Therapeutic Approaches

Narrative Therapy aims to separate people from qualities or attributes that contribute towards the very often dominant “problem-saturated story” (stories of failure, inadequacy, fear etc.) while coming to acknowledge and cherish those qualities and attributes that contribute towards the “subordinate story”, that being the often inferior, yet more favourable story (stories of courage, hope, resilience etc.).

This allows people to consider their relationships with problems, thus the narrative motto: “The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem”. In the end, narrative therapy helps people clarify for themselves an alternate and more favourable direction in life to that of the problem, one that honours their values, hopes, and life commitments.

Solution Focused Therapy is future-focused, goal-directed, and focuses on solutions, rather than on the problems that bring clients to seek therapy. It enables clients to identify and attend to their own internal competencies, skills and resources, as well as their immediate support systems and supportive social networks. This approach facilitates the construction of narratives that enable the client to generate innovative, appropriate and effective solutions to their personal problems.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), as the name implies, is a mixture of cognitive and behavioural therapy. Because our thoughts can influence our behaviour and our behaviour can influence our thoughts, these two approaches have been shown to be very effective when integrated into one therapeutic approach.

Firstly, CBT assists individuals in developing deeper insight and understanding concerning the destructive and disturbing thought patterns that influence their behaviour and helps them learn new skills that allow them to quickly discern and change these disturbing thought patterns, ultimately leading to more favourable behaviour outcomes.

Secondly, CBT alerts individuals to their counterproductive and destructive patterns of behaviour that influence their thought life, while helping them adopt and exercise more productive ways of behaving, which in turn has a positive effect on their psychological and emotional wellbeing.

Schema therapy combines elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychoanalysis, attachment theory, and emotion-focused therapy, among others. Schemas are unhelpful patterns that some people develop if their emotional needs aren’t met as a child.

These schemas can affect you throughout life and contribute to problematic coping methods and behaviours if left unaddressed. Schema therapy aims to teach you how to ensure your emotional needs are met in a healthy way that doesn’t cause distress.