What Is Individual Therapy?
With individual psychotherapy, or talk therapy, a mental health treatment professional works with the patient or client on a one-to-one basis during in-person sessions. Individual psychotherapy is by far the most common type of therapy and is comprised of several different therapeutic approaches. It is a joint process between a therapist and a person in therapy. Common goals of therapy can be to inspire change or improve quality of life. People may seek therapy for help with issues that are hard to face alone. Individual therapy is also called therapy, psychotherapy, psychosocial therapy, talk therapy, and counseling.
Therapy can help people overcome obstacles to their well-being. It can increase positive feelings, such as compassion and self-esteem. People in therapy can learn skills for handling difficult situations, making healthy decisions, and reaching goals. Many find they enjoy the therapeutic journey of becoming more self-aware. Some people even go to ongoing therapy for self-growth.
The primary goal of individual therapy is to increase understanding of one’s thought and behavior patterns to help increase function and well-being. In therapy, people can learn how to effectively manage stress, interpersonal difficulties and troubling situations. They may develop abilities to make healthy decisions, set goals and become more self-aware.
Types of Psychotherapy
Several types of individual psychotherapy have been developed in the last 100 years, each of which has particular characteristics, strengths and benefits.
Among the more commonly utilized types of psychotherapy are:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): This is a type of therapy which helps clients understand the connections between their thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions. Cognitive behavioral therapy empowers clients to change how they feel by changing the way they think.
Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): An offshoot of CBT, dialectical behavioral therapy is designed specifically to help clients with borderline personality disorder, but can be applied in multiple circumstances. The goal of DBT is for the therapist to help the patient in a non-judgmental way, and for the client to experience feelings and emotions in a non-judgmental way.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): In ACT, therapists help clients work toward acceptance of their emotions and behaviors rather than avoiding or being in conflict with them. As clients declare their personal value systems, they commit to changing those behaviors that don’t align with their values.
Psychodynamic therapy: Also called insight-oriented therapy, psychodynamic therapy helps clients understand how their past experiences influence their present ones. It is the oldest form of psychotherapy. This therapy has a goal of identifying a client’s unconscious defense mechanisms. Though psychodynamic therapy accomplishes this goal by encouraging a client to talk about whatever comes to mind, this therapy can be adapted into a more focused form to treat specific problems.
Benefits of Individual Therapy
The benefits of individual therapy can be life-changing, and often last much longer than the therapy itself does. Among the many benefits of individual therapy for the client are:
Establishment of a trusting, healthy, safe adult relationship
Ability to articulate feelings and emotions
Identification of defense mechanisms
Insight into problematic behavior patterns
Understanding of appropriate boundaries
Accountability for behavior
Increased self-awareness and self-efficacy
Individual Therapy in Addiction and Mental Health Treatment
The power of individual therapy is based on the idea that it is beneficial to be able to articulate feelings without judgment, and that it is healing to be heard and understood. Individual therapy can help build some of the internal structure that wasn’t adequately developed previously.
This restorative ability makes individual therapy an essential component of addiction and mental health treatment. Individual therapy allows a person to be able to recognize typical defense mechanisms, to examine the development and enactment of unhealthy behavior patterns, to recognize the origin of those patterns and to develop the internal tools to find alternatives — skills that are of the utmost use in addictive, mental health and co-occurring conditions.
