Therapeutic Approach

At ECH Counseling, we understand that not one approach works for all people.  Our counselors have a variety of specialties and provide a range of services while utilizing different treatment approaches.

Are you ready to move forward?  Be empowered to cope and heal?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT aims to help you identify and explore the ways your thoughts and emotions can affect your actions by:

  • Focusing on how your thoughts trigger your emotions and, in the end, impact your behavior.
  • Gaining insight into your thoughts and learning how questioning them can change unhelpful patterns of emotions and behaviors.
  • Changing thinking patterns, to change the way you feel and behave.
  • Stopping the intrusive, worrisome, and negative thoughts that occur, to increase self-efficacy.

Typical treatment often involves the following:

  • Recognizing how inaccurate thinking can worsen problems
  • Learning new problem-solving skills
  • Gaining confidence and a better understanding and appreciation of your self-worth
  • Learning how to face fears and challenges

The goal of these techniques is to replace unhelpful or self-defeating thoughts with more encouraging and realistic ones.

Unlike many other therapy approaches, CBT does not focus much on talking about your past.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT focuses on learning skills to manage difficult emotions by helping:

  • People accept the reality of their lives and their behaviors
  • People learn healthier ways to cope and control intense emotions

There are four main concepts:

  • Mindfulness: Being fully aware of the present moment without judgement
  • Distress Tolerance (Acceptance):  How to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not focus on changing
  • Emotional Regulations: How to work through painful and difficult emotions and decreased vulnerability
  • Interpersonal relationship:  Learn healthy communication and assertiveness skills while considering yourself

Existential therapy

With this approach, therapy is often centered on you rather than on the symptom(s).

The three phases of existential therapy are:

  • Identification and clarification
  • Self-exploration and examination
  • Application

People who view their concerns as issues of living rather than symptoms of a mental illness and are interested in self exploration are more likely to benefit from this approach.

Existential therapy aims to:

  • Help people face anxieties of life and to embrace choices they have made.
  • Help people live more authentically.
  • Encourage clients to take ownership of their lives.
  • Find meaning and live fully in the present, with not much emphasis on the past.  Instead of putting blame on events from the past, they can be used to grow.
  • Make you aware that you are not defined by your history and that you are not destined to a certain future.
  • Help facilitate an individual’s own encounter with themselves and to work alongside them as they explore values, assumptions, and ideals.

Certain aspects will be touched upon, to allow one to explore their lives:

  • Physical – Your environment, along with your feeling and physical symptoms
  • Social – Your relationships at home, family, friends, work, community, etc
  • Personal – Overall sense of self, exploring identity, personality, strengths, and weaknesses
  • Ideal world – Making sense of your life such as values, beliefs, etc

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

IFS identifies and addresses multiple sub-parts within each person’s mental system. These sub-parts consist of wounded parts with painful emotions and parts that try to control and protect the person from the pain. The sub-parts are often in conflict with each other and with one’s self.

IFS focuses on healing the wounded parts and restoring mental balance by changing the dynamics that created the discord within a person. 
By learning how the different parts function, a counselor can help one be able to identify the roots of conflict, manage any complications that arise within one’s self, and achieve greater well-being.

  • It gives them power through achieving an internal balance
  • Promotes self-compassion
  • Views symptoms as normal reactions to stressors or trauma, rather than a diagnosis
  • Provides a better understanding of self
  • Prepares for emotional difficulty in the future

Solution Focused Therapy

Solution-focused therapy doesn’t require you to dive into your past and the ways in which it has influenced your present.  Instead, it will focus on the present while working toward a future in which your current problems have less of an impact on your life.

It is a future-oriented, goal-directed approach, that focuses on:

  • How change is inevitable
  • People being experts of their own lives
  • Constructing solutions vs the problem
  • Strengths vs weaknesses
  • Skills, resources, and coping abilities that one possess
  • What is changeable and possible
  • The future, not a person’s history

In session, counselors might:

  • Ask questions rather than provide answers
  • Reinforce positive qualities, strengths, resources, and general competence to solve their own problems
  • Work with what people can do rather than focusing on what they can’t do
  • Identify the behaviors a client is already engaging in that are helpful and utilize them in other ways
  • Develop action plans that work for the person

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology focuses on enhancing psychological wellbeing by building on positive emotions, relationships, and strengths.  To help clients discover their strengths and enhance their resilience, thereby protecting them against future stressors.  To identify goals for self-growth.   

Positive psychotherapy has a wide range of applications which are not just restricted to helping with mental health challenges.

