Dictionary of All Models of Psychotherapy
The history of psychotherapy is a long argument about where suffering lives and how it can be reached. The earliest depth psychologies looked for it in buried conflict and forgotten memory. Behaviorism relocated it to observable habit and conditioned response. The humanists answered that the real wound was inauthenticity and the loss of meaning, and more recently clinicians have learned to find distress encoded in the body itself, in the posture, the breath, and the quiet machinery of the autonomic nervous system.
This dictionary gathers that whole sprawling inheritance in one place. It defines more than two hundred and seventy models, schools, and techniques, organized into six broad families, and for each one it offers a short clinical description of what the approach believes and how it works. Where an in-depth article exists, a button links to it. Where the innovator who created the method has been written about, a second button links to their story. The goal is simple and immodest: to be the most complete and useful map of the therapeutic landscape available anywhere.
Psychoanalytic, Psychodynamic and Depth 51 models
Psychoanalysis Depth
The original depth psychology formulated by Sigmund Freud. It relies on free association, dream interpretation, and the analysis of resistance to uncover repressed sexual and aggressive drives.
Classical Adlerian Psychotherapy Depth
Developed by Alfred Adler, this approach views the individual holistically within their social context. It emphasizes overcoming feelings of inferiority and fostering social interest to achieve personal growth.
Ego Psychology Depth
An evolution of Freudian theory focusing heavily on the ego's adaptive and defensive functions. It aims to strengthen the ego so the patient can better manage environmental stressors and internal impulses.
Object Relations Therapy Depth
Focuses on how early relationships with primary caregivers, the objects, are internalized and shape future interpersonal functioning. Therapy corrects maladaptive internal representations to improve current relationship dynamics.
Self Psychology Depth
Formulated by Heinz Kohut, this model emphasizes the development of a cohesive self through the mirroring and empathic attunement of the therapist. It primarily targets narcissistic vulnerabilities and self-esteem deficits.
Interpersonal Psychoanalysis Depth
Developed by Harry Stack Sullivan, this therapy shifts the focus from internal drives to interpersonal interactions. It posits that psychiatric disorders are rooted in dysfunctional communication and interpersonal relations.
Relational Psychoanalysis Depth
Integrates interpersonal psychoanalysis and object relations theory, emphasizing the mutual, co-created relationship between therapist and patient. The therapeutic relationship itself is the primary vehicle for healing.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Depth
A broader, often briefer application of psychoanalytic principles focusing on unconscious processes and how they manifest in present behavior. It targets symptom relief alongside deep personality change.
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) Depth
Focuses on rapidly healing attachment trauma by fostering a deeply corrective emotional experience. The therapist uses explicitly affirming, emotionally engaged techniques to undo the patient's aloneness.
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) Depth
An accelerated psychodynamic approach that directly challenges psychological defenses. It aims to quickly access unexpressed, unconscious emotions to provide rapid symptom relief.
Brief Psychotherapy Depth
A time-limited psychodynamic framework focusing on specific, current problems rather than a complete restructuring of the personality. It establishes clear goals to achieve rapid, targeted clinical outcomes.
Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT) Depth
Designed originally for borderline personality disorder, this therapy enhances a patient's capacity to understand their own and others' mental states. It stabilizes emotional regulation by improving reflective functioning.
Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) Depth
A highly structured psychodynamic treatment for severe personality disorders. It uses the real-time analysis of the patient-therapist transference to integrate split-off, polarized aspects of the self.
Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy Depth
Designed for treatment-resistant conditions and co-occurring disorders. It helps patients connect with their authentic emotional experiences and develop more adaptive ways of relating to themselves and others.
Horneyan Psychoanalysis Depth
Based on the work of Karen Horney, this approach rejects Freudian biological determinism in favor of social and cultural influences. It targets the tyranny of the shoulds and neurotic strategies for coping with basic anxiety.
