and with images that represent the actual event or feelings about it. EMDR seems to unlock the nervous system and sets in motion a natural brain function that allows the experience to be processed and the person to reach a positive resolution. This may be similar to what happens in REM or dream sleep.
There really are no "best" techniques or approaches. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. The ideal therapeutic approach, I think, is eclectic; one that is able to draw on each technique or approach as needed, depending on the nature of the problem and the uniqueness of each client.