[sillygirl]

How many are there? Do all therapists follow a specific orientation?

[SongBirdandDaisy]

Sillygirl,
Maybe ask (Sky) or (Myself) They're really smart!

Anne

[Rapunzel]

There are a lot, and most therapists these days don't only use one orientation, but are "ecclectic," meaning that they draw from several theories and pick and choose what they feel will work best with their own and also the client's personality, and also the issue you are dealing with at the time.

The various theories can be grouped into a few basic schools of thought, and many new theories have developed from the original ones, keeping some ideas, rejecting others, and adding some of their own methods.

The first well-known school of thought in psychology/psychiatry was Freud's Psychoanalysis, because he was the first one to decide to develop a method for treating psychological problems specifically. There are many Psychodynamic theories, which can all trace their roots back to this theory. These are the theories that say our problems are rooted in our past, and treatment involved exploring the past and/or working on aspects of your development, or developmental tasks that may not have been resolved in a healthy way.

Then behaviorism offered a different perspective. The behaviorists said that your past has nothing to do with anything going on right now. Instead, your behavior is related to the environment and what is happenening before and after the behavior. The first behaviorists didn't thing we could scientifically study or understand anything we couldn't directly observe, so they didn't deal with thoughts, feelings, etc. But then cognitive psychologists came along and said that thoughts and feelings are behaviors too, and they are important. So this is where we got CBT and a whole bunch of other cognitive-behavioral theories.

Another movement in psychology was Humanism. Carl Rogers was very optimistic about human nature and said that if people were free to be who they really are, then they would be okay. And we are in charge of our own actions, thoughts, decisions, etc. - not the past or the environment controlling us. Rogers felt that three things are enough to give people the chance to change themselves - we need someone to be genuine, who has empathy, and has unconditional positive regard for us as a person. Pretty much all therapists try to be like that, whether or not they also use other methods along with it.

There is also Existentialism, which came from philosophy and the goal is to help you make sense of the world, find meaning in your life, accept responsibility, and face the facts about life such as that we are all in it together, and eventually we will all die. There is a lot about avoiding things because of our fears, and this theory is about facing your fears and living your life even though it's not going to be easy or comfortable all the time. Again, there are lots of theories in this group.

There are newer theories too like multiculturalism, and specific ways to combine various theories and apply them to specific concerns.

But essentially every therapist (and maybe even every client) has their own theory whether they draw from one specific theory and try to stick to it faithfully or they combine various things. There are aspects of most of these theories that most therapists probably use at one time or another.

Hope this helps,
Rap

As a part of their studies to become a therapist they have no choice but to explore many famious therapy proffessionals in their field of study like freud, gasult, jung and so on. but most do not settle on just one type of belief or process. Ive had 19 therpay professionals and each one followed some of what their professional mentors and idols did BUT they also incorporated their own ways and also mixed in a variety of new and upcoming techniques too. Therapists have to keep up on the new techniquesand so on so that they can help not only those clients that they are already orking with but also the new clients coming in.

My therapist is a great example of this. She has opinions and beliefs from her college days of researching and learning about those in the profession before her. The first few times I met her those standards were very clear - she sat prim and proper in her chair, notebook in hand, and questioned the validity of things my past therapist was telling her. During my first session alone with her I asked her a question about a picture. Instead of answering my question she stated we are not here to talk about me we are here to talk about you so I will not answer any personal questions. I call this the classic textbook stiff all that was laking was the glasses on the nose and she would fit right in with those long past therapy pofessionals.
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Under normal circumstances I would have dropped her the first time she questioned the validity of what my past therapist was saying. but at that point I had already made my decision - It didn't matter what she was like or if I liked her all that mattered was my therapist and I choose someone so that we could get the ethics law of no therapy contact of one year from the date of the last therapy session done with. The DHS caseworker I had at that time was was being put under investigation and as soon as she realized I was the one that did it she was going to come down hard on my past therapist HARD to get back at me which was her way of doing things for that past two years. Every time she didn't like something I did she requested another psych eval and medication check with my doctor and sent my therapist to the ethics board with a bogus claim, didn't matter that the ethics board always sided with my therapist and I, my therapist going to review caused me and my therapist stress and so on. So going into this new therapist change I decided lets just get this one year over with taking that caseworker out of the picture, I took the first therapist I was assigned to.