Lacanian Psychoanalysis Depth
Rooted in the linguistic and structuralist theories of Jacques Lacan. It emphasizes that the unconscious is structured like a language and deeply analyzes the patient's discourse to deconstruct the ego.
Supportive Psychotherapy Depth
Focuses on improving social functioning and coping skills rather than achieving deep insight. It aims to bolster adaptive defenses, reduce anxiety, and maintain optimal ego functioning.
Conversational Model Depth
A psychodynamic approach focusing on the development of a shared language between therapist and patient. It is particularly effective for patients dealing with complex trauma and borderline personality organization.
Insight-Oriented Psychotherapy Depth
An umbrella term for therapies that assume symptoms resolve when a patient gains conscious awareness of their underlying psychological conflicts. It relies heavily on interpretation and self-reflection.
Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT) Depth
Designed for treatment-resistant patients, this model identifies the internalized, maladaptive rules learned from early caregivers. It helps patients consciously choose to break these rules to establish healthier interpersonal patterns.
Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy (TLDP) Depth
Focuses on changing cyclical maladaptive patterns of interpersonal relating within a set timeframe. The therapist actively uses the therapeutic relationship to provide a new, corrective relational experience.
Affect Phobia Therapy Depth
A psychodynamic approach that treats emotional avoidance as a phobia. It uses exposure techniques to help patients confront and tolerate avoided feelings, leading to emotional restructuring.
Control-Mastery Theory Depth
A cognitive-psychodynamic theory suggesting that psychopathology stems from pathogenic beliefs acquired in childhood. Therapy provides experiences that disconfirm these beliefs, allowing the patient to feel safe and adapt.
Jungian Analysis (Analytical Psychology) Depth
Explores the personal and collective unconscious through dream analysis and symbolism. It frames clinical symptoms as blocked creative energy and strives for the ultimate goal of individuation.
Archetypal Psychology Depth
Pioneered by James Hillman, it expands Jungian thought by de-centering the ego. It views psychological phenomena as being driven by universal, mythological archetypes shaping the soul of the individual.
Parts-Based Therapy Depth
A clinical framework positing that the mind is naturally multiple. It treats symptoms like addiction or panic as protective parts of the personality acting out, working to negotiate with these parts rather than suppress them.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Depth
Developed by Richard Schwartz, this evidence-based parts therapy categorizes the psyche into Managers, Firefighters, and wounded Exiles. The goal is to unblend these parts and restore the core Self to systemic leadership.
Voice Dialogue (Psychology of Selves) Depth
Created by Hal and Sidra Stone, it involves the therapist interviewing different sub-personalities directly. This helps the client develop an Aware Ego capable of holding the tension between opposites.
Shadow Work Depth
A core Jungian clinical technique that involves identifying and integrating the repressed, socially unacceptable aspects of the personality. Reclaiming this dark material prevents it from being unconsciously projected onto others.
Dream Analysis Depth
Treating dreams not as random neural firing but as functional, compensatory messages from the unconscious. It decodes symbols to resolve waking-life emotional impasses and neuroses.
Active Imagination Depth
A sophisticated Jungian meditative technique where the patient actively converses with unconscious images, personified emotions, or archetypes. This allows the patient to consciously negotiate internal psychological conflicts.
Ego-State Therapy Depth
Similar to parts-based models, it frequently uses hypnosis to identify, isolate, and communicate with conflicting states of the ego. These states often hold specific trauma or perform specific survival functions.
Process-Oriented Psychology Depth
Developed by Arnold Mindell, it expands Jungian analysis into somatic and systemic realms. It tracks the process of symptoms as they manifest in body symptoms, relationship conflicts, and social tensions.
Sandplay Therapy Depth
A non-verbal, symbolic depth therapy where clients arrange miniature figures in a sandbox. It bypasses cognitive defenses, allowing the unconscious to visually map out and resolve pre-verbal trauma.
