psych~Empower utilises a range of therapy techniques to empower our clients.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy involves a focus on our thoughts, feelings and actions, and how our common ways of reacting with the world around us can either lead to us experiencing a negative spiral of experiences and emotions, or conversely a positive spiral. It is an empowering form of therapy, which enables a person to feel more in control of their own emotions and reactions to people around them and their experiences. It is the most popular form of therapeutic treatment, especially for depression and anxiety. CBT can be taught to both adults and children alike, albeit with slightly different levels of information and content. Within couples therapy, CBT can be a helpful context to understand individual reactions and interpretations of each other in the relationship.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy does not stop when a person leaves the counselling room. CBT involves a significant amount of "homework" and personal development outside of the counselling session.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy usually requires between 6 and 8 sessions, depending on the person's presenting issues.

Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt Therapy is based entirely on empowerment of another person, essentially challenging them to move outside of their comfort zone and accepting personal responsibility. Clients are encouraged to focus on their body and mind, and how to improve a positive integration of both, so that a person can be empowered and live more confidently. During Gestalt Therapy clients will often be encouraged to recognise how earlier life influences can create a pattern of events, which ultimately lead to negative dynamics in their own lives.

As personal empowerment is a key goal in Gestalt Therapy, clients are challenged to look after themselves rather than defaulting to others to care for them and consider them. This type of therapeutic intervention is all about gaining some closure to life patterns that are negatively impacting on their level of functioning and disempowering them from living a fulfilling life. The therapist will often challenge a client, and when appropriate will utilise role playing and confrontation techniques. Clients will be able to fill their imaginary "tool box" with plenty of healthy and positive means of coping with their world and future experiences. Gestalt Therapy does not delve into the past, just to discover what occurred or what should have happened. Instead, this therapy style enables a client to see how their interpretations of the past affect them now, and how to best empower themselves so that they can live a full and healthy life in the future.

Gestalt Therapy is usually provided with a combination of other therapy styles.

Depending on the nature of the person's presenting issues, between 6 and 10 sessions can be required.

Brief Solution Focused Therapy

This type of therapy is usually quite brief and focused on problem solving. The client is usually asked to provide some feedback on how they hope that their problem will change, or how they would like to cope with a problematic situation in the future. Personal control is often a focus in this type of therapy, in ways that the person can maintain optimism and dignity in continuing to meet challenges in the future. Homework is commonly utilised in this type of therapy, to encourage and motivate change in the person. This type of therapy is often provided to those who are attending sessions under an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) where a set number of sessions are allocated under contract with an employer.

Brief Solution Focused Therapy usually involves 3 to 6 sessions, depending on the person's presenting issues.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for Couples

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) offers a safe context for both partners in a relationship to access and work with emotion, and to restructure interactions that have become 'sharp' and negative in style. This type of therapy offers the opportunity for individuals to understand their inner experiences and eventually build interwoven and long lasting positive interactions between each other in the relationship. Couples learn how their own inner and interactional realities impact upon one another, and essentially create a "dance of emotional music" between one another, which often leads to a pattern of interaction that couples find hard to negotiate and understand. By couples undergoing an expression of new and expanded emotional experiences, they are able to reorganise the interactional positions that they take with one another on a daily basis. Emotionally Focused Therapy has a high success rate with couples in counselling, provided they have a similar level of commitment to the counselling process and a similar goal for where the relationship is headed.

Emotionally Focused Therapy is most effective when conducted regularly on a weekly basis, and it is not uncommon for it to involve anywhere between 8 and 20 sessions, depending on the complexity of the couple's relationship. If someone in the relationship is a survivor of trauma, then this number will often extend to 30 sessions.

Coaching

Coaching is not focused on psychological disorders or emotional distress issues. Primarily the person's needs are identified and firm goals are set and achieved during the coaching period. The client generally establishes the agenda of each session. The aim of coaching sessions is to support a person through addressing all facets of their life, in an effort to enable the client to reach their full potential. During coaching sessions, the therapist will endeavour to utilise the client's own creativity, resourcefulness and skill set.

Coaching sessions can be expected to last anywhere between 6 and 10 sessions, depending on the issue being presented by the client and their expectations for achieving certain goals.

Art Therapy

Art Therapy can be psychologically and emotionally healing, as well life-enhancing for a person. A person can improve their level of self awareness, ability to cope with symptoms/stress/traumatic experiences, improve their cognitive abilities and express themselves in a different medium to simply just talking. Both children and adults alike can benefit from this therapeutic style. The level of personal learning and self-awareness that can come from Art Therapy, is particularly powerful. Many adults will be initially reluctant to engage in Art Therapy, due to the preconceived idea that a person must draw/paint something that is artistic and possibly even 'perfect'. However, this type of therapy does away with this notion, and encourages adults to approach art as a means of expressing themselves in a nonjudgemental way.

Art Therapy is particularly useful for children and teenagers, who can often have difficulty discussing deeply emotional or painful issues or feelings. Sometimes a client will not know the importance of a drawing or creation that they have made. However, art therapy is a valuable therapeutic tool for tapping into the basic part of the human psyche, that can have far reaching effects on a person's resolution of problems and building additional "tools" for their "tool boxes".

Art Therapy is usually provided with a combination of other therapy styles.

Depending on the nature of the person's presenting issues, between 6 and 10 sessions can be required.

Sandplay and Symbol Work Therapy

Sandplay Therapy and Symbol Work initially involves clients touching the sand or inspecting figurines, which might evoke a positive or negative attraction to a particular symbol or sand formation. Essentially, clients project the unconscious parts of their psyche onto the sand or the selection of particular figurines. Clients are usually found to soften their defences when they are faced with involving themselves kinaestheically with the sand and figurines. During this type of therapy, clients will make associations and connections with particular symbols, and will eventually build meanings around them.

Sandplay Therapy and Symbol Work can be extremely powerful forms of therapy that can give a person strong insight about themselves or their issues. However, most adults are reluctant to initially engage in this type of therapy, for it is initially attributed to "child like activities" due to the usage of toys and sand in a tray. Often times, when children or adults engage in this type of therapy, there is a shift in energy and their mood will shift from being negative to a more positive state.

Sandplay Therapy and Symbol Work usually require between 1 and 2 hours per session, and depending on the issues that a person presents with, they may require anywhere between 4 and 6 sessions.

No matter what type of therapeutic approach is utilised in counselling sessions with clients, psych~Empower always focusses on empowering clients and enabling them to live fulfilling and healthy lives.

Please contact us if you have any questions about the types of therapy styles we utilise in counselling and/or if you are ready to take control of your life and seek the best out of your future.