If you’ve ever typed “types of therapy” into a search tool and felt more confused after reading the results, you’re not alone. Terms like cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and EMDR can sound clinical and intimidating, but this guide helps you understand these approaches with definitions written for real people like you.
Whether you’re considering therapy for the first time, exploring options for a loved one, or simply trying to ask better questions when working with a therapist, we can help you through it all.
Why Knowing Your Therapy Options Matters
The beauty of therapy is that there is no one approach: it looks different for everyone, depending on their needs. The right treatment for someone navigating grief may look very different from what works for someone managing borderline personality disorder or processing childhood trauma. You may have heard of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which is very effective for many people, but it’s just one of many therapy approaches that trained professionals can use.
Knowing what’s available and which modalities address different needs empowers you to have informed, meaningful conversations with potential therapists or current therapists. It also helps you trust the process once you begin the healing journey.
The Most Common Types of Therapy, Explained
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Changing the Way You Think & Act
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most widely researched and practiced forms of psychotherapy in the world. At its core, CBT is straightforward: learning how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact helps you view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them more effectively.
In practice, CBT is structured and goal-oriented. Cognitive behavioral therapy usually takes place over a limited number of sessions, typically 5–20. During those sessions, a therapist helps you identify negative thought patterns, like catastrophizing or all-or-nothing thinking, and replace them with more realistic ones.
Best for: Anxiety disorders, depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), eating disorders, substance use, and even chronic pain.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): For Intense Emotions and Difficult Patterns
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) takes a different approach, using fundamentals of CBT with an emphasis on acceptance. Originally developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan in the late 1970s and 1980s, it was initially designed to treat chronic suicidality in people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Since then, its reach has expanded significantly.
“Dialectical” means trying to understand how two things that seem opposite could both be true. For example, accepting yourself and changing your behavior might feel contradictory, but DBT emphasizes that you can achieve both.
DBT focuses on four core skill areas:
Treatment involves individual therapy sessions, group skills sessions, or phone coaching with therapists between sessions. It aims to help people develop skills they can use in their daily lives to effectively manage emotions, maintain or improve interpersonal relationships, tolerate distress, and avoid behaviors that are detrimental to their quality of life.
Best for: Borderline personality disorder, self-harm, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders. In fact, the most effective treatment for borderline personality disorder is DBT.
EMDR: Healing Trauma Without Reliving Every Detail
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) may be one of the most misunderstood therapies, but it’s one of the most effective and well-researched trauma treatments available. Some studies found that 84–90% of single-trauma victims can no longer experience post-traumatic stress disorder after three 90-minute sessions.
The premise is rooted in how the brain stores traumatic memories. EMDR trauma therapy helps clients reprocess distressing memories that remain “stuck” in the nervous system, often driving symptoms such as hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation, and avoidance. During a session, a therapist guides you through recalling a distressing memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, tapping, or alternating tones. Over the course of the session, the memory typically loses its emotional charge and becomes integrated as a resolved past event rather than an ongoing emotional threat.
Reliving trauma is very painful, but the advantage of EMDR is that it doesn’t require talking through trauma in detail, making it especially valuable for those who find verbal processing overwhelming.
Best for: PTSD, complex trauma, anxiety, depression, grief, phobias, and abuse recovery.
Psychodynamic Therapy: Exploring the Roots of the Present
How has your past shaped who you are today? This is the question that psychodynamic therapy addresses as its foundational question.
Unlike CBT’s focus on thoughts and behaviors, psychodynamic therapy focuses on acknowledging emotions rather than thoughts and beliefs. It also focuses on understanding avoidance, identifying patterns, interpersonal relationships, and encourages free associations. This means freely speaking about fears, emotions, dreams, desires, and thoughts in a non-judgmental environment to discover unconscious or suppressed feelings.
Sessions tend to be less structured than CBT, with more room for open-ended conversation and self-exploration. This approach is particularly valuable for people who feel that their current struggles are connected to unresolved experiences or relational patterns from earlier in life.
Best for: Depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, grief, identity challenges, complex trauma, stress, panic, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
Humanistic Therapy: Centering the Whole Person
Humanistic therapy combines several approaches to address the whole person. It blends person-centered therapy (developed by Carl Rogers), Gestalt therapy, and existential approaches to focus on this core perspective: people are inherently capable of growth, and the right therapeutic environment can unlock that potential.
Humanistic therapy focuses on a person’s positive attributes, including their personal characteristics, strengths, and overall drive to self-actualization. The modality focuses on the here and now and encourages the client to take an active role in the therapy process. Really, the therapeutic relationship itself becomes the vehicle for change, which only reiterates the fact that finding the right therapist is crucial to a positive therapy experience.
Best for: Low self-esteem, existential concerns, personal growth, relationship issues, grief, and those who feel unseen or misunderstood in their daily lives. Humanistic approaches are also often woven into other therapy styles as a foundational framework.
How Do You Know Which Type of Therapy Is Right for You?
The truth is: You don’t always know in advance, and that’s okay. Most skilled therapists are trained in multiple modalities and will tailor their approach to your specific needs, history, and goals. The most skilled therapists have a diverse toolkit of methods they can draw from, adapting their approach to match each person’s unique needs, interests, and developmental stage.
That said, going in with some knowledge gives you the ability to ask meaningful questions. When looking for the right therapist, or during your next session, try asking your therapist these questions:
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1. What approaches do you use for [anxiety/trauma/depression]? |
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2. Are you trained in CBT, DBT, or EMDR? |
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3. How structured will our sessions be? |
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5. How will we know if it’s working? |
Asking these questions will help you find the right fit for your healing journey, and a good therapist will welcome them.
A Quick Reference: Therapy Types and What They Address
There are so many therapeutic approaches out there, and we’ve only covered a few. Still, here’s a breakdown of the theories we discussed and what they can help support:
Taking the Next Step
Understanding these approaches is the first step in building a better you. Finding the right therapist is a significant part of improving your mental health, but you don’t have to do it alone. GoodTherapy’s therapist directory allows you to filter by therapy type, specialization, location, and more, so you can find someone who truly fits your needs.
If you’re still exploring whether therapy is right for you, our blog on what to expect in your first therapy session can help you get started.
Remember, reaching out is not a sign that something is irreparably wrong with you. It’s a sign that you know your well-being is worth investing in.
The preceding article was solely written by the author named above. Any views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the preceding article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment below.