Psychosynthesis Depth
Developed by Roberto Assagioli, it integrates spiritual and psychological elements. It aims to synthesize various sub-personalities under the direction of a unifying, transpersonal Self.
Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy (DNMS) Depth
A parts-based, ego-state therapy specifically targeting attachment wounds. It establishes a Resource Team of internal adult parts to reparent and heal wounded child parts.
King, Warrior, Magician, Lover Depth
Derived from Robert Moore's theories, this approach structures initiation rites for the modern world. It helps patients integrate mature archetypal energy to heal their Shadow.
Inner Child Work Depth
A widely used integrative approach targeting the emotional memory of childhood. Therapy focuses on safely accessing, validating, and reparenting the vulnerable exile to heal developmental trauma.
Daseinsanalysis Depth
An existential-phenomenological approach deeply influenced by Martin Heidegger. It explores how the individual illuminates their distinct being-in-the-world and interacts with their immediate ontological reality.
Psychoanalytic Child Therapy Depth
Adapts psychoanalytic principles to the developmental stage of children, heavily using play to uncover unconscious conflicts. It focuses on the early formation of defense mechanisms.
Eastern Orthodox Psychotherapy Depth
A framework that views psychopathology as a spiritual disease of the soul, specifically the nous. It uses ascetic practices and theological interventions for profound spiritual healing.
Hagiotherapy Depth
A medically oriented spiritual therapy focusing on healing the spiritual soul. It aims to alleviate existential suffering by repairing the client's relationship with transcendent values.
Institutional Psychotherapy Depth
A psychiatric movement originating in France that views the psychiatric institution itself as a therapeutic tool. It aims to cure the institution of oppressive structures to better cure the patient.
Status Dynamic Psychotherapy Depth
Formulated by Peter Ossorio and based on Descriptive Psychology. It focuses on the patient's status, their place in the world, and how their behavior aligns with or violates that status.
Multiple Impact Therapy Depth
An intensive, brief crisis intervention model used primarily for families in acute distress. A multidisciplinary team works with the family over several consecutive days to force systemic restructuring.
Depth Psychology Depth
The overarching paradigm that encompasses psychoanalysis and Jungian psychology. It asserts that surface symptoms are merely manifestations of deep, unseen psychic architectures that must be unearthed.
Post-Rationalist Cognitive Therapy Depth
Integrates cognitive therapy with evolutionary epistemology and attachment theory. It focuses on how an individual's unique emotional organization actively constructs their personal reality.
Transpersonal Psychology Depth
The fourth force in psychology, extending beyond the individual ego to encompass spiritual, transcendent, and mystical experiences. It views transpersonal growth as a fundamental component of holistic mental health.
Symbolic Analysis Depth
A therapeutic technique used within depth psychology to decode the latent meaning behind a patient's behavioral quirks, artistic creations, and somatic symptoms.
Abreaction Therapy Depth
An early psychoanalytic technique focusing on the vivid recall of traumatic events to release pent-up emotional energy. The cathartic release is intended to purge the pathogenic memory from the psyche.
Identity-Oriented Psychotrauma Therapy (IoPT) Depth
Developed by Franz Ruppert, this method uses the intention method and constellation work to distinguish healthy, traumatized, and survival parts of the self. It works toward reintegrating split-off identity after early trauma.
Cognitive, Behavioral and Third-Wave 60 models
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Cognitive / Behavioral
The most widely researched psychotherapeutic model, focusing on the reciprocal relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It identifies and restructures cognitive distortions to alleviate clinical symptoms.
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Founded by Albert Ellis, this active-directive approach challenges irrational, self-defeating beliefs. It pushes patients to dispute rigid demands, the musts and shoulds, to achieve emotional resilience.
Behavior Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
Grounded purely in learning theory, targeting the modification of observable behavior. It uses techniques like systematic desensitization and operant conditioning without focusing on cognitive restructuring.
