Glossary of Terms

+ Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

helps individuals stop avoiding and denying their inner emotions by accepting that deeper feelings are appropriate responses to specific situations.

+ Adlerian Therapy

is short term and focuses on developing an individual’s personality while understanding and accepting their connections to all humans.

+ Art Therapy

helps children, adolescents, and adults explore their emotions through self-expression and creativity. Those clinicians who have been accredited by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation have the initials ATR or ATR-BC after their name.

+ Attachment-Based Therapy

focuses on early childhood connections by developing or rebuilding trust through expressed emotions. Commonly used during individual, family, and couples therapy.

+ Brain Spotting

works by identifying, processing, and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation, and other challenging symptoms.

+ Coaching

focuses on individual or group strengths and abilities. Goal oriented and often used to enhance performance, feel better about self, ensure smooth transitions, deal with challenges, and improve the overall quality of personal and professional life.

+ Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

identifies negative thought patterns and beliefs, helping to promote self-awareness, long-term change, and wellbeing. Often used to address addiction, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorders, anger management, chronic pain, and more.

+ Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

treats post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by identifying and exploring the ways trauma has altered one’s thoughts and beliefs. Typically involves 12 weekly sessions and is not recommended for those who have not received a PTSD diagnosis.

+ Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)

helps those who are struggling with shame and negative self-talk, often from early experiences of abuse and neglect. Teaches individuals to create change with compassion, ultimately helping to regulate mood and increase feelings of safety, acceptance, and comfort.

+ Culturally Sensitive Therapy

emphasizes one’s individual background, race, ethnicity, culture, and belief system. Incorporates cultural sensitivity and responsiveness by honoring differences, opinions, values, and attitudes based on age, beliefs, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.

+ Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

focuses on balancing acceptance and change through naming painful emotions and decreasing conflict in relationships. Combines cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness (meditative) techniques focusing on four key areas: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness.

+ Eclectic Therapy

adjusts to the unique needs of the individual while drawing from a variety of disciplines (cognition, behaviors, interpersonal) and therapeutic tools (coping skills, imagery) that help the individual process their needs (e.g., flexible approach rather than structured).

+ Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

focuses on adult relationships, attachment, and bonding. An effective and often short-term process used during couples therapy, or when relationships need to heal from fear, loss, anger, or betrayal.

+ Experiential Therapy

uses expressive tools, such as role playing or acting, props, arts and crafts, musical, guided imagery, and other forms of activities, to re-enact or re-experience emotional situations from the past.

+ Exposure Therapy

uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (repetitive rituals and behaviors), post-traumatic stress disorder, and phobias. Creates a safe space for individuals to confront the things that are causing them fear or anxiety.

+ Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

helps individuals hoping to heal from trauma. A person is asked to recall distressing or traumatic events using bilateral stimulation, such as side-to-side rapid eye movement or hand tapping.

+ Family Systems Therapy

helps individuals resolve problems in their family units. Family members work together to better understand their roles in order to support and restore family relationships and rebuild a healthy family system.

+ Feminist Therapy

focuses on the challenges and stressors specific genders face as a result of bias, stereotyping, oppression, discriminiation, and other factors that threaten one’s mental health.

+ Gestalt Therapy

focuses on the present in hopes of understanding what is happening right now, rather than past experiences. Individuals become more aware of how their negative thought patterns and behaviors are blocking true self-awareness and self-actualization.

+ The Gottman Method

approaches couples therapy by using nine elements that relationships need to thrive, from patterns of communication to new problem-solving strategies. Commonly applied to couples stuck in long-term conflict, infidelity, or destructive patterns.

+ Humanistic Therapy

focuses on one’s unique traits, features, and the world around them. Individuals process thoughts, feelings, and behaviors so that they may become more aware and reach their full potential.

+ Internal Family Systems Therapy

identifies and addresses multiple personalities and roles within the family and draws on the hurt and painful emotions of each family member so that it can lead to healing.

