Relationship Therapies
Therapies that attempt to improve patients’ interpersonal relationships or create relationships in order to provide them with support
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
A brief psychotherapy designed to help depressed people better understand and cope with problems relating to their interpersonal relationships. IPT is designed specifically to help patients cope with four types of problems commonly associated with major depression:
- Unusual or severe responses to the death of a loved one
- Interpersonal role disputes
- Difficulty in adjusting to role transitions such as divorce, career change, and retirement
- Deficits in interpersonal skills
Couple and Family Therapy
Family Therapy
Therapy involving an entire family, based on the assumption that an individual’s problem is caused and/or maintained in part by problems within the family unit.
Couple or family therapy appears to have positive effects in treating a number of disorders and clinical problems.
Couples therapy can be helpful in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions.
Group Therapy
A form of therapy in which several clients meet regularly with one or more therapists to resolve personal problems.
Learning that others also share their problems leaves people feeling less alone and ashamed.
A variant of group therapy is the self-help group. Self-help groups usually are not led by professional therapists.
They are simply groups of people who share a common problem and meet to give and receive support.