Clinical Behavior Analysis Cognitive / Behavioral
The application of radical behaviorism to clinical, outpatient settings. It views verbal behavior and private events, including thoughts, as behaviors subject to the same principles of reinforcement.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Developed by Marsha Linehan, it combines CBT with Zen mindfulness to treat severe emotional dysregulation. It balances the dialectic of radical acceptance with the push for behavioral change.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Focuses on psychological flexibility by encouraging patients to accept unavoidable negative emotions. It relies heavily on cognitive defusion while committing to values-based actions.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) Cognitive / Behavioral
A specialized trauma therapy that helps patients identify and change stuck points, the unhelpful beliefs about a trauma. It structurally challenges thoughts regarding safety, trust, and control.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) Cognitive / Behavioral
An evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents impacted by trauma. It combines trauma-sensitive interventions with cognitive behavioral, family, and humanistic principles.
Exposure Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral intervention using gradual, repeated exposure to feared stimuli or memories in a safe environment. It aims to extinguish the fear response and reduce avoidance behaviors.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Cognitive / Behavioral
The gold-standard behavioral treatment for OCD. Patients are exposed to obsession-triggering stimuli and are actively prevented from engaging in their compulsive neutralizing rituals.
Systematic Desensitization Cognitive / Behavioral
A classical conditioning technique where a patient is gradually exposed to progressively more anxiety-provoking stimuli while simultaneously engaging in competing relaxation techniques.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) Cognitive / Behavioral
A highly structured intervention targeting the cognitive and behavioral factors perpetuating sleep disruption. It uses stimulus control, sleep restriction, and strict sleep hygiene protocols.
Schema Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
Integrates CBT, psychodynamic, and experiential elements to treat chronic characterological issues. It identifies and heals deeply entrenched Early Maladaptive Schemas formed in childhood.
Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral therapy that uses the therapist-client relationship to shape interpersonal behavior in real time. It reinforces naturally occurring, adaptive behaviors during the session.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Combines traditional cognitive therapy with mindfulness practices to prevent depressive relapse. It teaches patients to observe negative thoughts objectively rather than engaging with them.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Blends cognitive psychology with psychoanalytic object relations theory. It focuses on identifying chain sequences of maladaptive behaviors and developing new, functional relational templates.
Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) Cognitive / Behavioral
Designed for chronic depression, focusing on the interpersonal consequences of behavior. It aims to correct the patient's perceived disconnect between their actions and environmental outcomes.
Behavior Modification Cognitive / Behavioral
An umbrella term for interventions relying on operant conditioning, rewards and punishments, to shape behavior. It is frequently applied in institutional, educational, and pediatric settings.
Habit Reversal Training Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral intervention used primarily for tic disorders and body-focused repetitive behaviors. It involves awareness training and the implementation of a competing, incompatible physical response.
Aversion Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
A conditioning technique where an undesirable behavior is paired with an unpleasant stimulus to reduce the behavior's frequency. It has largely fallen out of modern clinical favor due to ethical concerns.
Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Shifts the focus from the content of negative thoughts to the patient's beliefs about their own thinking. It targets the Cognitive Attentional Syndrome, worry and rumination, driving anxiety and depression.
Metacognitive Training Cognitive / Behavioral
Similar to MCT but largely applied to psychosis and schizophrenia. It helps patients become aware of and correct cognitive biases, like jumping to conclusions, that fuel delusions.
Mode Deactivation Therapy (MDT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Developed for adolescents with complex trauma and behavioral issues. It addresses the modes, or belief systems, that trigger aggressive or oppositional behaviors, functioning as an alternative to standard CBT.
Rational Living Therapy (RLT) Cognitive / Behavioral
A variant of cognitive-behavioral therapy that incorporates elements of brain-based learning. It is highly didactic and focuses on long-term rational skill acquisition.
