Welcome to the new website for ACAP. Please pardon our appearance as we update!
Welcome to the new website for ACAP. Please pardon our appearance as we update!
More information coming soon
Psychotherapy, commonly known as “talk therapy”, mental health therapy or counseling is the practice of exploring mental health struggles with a licensed professional. This is an intentional process of exploring past experiences, current problems, relationship difficulties or life transitions. The goal is to develop understands of emotions and behaviors and help people create new and healthier ways of managing life’s challenges.
Probably the most well-known form of psychotherapy these days is CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This is an evidence-based treatment approach which helps explore harmful or unhelpful ways of thinking that have a negative impact on behavior and life outcomes. CBT can be useful for a wide range of mental health disorders and life struggles.
DBT, or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is an offshoot of CBT originally created for treating more intense or severe mental health disorders. DBT utilizes a non-judgmental collaborative approach working together with clients to provide validation of their struggles while increasing client’s ability to understand their reactions, manage frustrations, effectively communication with others, and develop mindfulness skills to cope with internal stressors. “Mindfulness means choosing to pay attention to this present moment, on purpose, without judgment. Mindfulness allows us to gain awareness of our emotions, thoughts, bodily sensations, behaviors, relationships and environment.” (Pederson and Pederson, 2017).
DBT believes people are doing the best with the skills they have and with gaining new skills people can live happier and more fulfilled lives.
To learn more visit:
https://behavioraltech.org/resources/faqs/dialectical-behavior-therapy-dbt/
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, EMDR, is a structured evidenced-based psychotherapy originally created for the treatment of traumatic experiences. This format of therapy is different from the other “talk therapy” modalities, in that it utilized bilateral stimulation of the brain (through eye movements, hand buzzers, or earphones) in order to reprocess or decrease emotional intensity around traumatic or upsetting memories. Traumatic or highly emotional experiences (car accidents, sexual assault, physical abuse, war combat, etc.) seem to “get stuck” in our brains causing stress, anxiety, depression, flashbacks or nightmares. EMDR has been proven to “heal the brain” in order to process these memories into a less highly emotional state. Clients can show drastic improvements with this treatment, where they are no longer experience life-debilitating mental health struggles.
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Narrative therapy is a postmodern form of therapy which emphasizes the importance of language in people’s lives. It focuses on the power of stories and meaning created and believes in the power of healing through the art of “story-telling”. A narrative approach separates people from their problems, with the perspective of distancing people from the dominant beliefs and societal understandings. This is a person-centered approach with the therapist leading the client to explore the history of their problems and bringing the negative meanings created to explore the present manifestation of the problem. Narrative can be a powerful approach of rewriting the understandings we have of ourselves and creating a more positive and healthy future.
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Multicultural therapy or multicultural perspective is a postmodern approach to working with culturally diverse clients. This takes a social constructionism understanding, meaning that people develop knowledge based on their own experiences of reality. It is extremely important for mental health professionals to have a multicultural perspective to highlight the importance of exploring the impact of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and ability into the context of a client’s mental health and experiences. The “self of the therapist” is an important concept in this approach, meaning that it is essential for the professional to know yourself, your biases, blind-spots and multi-dimensional self in order to effective as a multicultural therapist. This is an approach that is utilized alongside of other theoretical modalities, such as DBT or DBT.
To learn more visit:
https://www.socialwork.career/2015/09/race-matters-how-to-talk-effectively-about-race.html
To learn more visit:
Feminist therapy is also an approach that can be utilized with other modalities. The feminist approach incorporates ideas of societal, cultural, political impacts and solutions to challenges. Feminist therapy is for both men and women, looking at social roles, and experiences and analyzes impacts of gender (and other oppressive) inequalities playing out in people’s lives.
To learn more visit:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/feminist-therapy
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