Types of therapy overview page

Types of therapy: why should you care?

Isn’t therapy just therapy? Why be bothered how it’s done?

My belief is that it is not AI which are going to transform humanity. Rather, it is the emerging world of personal transformation. The many different types of therapy are to me shining discoveries, akin to the discovery of X-rays, antibiotics, or transistors.

Of course there’s a huge difference because human level we have always know these things. They are not discoveries for humanity. But they are discoveries for technocratic public culture, and that is big.

That’s the real achievement  of attachment theory. The understandings about bonding and relating have all been perfectly understood by therapists for decades; the big contribution of attachment theory is making those culturally established. More and more of such developments could change our whole society (For more on this: other things more useful for you than attachment theory.)

Here are a few of the therapies that historically embody these new-to-the-Western-world discoveries of human nature. Of course all real-life therapeutic approaches rely on at least several of these, but the most effective therapies rely on many and in depth.

Empathy is a bridge from one human being to another

Think of a moment when you were deeply understood. Maybe it was a personal context when someone understood your need even if they couldn’t fulfil. it. Or maybe it was a discussion context where your point was understood even if not agreed with. I confidently predict that it created connection and a relaxation between you and the other person. Empathy is a type of love.

The first therapist to explicitly make empathy front and centre was Carl Rogers and his Person Centred therapy; there was a period when his entire work was to listen empathically to his client and nothing else. Today all therapies rely on empathy as a crucial and essential feature, though in the 1950s this too was, like attachment theory today, a new development in our technological culture. When I was a student, reading Rogers’ books changed my life. I’ve always regarded him with affection and great respect.

Characterology

People seem to be bewilderingly different, and we feel ourselves to be unique among them. Yet there are broad categories that we all fall into that offer you very deep understanding of yourself and your emotional patterns.

Overall this is Characterology, and I’ve been fortunate to train with the   Neo-Reichian Body Types characterology school with two vastly experienced teachers, Aneesha Dillon and Moumina Jeffs. I particularly like their approach because it’s focussed on the hidden treasures buried within the characters structures – and in you yourself – not just on what is hurt. Out of everything I make use of, this is one of the most valuable tools with both individuals and couples. Characterology includes but goes well beyond attachment theory. [Contact me if you’d like information on Moumina’s trainings for 2026, 2027, 2028.]

Words and language: Words were originally magic

I love words. And a therapist has to listen to what you as a client are saying, listen to the exact words. Sometimes just one single word proves to be the crucial word. Is there a hidden structure? Is there a hidden message the client hopes I will catch without them saying more?

Here is Sigmund Freud:

Nothing takes place in a psycho-analytic treatment but an interchange of words between the patient and the analyst.  … Words were originally magic and to this day words have retained much of their ancient magical power. By words one person can make another blissfully happy or drive him to despair, by words the teacher conveys his knowledge to his pupils, by words the orator carries his audience with him and determines their judgements and decisions. Words provoke affects and are in general the means of mutual influence among men. Thus we shall not depreciate the use of words in psychotherapy and we shall be pleased if we can listen to the words that pass between the analyst and his patient.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the best known words based therapy. “Words based”  is not how CBT is normally described. But it deals with exactly what Freud is speaking about, how our own internal words can make us blissfully happy or driven to despair. Worth noting is that CBT understand a key point that Freud does not. It’s the words we say to ourselves that fundamentally create bliss or despair, not words said by others. Furthermore, Freudian-inspired therapies long lacked any focus on taking action to make life better. CBT was the first therapy to combine words and actions in one package.

Other therapy authors have picked up Freud’s happy phrase. Steve De Shazer, one of the founders of Solution Oriented Therapy wrote a book Words Were Originally Magic, and John Grinder and Richard Bandler, quoted it in relation to their 1975 book about Neurolinguistic Programming,   The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy.

Evidence you are good, strong and lovable

Take a moment to think of a time when someone saw what is best within you. Maybe, someone telling you that you are lovable; maybe your family seeing you graduate. Isn’t it a wonderful feeling? Only one single therapy,  Solution Oriented Therapy, bases  its entire methodology on trusting that you are fundamentally OK, and on helping you to place your feet on the things that are already good in you as the solid steady stepping stones for moving forward. On its own is has significant limitations, but its living spirit of trusting and valuing people is unbeatable.