Progressive Counting Cognitive / Behavioral
A trauma-processing technique derived from EMDR and exposure therapy. The patient briefly visualizes a traumatic memory while the therapist counts, progressively increasing the duration of exposure.
Contingency Management Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavior analytic approach heavily used in addiction treatment. It involves the systematic delivery of tangible rewards for verifiable clinical milestones, such as negative drug tests.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Cognitive / Behavioral
The systematic application of behavioral principles to improve socially significant behaviors. It is the most common, though highly debated, intervention used for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Stimulus Control Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral intervention focused on removing cues that trigger maladaptive behaviors. At the same time it establishes new environmental cues that promote desired behaviors, used in sleep and addiction therapies.
Token Economy Cognitive / Behavioral
A highly structured operant conditioning system where patients earn secondary reinforcers, tokens, for positive behaviors. These tokens can then be exchanged for primary rewards or privileges.
Chaining Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral technique used to teach complex actions by breaking them into smaller, sequential steps. The patient learns the sequence forward or backward until mastery is achieved.
Shaping Cognitive / Behavioral
A conditioning paradigm where the therapist heavily reinforces successive approximations of the target behavior. It is used to teach behaviors the patient currently cannot perform at all.
Counterconditioning Cognitive / Behavioral
A classical conditioning technique aiming to replace a maladaptive response to a stimulus with a new, adaptive response. This is often achieved through reciprocal inhibition.
Cognitive Restructuring Cognitive / Behavioral
The core clinical technique of CBT involving the collaborative identification of cognitive distortions. The therapist and client then systematically dispute and modify these irrational beliefs.
Affect Labeling Cognitive / Behavioral
A regulatory technique involving the verbal identification and labeling of emotional states. Functional neuroimaging shows this process effectively down-regulates hyperactive amygdala activation.
Decoupling Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral technique explicitly designed for body-focused repetitive behaviors. It redirects the physical movement of the compulsion into a harmless, alternative motor pathway.
Association Splitting Cognitive / Behavioral
A cognitive technique designed for OCD that systematically weakens the automatic associations between a trigger and an obsessive fear. It does this by creating competing, neutral associative networks.
Counting Method Cognitive / Behavioral
A brief exposure therapy where the therapist counts aloud while the client visualizes a traumatic event. This process rigidly paces the nervous system's exposure to the distressing memory.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Cognitive / Behavioral
A secular, highly structured eight-week program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It systematically trains patients in mindfulness meditation and body scanning to manage chronic pain and stress.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) Cognitive / Behavioral
A collaborative, client-centered conversational style designed to strengthen personal motivation for change. It works by eliciting and exploring the person's own reasons for behavioral modification.
Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) Cognitive / Behavioral
An adaptation of Motivational Interviewing heavily used in substance abuse treatment. It is designed to rapidly resolve clinical ambivalence regarding engaging in long-term recovery.
Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change) Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral model tracking a patient's readiness to act on a new healthy behavior. It divides the therapeutic process into precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.
Reality Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
Developed by William Glasser, this approach focuses on the present and emphasizes personal responsibility. It helps clients evaluate whether their current actions are effectively meeting their basic psychological needs.
Method of Levels (MOL) Cognitive / Behavioral
A transdiagnostic cognitive therapy based on Perceptual Control Theory. The therapist acts as a facilitator, constantly bringing the client's attention to the background thoughts controlling their distress.
Personal Construct Psychology Cognitive / Behavioral
Developed by George Kelly, this theory posits that people act as scientists, constructing hypotheses about the world. Therapy helps clients test and selectively revise these internal constructs.
Cognitive Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
Developed by Aaron Beck, this is the precursor and foundational component of modern CBT. It isolates and challenges the cognitive triad of negative thoughts regarding the self, the world, and the future.
Trauma Systems Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
A comprehensive, phased model treating traumatized children and adolescents. It addresses both the child's emotional dysregulation and the specific structural failures in their social environment.