+ Interpersonal Psychotherapy

treats symptoms of depression that often come up from a significant loss, major life change, or conflict. Interpersonal psychotherapy is meant to improve interpersonal relationships while developing adaptive social skills to reduce distress.

+ Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT)

addresses the behaviors of all family members and looks at the ways in which these behaviors affect not only individual family members, but the relationships between each member and the family unit as a whole.

+ Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT)

engages one’s ability to think about their feelings and thoughts. Often used to treat borderline personality disorder so that individuals can make sense of their thoughts, beliefs, wishes, and feelings and how they are connected to one’s actions and behaviors.

+ Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

uses cognitive behavioral therapy in collaboration with mindfulness meditation practices that can help individuals better understand and manage their thoughts and emotions in order to find relief from feelings of distress.

+ Motivational Interviewing

helps individuals resolve uncertain feelings and insecurities to find their internal motivation in order to change a behavior. Often used to address addiction and management of physical health conditions (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, or asthma).

+ Multicultural Therapy

addresses the concerns of those whose race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, income, disability, or other social factors fall outside of the majority. It emphasizes cultural awareness and explores how issues such as racism, oppression, and marginalization can negatively impact one’s identity and sense of self.

+ Narrative Therapy

identifies individual needs, strengths, and life skills that focus on individual stories related to self-esteem, abilities, and relationships. Commonly used to treat anxiety, attachment issues, depression, grief, ADHD, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder

+ Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

engages adults/caregivers to learn and practice new skills and techniques for relating to their children who are dealing with emotional or behavioral problems, language issues, developmental disabilities, or mental health disorders.

+ Person-Centered Therapy

allows individuals to take the lead in discussions with the hope that they are able to discover their own solutions. Therapists are there to encourage and support the individual by guiding them through the therapeutic process.

+ Play Therapy

helps children ages 3 to 12 to explore their lives and freely express thoughts and emotions by leading children to be more respectful and empathetic, and helping them discover new and more positive ways to solve problems.

+ Psychodynamic Therapy

recognizes negative behaviors and feelings that come from past experiences by having individuals answer questions, providing them the opportunity to process what is on their mind. Often used to treat depression, anxiety, and those who want to explore how past experiences have caused or influenced unresolved feelings or behaviors.

+ Psychological Testing and Evaluation

includes a series of tests that help determine the cause of symptoms, make a diagnosis, and recommend the appropriate course of treatment. Often used when a child is having a behavioral, social, or academic problem that may be caused by a learning disorder, an attention deficit, or even an emotional problem (e.g., anxiety or depression). A mental health professional with advanced training in test administration and interpretation who is qualified to perform psychological testing and evaluation is required.

+ Psychotherapy

also known as “talk therapy,” takes place between a client and a trained therapist.

+ Relational Therapy

builds on developing relationships and considers social factors, such as race, class, culture, and gender. Examines the power struggles and other issues that develop as a result of these social factors.

+ Social Recovery Therapy

helps restore healthy mental states to young individuals with schizophrenia or early psychosis by improving social skills and encouraging active participation in social activities.

+ Solution-Focused Therapy

also known as Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (or SFBT), uses short-term practices to help individuals identify solutions rather than focusing on problems. Based on friendly, positive emotions and future thinking.

+ Somatic Therapy

looks at the connection between mind and body by using mental and physical techniques to help release tensions that are negatively impacting one’s physical and emotional well-being.

+ Strengths-Based Therapy

focuses more on individual strengths and resourcefulness, and less on barriers, failures, and shortcomings in order to have a positive mindset, improve resilience, and change worldviews.

+ Structural Family Therapy (SFT)

examines the structure of each family unit with the goal of improving the interactions (e.g., joining, boundary-making, role-play, reframing) among family members.

+ Transpersonal Therapy

uses a more holistic approach that addresses mental, physical, social, emotional, creative, and intellectual needs.

+ Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

addresses the needs of children, adolescents, adult survivors, and families who are struggling to overcome destructive effects of early trauma. Generally lasts from 8 to 25 sessions.