In one particular model of positive psychotherapy there are three main principles:

  • Hope: The therapist helps you view challenges in a more positive light by helping you to find meaning in difficult experiences.
  • Balance: Challenges are seen as the result of an imbalanced focus on one area of life to the detriment of other areas. Positive psychotherapy helps you to achieve balance across four areas of life, which are:
    • Body and health
    • Achievement and work
    • Contact and relationships
    • Future and purpose
  • Consultation: This principle relates to the process of therapy. The therapist works collaboratively with you, educating and problem-solving.

In another particular model of positive psychotherapy, therapy is focused on building three aspects of happiness:

  • Building positive emotions
  • Using strengths to enhance engagement in life
  • Developing purpose and building a sense of meaning in life

Meditation

Meditation can produce a deep state of relaxation and tranquil mind. During meditation, you focus your attention on mind-body connection and eliminate the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. It is a practice that involves focusing one’s attention on an object, thought, or activity to achieve mental clarity and calmness.  This process may result in enhanced physical and emotional well-being.

The specifics of a meditation session can vary depending on the type of meditation, individual preferences, and other factors. However, here are some general aspects you might expect:

  • Preparation: You may choose to set up a specific spot for meditation, such as a quiet room or corner of a room, and sit or lie down in a comfortable position. You may want to light candles, play soft music, or use other props to create a relaxing atmosphere. It’s helpful to minimize distractions by turning off electronics and setting aside worries or responsibilities for the duration of the session.
  • Focus: Once you’re settled, you’ll normally decide what to focus on. This could involve listening to guided meditations, repeating a mantra or affirmation, paying attention to your breath or sensations in your body, visualizing a peaceful or inspiring scene, or simply observing thoughts and feelings as they come and go.
  • Duration: Meditation sessions can range from a few minutes to an hour or more, depending on your availability and goals. Most beginners start with shorter sessions, such as 5-10 minutes, and gradually work up as they become more comfortable and skilled.
  • Closing: When your meditation session is complete, you may choose to conclude with a specific gesture or phrase, such as bowing or saying “Namaste.” You may also want to take a few deep breaths or stretch gently before returning to your regular activities.

There are many different types of meditation you might work on in counseling, here are a few:

  • Guided Imagery
  • Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Focused Breathing

Here are some of the benefits of meditation:

  1. Stress reduction: Meditation is known for its ability to reduce stress. It can help individuals gain a new perspective on stressful situations, build skills to manage stress, and reduce negative emotions.
  2. Increased self-awareness: Regular meditation practice can enhance self-awareness. By focusing attention inward, individuals can become more in tune with their thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.
  3. Improved concentration: Meditation is often associated with improved focus and concentration. With regular practice, it can help train the mind to stay present and focused on the task at hand.
  4. Promotes emotional well-being: Research has found that meditation may help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. It can also contribute to emotional well-being and inner peace.
  5. Enhances physical health: Meditation has been found to have various physical health benefits. It may help with relaxation, fatigue, and even improve symptoms of certain medical conditions.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is usually considered an aid to psychotherapy because the hypnotic state allows people to explore painful thoughts, feelings, and memories they might have hidden from their conscious minds.

It is a similar concept as meditation, but with hypnotherapy one can focus on a specific issue they want to resolve.

Hypnotherapy can help you change attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. It can be effective in treating a range of medical and psychological issues, including:

  • Anxiety
  • Asthma
  • Chronic pain
  • Fears and phobias
  • Smoking
  • High blood pressure
  • Insomnia
  • Panic attacks
  • Stress
  • Migraine
  • Obesity
  • Sleep problems
  • Sexual problems
  • Stuttering

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR therapy has been proven through research that it helps people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences.  It helps the brain process the memories and allows healing – The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event gets resolved.

It reconnects the traumatized person in a safe way to the images, thoughts, emotions, and body sensations associated with the trauma.  Moving toward adaptive resolution by resolving unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain.

Counselors use EMDR to address a wide range of challenges:

  • Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
  • Chronic Illness and medical issues
  • Depression and bipolar disorders
  • Dissociative disorders
  • Eating disorders
  • Grief and loss
  • Pain
  • Performance anxiety
  • Personality disorders
  • PTSD and other trauma and stress-related issues
  • Sexual assault
  • Sleep disturbance
  • Substance abuse and addiction
  • Violence and abuse

There are a range of tools that could be used during EMDR such as a light bar, tactile devices, or virtual tools.

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