What Is Therapy?
We’ve all heard of “getting therapy” for mental health, but what does it mean to do so? Therapy is different depending on your needs, so while some people might need counselling, others may need psychotherapy or cognitive behavioural therapy.
Common Types Of Therapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a form of talking therapy that works well in overcoming relationship difficulties or trauma because of the formulation of an intense bond between patient and therapist. This bond gives patients a safety net and allows them to be vulnerable with their therapist – making it highly effective. If you want to find out more about psychotherapy specifically, please visit our psychotherapy service here at Us.
Counselling
“Counselling” is a term used to describe many different therapies for different age ranges, demographics and individuals, including psychotherapy, play therapy and art therapy. As a result of this, one person’s counselling may look very different to another in terms of the exercises and activities done inside and outside the session.
Interested in counselling? Find out more by visiting our counselling page to see all the types of counselling services offered. We offer counselling services to parents, children, couples and more.
Couples Therapy (Gottman Method)
The Gottman method of couples therapy is a way of discovering and tackling issues within couples. It makes use of the Sound Relationship House theory to help couples understand the needs of their partner, build trust, work to build and deepen friendship and closeness and most importantly learn to relate to each other with kindness and warmth and stop feeling contempt for one another. We only have the most experienced clinicians who specialise in couples therapy in Singapore. If you would like to find out more, please visit our page.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a type of therapy that works on influencing our thinking so as to change our feelings and behaviours. It works on different interventions that helps us think is different ways or relate to our thinking more flexibly. This allows us to start to behave in more effective ways, in small stages so that you can overcome the bigger problem. As part of the CBT therapy process you may be set tasks designed to bring you out of your comfort zone, the tasks will then increase in difficulty depending on your ability to effectively manage it.
Less Common, But Also Very Effective Types Of Therapy
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy involves the use of hypnosis in order to allow you to relax enough so that a therapist may help you to make changes to your unconscious mind. This type of therapy can help displace patterns of negative thoughts that affect how you act. It’s also useful when tackling addictions such as smoking and alcoholism or when trying to mitigate physical pain. Hypnotherapy deserves far more recognition than it currently receives in Singapore, as it is a proven concept with high success rates!
EDMR
EDMR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing therapy. It’s most commonly used to tackle conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder and deep relational difficulties. This therapy involves focusing on traumatic memories and using techniques such as hand tapping and auditory stimulation to change how the memory is stored in the brain.
Creative Therapies
Creative therapies include things such as art, dance, music and play therapy. These are more commonly used in the treatment of children, but art therapy in particular can be beneficial for adults in the treatment of mood disorders.
We offer Art Therapy & Play Therapy for Children here at Us.
How To Understand What Type Of Therapy I Need?
Hopefully, reading a little about the various therapies that are on offer has helped you work out what you might need, but just in case, we’ve got a summary below of what works best:
- Psychotherapy: Overcoming trauma, stress reduction and learning more about yourself.
- Counselling: Depression, anxiety, relationships, and dealing with trauma.
- Couples Therapy: Marriage and relationship problems.
- CBT: Habit breaking, anxiety, mood, trauma, relationship & eating disorders.
- Hypnotherapy: Overcoming fear, mitigating pain, changing negative beliefs.
- EDMR: Dealing with PTSD and traumatic memories.
- Creative Therapies: Understanding emotions, treating mood disorders, developing coping skills.
If you’re still unsure what you need or feel like you want a little more guidance, get in touch with us and our experts will help you pick the right therapy for you. Us Therapy is a group of professional psychologists in Singapore, with all our clinicians having a keen passion to help you live a fuller life, please contact us to find out more about our services and mental health pop ups around Singapore!
Reviewed by Dr.Emma Waddington, Founder at Us Therapy, in December 2023
*All website content is reviewed by our team of accredited psychologists to ensure that statements are up to date.