It’s especially valuable when people think that nothing about them is good and that they have no best!

Trance and the unconscious

Hypnotists have a saying that “All therapy that works is hypnosis” and I agree. I do some deep trance work with all individual clients, though not at all like you see on Youtube. Other times some people drift into a profound inner state with almost no input from me – it’s as if a door to somewhere inward was waiting to be opened. Hypnosis as such features techniques to go into the unconscious realms  past lives, spirit releasement, and others. I mention these here to say that although I have trained in this type of hypnosis, I do NOT work with these, as they require a certain particular aptitude which I don’t find myself to have.

Feeling feelings in the body – embodiment

If you talk in therapy in the vocal speed and rhythm and tonality you talk with in casual conversation, no healing whatever will happen. There’s a subtly different speed and cadence that goes with thoughtful introspective conversation, and therapy needs this. The difference is that this is connected with your moment to moment feelings (not emotions, feelings) and everyday conversation is not. This connection to feelings is part of “embodiment”, a term that’s becoming more and more mainstream though not with the popularity of attachment theory.

The therapy that places front and centre this connection with our inner felt sense is Eugene Gendlin’s Focussing. though of course many therapies achieve this without giving it a special name. If you are drawn to meditation, then his little gem of a book on Focussing could be a better place to start than with a traditional book on meditation.

Embodiment of core emotions

A small number of therapies bring into experience the innermost core emotions of grief, terror, hatred, shame and rage which are what our defences ultimately defend us against. These breathwork/bioenergetic techniques including Neo-Reichian Emotional Release / Breathwork / Bioenergetics  are not part of everyday therapies and are only of interest to individuals who feel a very strong pull to self exploration and for this reason although I’ve trained in this, I don’t practice it.

Parts therapy, inner child healing, and trauma splitting

Have you seen the Pixar animation Inside Out?  If not I suggest you do. It’s a lighthearted image of what your mind looks like behind the scenes and it has a realism to it. (Inside Out from a therapy point of view.) Because we are not, actually, one mind. We are many.  Some of these so-called parts of us are more dominant, some quieter, some hidden. Progress in therapy requires working with them all, not just the most obvious.

In particular trauma feelings are hidden parts which even you yourself are possibly unaware of; these always need meeting very, very gently.

Unlike previous headings, Parts Therapy isn’t a single school of therapy but includes many related things including Internal Family Systems Therapy, Voice Dialogue, Inner Male/Inner Female, Inner Child healing and many more.

Meditation and conscious awareness

Therapy in itself as it stands can be framed as in a way meditation. First there is gently bringing things that you’d hardly been aware of from the back of the mind and into consciousness. Some of these things can be very challenging, and then therapy offers solidity and safety to hold experiences in consciousness so they can be dealt with. Here are a whole series of  articles about meditation, including this definition of meditation  which I find helpful. (These articles are old and some need a lot of editing.)

Please note: I do not ask clients to meditate (they may not want to) and I don’t teach meditation (there’s so much material free online.) What I’m talking about here is what routinely happens in all effective psychotherapies. I’m referring to a way of framing things, that’s all.

Then the other way round, for most people moving deeply in meditation will require therapy or other personal transformation tools. The journey of meditation starts with a general cleaning-out process. Those same things at the back of the mind that you’ve hardly been aware of will start to emerge in meditation, and if you’re meditating on your own and if these are challenging, then you need a source of trust and solid support to let these things into consciousness. And this is going to be either  therapy, or a school of meditation, or one of the many amazing forms of personal development tools now becoming available. For a beginner going deep in meditation is likely to need help. This is not yet well recognised.

Family Constellations Therapy (Systemic Constellations)

Family Constellation Therapy (more broadly Systemic Constellations) addresses head-on in a unique manner deep and challenging matters of fate, loss, responsibility, breaking and making of bonds, acceptance, trauma, perpetrator-victim dynamics, and family structure. Its methodologies bring ceremonial and transpersonal forces into the realm of psychotherapy.