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What is Individual Psychotherapy?
Individual Psychotherapy can take many forms and can be applied to a wide array of problems. One might think of psychotherapy as a meeting wherein a therapist will listen to the experiences of clients’ life that have created difficulty in his/her attempts to live a full and authentic life.
Individual Psychotherapy allows a focus on the client where there is no judgment with only an environment of respect and empathy.
At Bridges to Recovery we utilize a variety of different approaches that include: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and multi-systemic approaches to understanding the struggles and obstacles preventing individuals’ from reaching their goals.
Psychotherapy typically involves sharing thoughts and feelings from different events in ones’ life with a therapist who can help understand and decode the facets of the event that may have resulted in maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
What are the different types of Individual Psychotherapy offered at Bridges to Recovery?
Bridges to Recovery believes in an individualized approach to psychotherapy that is thoughtfully developed after a careful assessment by both our psychiatrist and your individual therapist. The therapists at Bridges to Recovery have been in practice for many years and have developed a vast repertoire of therapeutic tools that include: interpretation of experiences by linking them to early events, identifying patterns of problematic behaviors, emphatically confronting negative thoughts, and helping to identify feelings that have been both unexpressed and expressed. The skills and tools of the therapist will help address many of the most complicated mental health issues that are presented by our clients that include Bipolar Disorder, Panic Disorder, Personality Disorders, and Depression.
The framework of treatment often is established with an emphasis upon a careful development of the therapeutic relationship and an encouragement to work collaboratively to uncover emotional obstacles and develop more adaptive life strategies. Depending on the needs of the individual, the therapist may choose to work from a Psychodynamic (identifying underlying issues or traumas that interfere with ones ability to function and providing an alternative, adaptive understanding) or Cognitive-Behavioral focus that takes into consideration the clients’ ability to utilize the information provided in session and integrates it into their functioning in the external world.
Some individuals find the use of additional individual therapies such as Anger Management skill building and/or Dilectical Behavioral Therapy helpful to bolster skills that are lacking in their emotional toolbox. Thus, at Bridges to Recovery, we seek to provide an individualized psychotherapy approach that incorporates the most effective psychotherapeutic approaches with psychiatric care to assist the client in moving toward their goals and dreams.
How does Individual Psychotherapy take place at Bridges to Recovery?
Individual Psychotherapy seeks to identify the patterns and obstacles that interfere with you reaching your individual hopes and dreams. Many individuals who come to our residential program having attempted psychotherapy from a number of different modalities (i.e. Cognitive-Behavioral therapy, Family Therapy, Psychoanalysis, etc.) without success. Others enter the program after a period of beneficial psychotherapy with awareness that the difficulties that prevent them from living the life that they wish remain intact.
At our mental health program we seek to provide a relationship with a therapist who can approach your problem with the skills and tools necessary to empathically discuss your struggles and pain and provide words to issues that have been unspoken and meaning to thoughts that have been hidden. Our Ph.D level therapists are experienced in establishing a relationship with their client that is respectful and aware of their bonds with their outside providers and function as consultants in the therapeutic process. Often, clients will report that a different perspective of long-standing patterns and issues can “shake loose” entrenched behaviors and free them to incorporate a new and fresh understanding of their lives.
Although outpatient psychotherapy is often at a frequency of once or twice per week, Bridges to Recovery seeks to provide a strong, consistent foundation of treatment that includes at least four times per week individual, face-to-face psychotherapy with a doctoral level, highly experienced clinician and once per week of somatic/experiencing therapy. Many individuals report that being in a residential setting allows them to put their external life “on hold” and focus only on the issues and traumas preventing them from living an authentic life. Residential setting also provides a community of support for clients as they work on difficult issues and yearn for the support and care that a therapeutic setting can provide.
What will Individual Therapy accomplish?
Individual Therapy should provide words to ideas and feelings that have previously been unspoken and light to beliefs and concerns that have remained in the dark aspects of the mind.
Although a client remains with their primary therapist during their residential program for a short time (approximately 6 weeks), the intensity of the experience allows for the client to carefully explore those issues most present in their minds and continue their work thematically throughout their treatment day. At the end of our program, most clients report that they have gained a greater understanding of the issues that brought them into treatment and an increased ability to manage their feelings that have prevented them from reaching their dreams.
At our residential treatment program, we find that clients’ ability to verbalize feelings and traumas that created difficulty for them increases, allowing them to return to their outside providers with an emotional vocabulary and mental strength to continue their forward progress and rapidly move toward a more fulfilling life.
Bridges to Recovery utilizes clinicians who are at the doctoral level of training, who are either clinical psychologists and/or psychoanalysts. The primary therapist functions as both the point of contact for the client while in our program and the case manager for the needs of the client.
Who are the Primary Therapists at Bridges to Recovery
