Therapy often serves as a significant and critical component of any recovery process, whether you have a mental illness, addiction, or both. It can be challenging, though, to determine which facility is the best one for yourself or a loved one. You should consider many things and ask many questions when looking into a treatment center to ensure you or a loved one receives the best quality care.
What Is Psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy, is usually a long-term process that may continue for years to address chronic physical and emotional problems. The goal of therapy is to recognize underlying patterns of thinking and behavior like trauma and mental illness. Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms to increasing functioning as well as their well-being and healing process. A psychotherapist can help a person become aware of their negative behavioral patterns and/or underlying trauma or disorder to identify ways to improve their life.
Psychotherapy is often used in combination with medication to treat mental health conditions. In some circumstances, medication may be helpful, and in others, psychotherapy may be the best option. For many people, combined medication and psychotherapy treatment is better than either alone.
There are various forms of psychotherapy, including:
- Psychoanalytic or Psychodynamic Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy
- Humanistic Therapy
- Holistic Psychotherapy
Programs Other Than Therapy
Different programs are similar to therapy; counseling is a good example. You probably remember hearing about the counselor in middle or high school, or maybe you’ve even been to one. Aside from being a place where teens would try to get out of class, it is a place to work out solutions to relatively short-term problems. A person may attend counseling for a few weeks up to six months. Counseling might even lead to therapy if a deeper problem is identified. The focus of counseling is more on giving advice on a particular issue and helping change behavioral responses. A counselor tends to provide guidance and support as the participant figures out how to manage themselves better. Specific techniques can be suggested as coping mechanisms.
Another program you may have experienced is life coaching. The focus here is not so much on serious issues preventing a person from living a stable life. Instead, a life coach helps a person make progress in their life to achieve greater fulfillment in some particular area, such as one’s career, fitness, dating, creativity, finances, and so on. Like counseling, it can help a person develop strategies to identifying and overcoming obstacles that are holding them back. Unlike psychotherapy, life coaches cannot treat mental health disorders like depression or bipolar disorder, nor can they treat addiction.
How Do I Know Which Program Is Right for Me?
Understanding the differences between these broad areas of counseling, coaching, and psychotherapy is a great place to start. Next, you can ask yourself if your issue is something you have been dealing with for a long time. Seeing a psychotherapist may be a better option if these concerns significantly impact your daily life, career, relationships, and overall sense of well-being. Have you been to counseling already? Tried out different strategies for self-management and are making no headway? Perhaps you had experienced some past trauma that may be affecting you today, or maybe you have an underlying medical or mental health condition that is impacting your emotional well-being. If you’ve been around the block a few times and you still have significant concerns, it might be time to level up to psychotherapy.
Critical Questions to Ask
A critical point to note here is that finding an experienced and licensed practitioner is crucial if you choose psychotherapy as a treatment. Before you call a facility, check out their website and get familiar with their services. Browse their staff page and see what kinds of therapists are available and what their credentials are. When you call a facility, clarify that their therapists are indeed licensed, what their licensing is, their area of expertise, and what kind of training they received. To get you more comfortable with the facility, you might want to inquire about how a therapist of interest might approach a patient’s mental health or addiction problem, their treatment process, and what kind of time frame they will be working with. You can never be too careful when it comes to your health!
Understanding the differences between various types of programs like counseling, coaching, and psychotherapy is critical to choosing the right treatment. Psychotherapy is most appropriate for long-term issues that severely impair a person’s daily functions and interactions. Substance abuse, addiction, and mental health disorders like bipolar, PTSD, depression, and OCD are diagnoses that hinder a person’s daily functioning. Finding a facility apt to your condition and circumstances is equally important for long-term recovery. One of the most important questions you can ask when calling a facility is if their therapists are licensed and what their licensing is. These clinicians tend to have a deeper understanding of your chronic condition and have more significant experience in treating patients. You can never be too careful when it comes to your mental and physical health. Don’t settle for anything less than the most informed and experienced care. At Oceanfront Recovery, this is precisely what we offer: clinical care that is affordable and exceeds most providers in the area. All of our therapists are licensed professionals. Consider our facility for treatment for you or a loved one. We won’t let you down. Call us today at (877) 279-1777.