Behavioral Activation Cognitive / Behavioral
A standalone behavioral intervention highly effective for clinical depression. It involves scheduling activities that naturally generate positive reinforcement, breaking the cycle of depressive withdrawal.
Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) Cognitive / Behavioral
A specialized, evidence-based trauma intervention for survivors of complex, multiple traumas, often used with refugees. The client constructs a chronological narrative of their life, contextualizing traumatic experiences.
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) Cognitive / Behavioral
A modern adaptation of exposure therapy using immersive virtual environments. It allows therapists to simulate highly controlled exposures to phobias, such as a fear of flying or combat trauma.
Problem-Solving Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
A brief cognitive-behavioral intervention that teaches individuals to systematically identify life problems and generate viable solutions. It reduces the paralysis and overwhelm associated with depressive episodes.
Stress Inoculation Training Cognitive / Behavioral
A cognitive-behavioral approach that prepares individuals for future stressors. It teaches coping skills and exposes patients to mild, manageable stress to build psychological immunity.
Relaxation Training Cognitive / Behavioral
A foundational behavioral technique involving progressive muscle relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing. It directly counteracts the physiological hyperarousal associated with anxiety disorders.
Autogenic Training Cognitive / Behavioral
A relaxation technique relying on self-directed visualization and verbal commands. It overrides the stress response and induces a deep parasympathetic state.
Assertiveness Training Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral protocol designed to help individuals stand up for their rights and express their feelings directly. It aims to reduce interpersonal anxiety and eliminate passive-aggressive communication patterns.
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) Cognitive / Behavioral
Developed for individuals suffering from high levels of shame and self-criticism. It teaches clients to cultivate self-compassion to actively soothe their threat-based neurobiological systems.
Clinical Hypnotherapy Cognitive / Behavioral
Uses deep relaxation and focused attention to bypass the critical conscious mind. This allows for the direct suggestion of cognitive changes and the exploration of implicit memory.
Acceptance Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
A predecessor to ACT that emphasizes the clinical utility of acknowledging reality without attempting to alter it. It reduces the secondary suffering caused by actively fighting against negative emotions.
Coherence Therapy Cognitive / Behavioral
Developed by Bruce Ecker and Laurel Hulley, this experiential model surfaces the hidden emotional truth that makes a symptom necessary. It then uses memory reconsolidation to dissolve that emotional learning at its root.
Self-System Therapy (SST) Cognitive / Behavioral
A structured, research-based approach treating depression through the lens of self-regulation. It targets how a person pursues goals and responds to success and failure, repairing a stalled promotion and prevention system.
Humanistic, Existential and Experiential 53 models
Existential Therapy Humanistic
Focuses on the given realities of the human condition, helping clients confront anxieties regarding death, meaninglessness, isolation, and freedom. The ultimate goal is to facilitate authentic living.
Person-Centered Therapy Humanistic
Founded by Carl Rogers, this non-directive model assumes the client has an innate actualizing tendency. Healing occurs through the therapist providing unconditional positive regard, empathy, and congruence.
Gestalt Therapy Humanistic
Developed by Fritz Perls, this experiential therapy emphasizes holistic, present-moment awareness. It uses active techniques like the empty chair to integrate fragmented parts of the self and unresolved emotional business.
Logotherapy Humanistic
Created by Viktor Frankl, this approach posits that humanity's primary motivational force is the search for meaning. Therapy focuses on finding profound meaning and purpose, even in the midst of extreme suffering.
Humanistic Psychology Humanistic
An overarching clinical framework that prioritizes self-actualization, human potential, and the inherent goodness of individuals. It contrasts sharply with the deficit-based models of clinical pathology.
Psychodrama Humanistic
Founded by J.L. Moreno, this action-based method involves clients role-p
Social Skills Training Cognitive / Behavioral
A behavioral intervention focused on teaching interpersonal communication and social interaction skills. It heavily uses modeling, role-playing, and positive reinforcement to improve social functioning.