Contents
There are at least 450 types of psychotherapy known, more than half of which are used in work with children and adolescents. A single systematization of such a wide and expanding list is practically unrealistic, and the classification of types of psychotherapy varies significantly from author to author. But one way or another, most types of psychotherapy are correlated with three main areas:
- Cognitive-behavioral
The behavioral direction considers a person as a complex machine that responds with reactions to the influences of the external environment, refracting them through the prism of internal variables (mental maps, goals and needs). By working with ways of understanding and reinforcing correct behavior, psychotherapy occurs. This is behaviorism and the cognitive-behavioral approach. See →
- Psychodynamic
The psychodynamic direction proceeds from the fact that all the inner life that happens in us is a manifestation of the dynamics of internal impulses in their collision with ideas about reality, the play of the individual or collective unconscious, the manifestation of our inner nature, both realizing our instincts and pushing us to develop and self-actualization. Accordingly, this is psychoanalysis, Jungianism and a humanistic approach. See →
- humanitarian
The humanitarian direction is united by faith in the inner freedom of a person, faith in the ability of a person to form his own relationships, meanings and life values, to be true to himself. First of all, these are existential and spiritual approaches. See →
Therapy and personality development in the cognitive-behavioral direction
Nowadays it is rare to find a therapist working in a purely behavioral or purely cognitive direction. More often these branches are successfully connected, intertwined, and today most therapists of this wing work in a mixed, cognitive-behavioral direction. See →
Therapy and personal development in the humanitarian (phenomenological) direction
First of all, it is a humanitarian psychotherapy. It originates in humanistic psychology and the works of its founders — K. Rogers, R. May, A. Maslow and others. The essential core of this approach is in the understanding of man as an indivisible and fundamentally integral unity of the body, psyche and to integral experiences (happiness, grief, guilt, loss, etc.), and not to separate isolated aspects, processes and manifestations. The categorical apparatus of the humanitarian approach includes ideas about the «I», identity, authenticity, self-realization and self-actualization, personal growth, existence, the meaning of life, etc.
The methodological apparatus is associated with a humanistic-existential rethinking of life experience and the psychotherapeutic process. A wide range of methods is associated with this approach: non-directive client-centered psychotherapy (C. Rogers), psychological counseling (R. May), bioenergetics (W. Reich), sensory awareness (Sh. Silver, C. Brooks), structural integration (I Rolf), psychosynthesis (R. Assagioli), logotherapy (V. Frankl), existential analysis of R. May and J. Bugenthal, etc. This also includes art therapy, poetic therapy, creative self-expression therapy (M. E. Burno) , music therapy (P. Nordoff and K. Robbins), etc.
The phenomenological approach also includes all systems based on directive or non-directive suggestion.
Known approaches not included in the main list
Integrative approach (multimodal psychotherapy).
It is becoming an increasingly defining trend, within which methodological eclecticism, psychotherapeutic polypharmacy, and theoretical integration are distinguished. In practical terms, integration is guided by the principle of G. Paul (1967): which psychotherapy and by whom is most effective for this person with his specific problems in his circumstances and environment, or, in the words of M. Erickson (1975): each patient has his own psychotherapy. A mixture of different factors and styles of integration creates a «wild psychotherapy» fraught, as A. Lazarus (1995) emphasizes, with unpredictable effects.
Systems approach
The so-called systems approach is a common and respected approach in psychotherapy, but in reality it is a modification of the psychodynamic or humanitarian (phenomenological) direction.
It is determined not by an orientation towards theoretical models, but by a focus on partnerships, family, marriage, groups as independent organisms, integral systems with their own history, internal patterns and dynamics, stages of development, value orientations, etc. Therapy within this approach proceeds from the fact that a dysfunctional system of relations determines the disadaptation of its participants. The therapist takes the position of an included observer or playing coach. The systemic therapist is quite directive: he asks questions, observes and controls, structures the communication of participants, dramatizes relationships and models conflicts, gives homework, etc.
Comparative review of psychotherapeutic directions
Three main directions in psychotherapy are cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic and humanitarian. To better see their features, it is useful to compare them. What will we see? See →