Mental health treatment isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Here’s what you should know about the different types of treatment modalities.
As the issue of poor mental health increases, more US adults are making the choice to go to therapy. Recent numbers by Statista show that over 41 million US adults sought mental health services in 2021, but that doesn’t mean they’re all getting the same type of services. If you or a loved one is considering seeking treatment at URP Behavioral Health Florida for a mental health condition, you’re probably wondering what it entails. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Rather, there are different approaches that specialists choose from depending on your condition.
Jason Shiers Psychotherapist, a specialist in mental health say – “In fact, deciding on a suitable mode of treatment is an entire process on its own, one that needs careful consideration”. Because there are so many different approaches to addressing distinct mental health challenges, it’s worth taking a look at how practitioners diagnose you, as well as the different treatments they can employ.
Diagnosis and Assessment
Before the therapeutic process can even begin, you need to receive a formal diagnosis. Although you don’t need to be diagnosed with a disorder to receive mental health services, having a disorder may need a different approach as opposed to feeling low or going through a difficult transition. Here’s how you can expect things to go when being assessed for a disorder.
Medical Evaluation
The first step always involves conducting a physical exam and looking at your medical history. This is important to help them rule out any possible medical conditions that could be causing your symptoms. People with chronic conditions like diabetes, arthritis, and cancer tend to experience high levels of emotional stress. Therefore, it makes sense to determine whether you’re struggling with an underlying condition that’s causing distress.
Lab Tests
In addition to looking at your medical history, mental health facilities typically require blood tests as well. These tests can assess your thyroid function for any abnormalities and screen you for alcohol and drug use. This allows practitioners to determine whether your symptoms are occurring as a result of drug or substance use.
It also gives information about possible nutritional deficiencies, which can lead to problems like fatigue and sudden mood shifts. Knowing that your symptoms could be the result of substance use or medication side effects allows practitioners to recommend suitable treatment approaches.
Psychological Assessment
The final step involves a psychological evaluation, where your practitioner talks to you about your symptoms, how they make you feel, and if loved ones have noticed something different about your behavior. For a more systematic process, you may have to fill out a questionnaire that asks about your thoughts, feelings, and mood. If your practitioner notices signs of functional impairment based on your assessment, they’ll compare your symptoms with diagnostic criteria to narrow down a potential diagnosis.
Types of Mental Health Treatment Modalities
Your practitioner will use one or more types of treatment approaches based on your diagnosis and presenting complaints. While there are various therapies that target different complaints, here are some of the most commonly used types:
Holistic Therapy
At many mental treatment clinics, specialists are applying a holistic approach to mental wellness. This means they don’t just focus on the problem, i.e., your depression, anxiety, or whatever mental health concern. Rather, the holistic approach involves looking at the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of wellbeing, too.
The core idea of holistic treatment is the mind-body connection, which implies that an imbalance in either area can have negative effects on the other. It’s why holistic treatment combines complementary non-verbal therapies and a focus on nutrition and fitness, in addition to evidence-based methods.
Individual Psychotherapy
The most common mode of psychotherapy involves talking to a practitioner in a one-on-one setting. This is individual therapy, also known as talk therapy, which has demonstrated effectiveness for issues like depression, anxiety, and even grief. In fact, studies show that psychotherapy is generally more effective than medication in the long term, allowing you to retain the effects of recovery.
Group Therapy
Another approach to psychotherapy is a group setting, which typically involves the therapist working with two or more people at a time. This approach is useful for addressing various conditions, including major depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and ADHD. During therapy sessions, you and other members will talk about your struggles, practice the coping skills you’ve learned, and seek support from each other.
Family Therapy
Even if you’re choosing to seek treatment through a residential program, you’ll need family support once you go back home. So, making them a part of your recovery journey is essential to sustaining the effects of your treatment. In family therapy sessions, your therapist will educate family members about your disorder and help them navigate the challenges of living with someone with poor mental health.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is an evidence-based psychotherapy that has been proven to be effective for a number of disorders. Though it was initially developed for the purpose of treating depression, practitioners have since then relied on it to help clients with their negative thoughts, regardless of their diagnosis. After all, dysfunctional thought patterns aren’t exclusive to just one class of disorders.
It’s based on the idea that your negative thoughts are what lead to unhealthy behavior patterns. Therefore, the aim of CBT is to use cognitive restructuring and relaxation techniques to change unhelpful thought patterns, help you think more rationally, and reduce stress levels.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is another type of psychotherapy that’s based on CBT but is developed for people who experience intense emotions. This typically includes clients with conditions such as borderline personality disorder (BPD). In DBT, you focus on a dialectic, which typically involves accepting yourself and learning behaviors that can change unhelpful behaviors. It’s preferable for those who struggle to regulate their emotions and are likely to engage in self-harm behavior.
Over the course of your sessions, you’ll build skills like mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance, the core facets of DBT. By learning these skills, you can control negative emotions and cope in more helpful ways.
Exposure Therapy
This is recommended for when you’ve been through a distressing or traumatic event that caused you to develop a fear of unrelated stimuli, like a certain place, object, or situation. Exposure therapy is a behavioral approach to help you confront your fears by gradually exposing you to things that cause anxiety.
When thinking about something or being in a specific situation makes you anxious, you tend to avoid it. While doing so helps reduce your feelings of fear in the short term, it worsens the problem in the long term. In this case, therapists recommend exposure therapy to break the pattern of fear and avoidance. The behaviorist perspective is that you learn a certain response, so gradual exposure helps you learn that feared objects or situations aren’t threatening.
EMDR Therapy
A more recent therapy, eye movement desensitization, and reprocessing, is highly effective for treating PTSD and other stress-related disorders. Various studies have shown that people who underwent EMDR therapy showed a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms, as well as increased functionality.
EMDR is unique because it doesn’t require you to talk about the traumatic experience or expose yourself to distressing situations. Instead, it targets traumatic memories and requires you to reprocess them during some form of bilateral stimulation, like back-and-forth eye movements. This step is repeated until the memory is no longer distressing.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Rather than working as a separate treatment, trauma-informed therapy is when your practitioner recognizes the complex impact of a traumatic event on your well-being and ability to cope. Compared to traditional psychotherapy, a trauma-informed approach integrates the awareness of your traumatic experience into all elements of treatment. Therefore, your safety and mental well-being are a major priority.
Practitioners who use a trauma-informed approach emphasize your safety and give you an active role in the treatment process. Even if your presenting complaint doesn’t involve your trauma, this methodology can help you feel safe during sessions.
Biofeedback Therapy
When trying to challenge and restructure your negative thoughts in order to control your responses doesn’t work, biofeedback therapy can help by reversing the order. Instead of changing your thoughts to calm your mind, biofeedback alters physiological responses to reduce tension. In this mind-body technique, you try to control your body’s functions, such as your muscle tension and breathing patterns, to relieve stress.
When receiving biofeedback therapy, you’re connected to electrical pads that give information on your heart rate, breathing, etc. So, when you start getting negative thoughts, and your heart rate goes up, you get feedback that signals you to make changes, allowing you to feel better. Over time, biofeedback gives you the skills to practice control over your body’s functions, making it easier for you to manage stressful situations.
What About Medication?
An important part of the holistic approach to treatment is that it never depends solely on a single type of therapy. Although medications for conditions like major depression and schizophrenia are proven to be effective in relieving symptoms, they’re best used in conjunction with some form of long-term therapy. Psychotherapy allows you to build the skills needed for better resilience to stress and emotional regulation.