Anyway the assigned therapist turned out to be in my way of thinking a classic textbook stiff. and then to add to that within a few sessions she pushed - by yelling at me.One day I thought you know this is nuts, Im stuck with this therapist I don't like but have accepted just to get this ethics law over with I need to find out more about this woman including what she was hiding by yelling at me. I started a full out research the therapist plan.

I wasnt expecting what I found out - I expected some deep dark secret because she was so adament of keeping her private life private but what I found out was this stiff was actually a survivors advocate in the community, on city government panels, the whole shebang, Not only did she run a group on depression with this agency but also a teens group. She also taught dance lessons in her spare time. Definately not what I was seeing during sessions with her. I entered her depression management group to check her out even more.

Boy was I surprised that first session she's dancing a new dance step for everyone that she learned at the local dance bar. This was definately NOT something she learned from freud, Jung and so on. If I wasn't drugged up on benedryl from our session before group I would have laughed and asked her which memory piece she was at the moment. I was further surprised that she participated in the group not only as the facilitator but as a member with depression too. She not only taught us the classic textbook theries of what depression was but also brought into the class new upcoming material from NAMI and so on and had us branching out to look for what works for us because because textbook stuff is good but not everyone is textbook style learning and so on. We even had a class day called humor where we ate and told jokes no serious work that day. Definately not a typical textbook style group therapy session let alone 13 week therapy group on depression. I actually had fun and learned the material and learned about my therapist and she also got to really learn about me. I think the two of us actually became a team because of and during that group.

During individual sessions she dropped the professional stiff attitude and brought into the sessions her carefree, actively participating style she had in the group. She attended a workshop and came back into my seesions with new material for us to use. I also contribute to our time together by bringing in my new resources and material to use.

She may have learned the freudian, jung, gasult and so on but she branches out looking for what will work with her clients including learning new skills herself. In fact I don't see so much old textbook stuff from her. To me it seems Its like they were all well and good in their time but this is her time and she makes the most of it. and Im glad she does. I love her open and willing to learn side compared to her textbook stiff side.

[JustBen]

Theory is a big part of what you study in "therapy school" (whether you're a psychologist, clinical social worker, professional counselor, marriage & family therapist, etc.) and there are over 400 approaches to psychotherapy the last time someone bothered to count (which, I think, was back in the 80's, so I'm sure that number has grown considerably). Like others have said, most therapists incorporate elements from many theories. The important thing is that the combination makes sense and doesn't contradict itself. It ought to be the product of some reflection on the part of the therapist, and not just a "grab bag" of techniques and ideas that the therapist pulls from...or worse yet, just a fad that the therapist is enthralled with.

Many studies show that some approaches to therapy work better with some problems. (For example, dozens of studies support the idea that Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Interpersonal Therapy are the most effective approaches to the treatment of Major Depression.) But by and large, the research seems to indicate that the theory itself doesn't matter too much as long as the therapist has one and is using it consistently. Also, all the theoretical aspects are less important than other factors like the relationship, the client's perception of the therapist, the client's expectations for change, and what happens in the client's life outside of the therapy sessions. (One analysis suggests that theory-specific techniques only account for about 15% of the improvement people experience in therapy.)

[(JD)]

Different types of "talk" therapy all have some "T" basics built in: a non-judgmental attitude, empathy, expertise. You can research 3 basic therapy approaches to find all the rest: 1) cognitive, 2) behavioral, 3) dynamic.

Usually one chooses between group or individual modalities, but often a combination of the two work well for a disorder, especially when the same T is leading both. (Group can include skills emphasis, individual can include phone or email counseling.)

[sillygirl]

Thank you so much everyone. That was very informative