Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a mindfulness-based therapy approach which focuses on letting go of attachment to thoughts, embracing the present moment, and engaging in action towards value-based goals.
It operates on the basis that there will be inevitable and unavoidable pain throughout life and there are ways we can still embrace these pitfalls. The ultimate goal of practicing the basic principles of ACT is to build a rich, vibrant, and meaningful life while accepting the inevitable pain that comes with it. It highlights the choice of embracing one’s authentic thoughts and feelings rather than struggling against them.
In ACT, your values are identified to determine how you want to behave on an ongoing basis, how you want to treat yourself, others, and the world around you. To bring you closer to a more meaningful life, committed action is undertaken to engage in behaviours which are guided by your values and lead to desirable outcomes.
ACT is a good adjunct to CBT therapy for clients experiencing depression, anxiety and a range of other psychological difficulties.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is one of the most established and researched psychological treatments, and is considered a gold standard treatment for a wide range of difficulties such as depression and anxiety.
CBT focuses on the relationship between thoughts, emotions and behaviours. Treatment aims to target an individual’s unhelpful thoughts, physical symptoms and behaviours which contribute to the maintenance of one’s difficulties.
CBT is an active treatment, in which sessions are problem-focused and goal-directed to address the difficult symptoms that an individual is experiencing. Because of this, one can also expect to engage in tasks or practice outside of sessions. Whilst CBT adopts a focused approach, treatment is collaborative and individualised to develop an individual’s understanding and insight, as well as learn and implement healthy coping strategies.
CBT is typically delivered within 10-12 treatment sessions and is considerably effective for clients presenting with acute psychological difficulties.
Couples therapy supports couples to address difficulties and improve their relationship. Every relationship has its ups and downs. However, recurring or unmanaged challenges can be damaging to the individual and to the relationship, leading to feelings of resentment, frustration, or feeling stuck.
Difficulties can arise in relationships when there is an inability to manage or cope with problems experienced in the relationship. This may be due to excessive arguing, difficulties in communicating, feeling distant, or a breach in trust.
Relationship difficulties look different for each relationship, however, can include fighting/conflict, communication issues, sexual difficulties, financial disagreements, emotional distance or lack of connection, affairs (both physical and emotional), parenting disagreements, problems with parents-in-law, alcohol/gambling/drug related problems, and trust/jealousy issues.
DBT is a skill-based behavioural therapeutic approach that has demonstrated strong research support for the effective treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), which often involves self-injurious behaviors, dichotomous thinking, and labile moods.
While it was originally developed to treat Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), DBT has since been used to treat acute and high-risk individuals with self-harming or suicidal tendencies, binge-eating, alcohol/substance abuse, chronic anxiety, and gambling. DBT is often recommended for clients presenting with acute difficulties with regulating his/her emotions and high levels of distress. DBT interventions and skills are encapsulated within four modules: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Through comprehensive DBT, your therapist will work with you collaboratively to guide you in moving away from unhelpful or harmful coping behaviours and towards a more meaningful life. The main goals of DBT include teaching mindfulness, to develop healthy ways to cope with distress, emotion regulation, and improving relationships.
In essence, DBT helps to express and manage intense negative emotions in more positive ways. It can be tailored to meet your unique needs and has been shown to be highly effective in improving quality of life.
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. EMDR was was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories, and can also assist with trauma, psychological conditions and different types of psychological distress.
EMDR Therapy is based on the idea that negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours are the result of unprocessed memories of stressful or traumatic experiences. EMDR focuses on resolving unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts or behaviours allowing the brain to resume to its natural healing process. The structured treatment focuses on
An upsetting issue or traumatic memory and its associated thoughts, feelings and sensations, and;
Bilateral stimulation that is most commonly in the form of repeated eye movements.
EMDR is effective for those who struggle to talk about their past experiences and can be tailored to process past events and resolve related psychological conditions.
Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) through facilitative mediation is a way of helping people in dispute to sort out what is keeping them from resolving their differences. It is a compulsory step that separated parties must attempt under Australian Family Law before applying to the Family Law Court.
The main objective and aim of FSDR is to assist people to reach an agreed arrangement. However, FDR is also a great opportunity for people to examine the cause of their conflict, to understand from the other persons perspective, and to share their own feelings and perspectives.
Common forms of mediation include children and parenting plans, living or other arrangements for children across two households, to talk about how to manage a parenting plan, or to reach agreement on a financial settlement.
Family therapy can help you improve troubled relationships with your partner, children or other family members. You may address specific issues such as marital or financial problems, conflict between parents and children, or the impact of substance abuse or a mental health difficulties on the entire family.
Family therapy can be useful in any family situation that causes stress, grief, anger or conflict. Family therapy typically brings several family members together for therapy sessions to help understand one another better and learn coping skills to bring you closer together. Family therapy can foster your family’s ability to solve problems and express thoughts and emotions in a productive manner, explore family roles, rules and behaviour patterns to identify issues that contribute to conflict — and ways to work through these issues, and identify your family’s strengths and weaknesses.
Many parents wonder if they are doing the right thing, or whether they are being too easy or too hard on their children. Learning new strategies to cope with difficult or challenging behaviour can increase your confidence in your parenting skills, and reduce your stress. Parent coaching can provide parents with simple and practical strategies to help them build strong, healthy relationships, confidently manage their children’s behaviour and prevent problems from developing.
Parents seek help for many reasons such as having different parenting styles, or disagreeing about which values are important. Parents can experience difficulties in managing children’s difficult behaviours or emotions as children can have a range of emotional, cognitive or behavioural issues which can have an impact on the family.
Parent coaching and emotion training can help:
- Boost your child’s emotional wellbeing
- Maintain a good relationship
- Make family life less stressful
- Equip parents with the skills and confidence to manage family difficulties
- Becoming aware of your child’s emotions
- Teach parents to listen with empathy and validate your child’s feelings
- Teach parents to respect and understand their children when feeling misunderstood, upset or frustrated
Emotion coaching can help your children understand the different emotions they experience, why they occur, and how to handle them. Parents can learn to coach their children about emotions by comforting them, listening and understanding their thoughts and feelings, and helping them understand themselves. Your child’s ability to understand and regulate their emotions will help them in a myriad of ways and they will feel loved, supported, respected and valued.
Schema Therapy looks at core themes or ‘schemas’ within a person’s life to help them break negative, rigid and unhelpful patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. Schemas are important beliefs and feelings about oneself and the environment that are developed in childhood when needs were not met which can develop into unhealthy life patterns as an adult.
A schema defines how we see ourselves and our relationships with others, how we interpret memories, emotions, thoughts and beliefs in everyday situations and how we cope, respond and make decisions about everyday situations. A person’s schemas and unhelpful patterns develop over the course of their lifetime and can be hard to change.
Schema therapy is specifically designed to help people to change some of the long-standing patterns of thinking and acting. Schema Therapy uses a combination of cognitive, experiential and behavioural strategies, with a focus on the therapeutic relationship to foster positive change.
Schema Therapy often has a longer-term treatment focus, particularly with more severe difficulties originating from childhood. Schema therapy is beneficial for individuals experiencing difficulty regulating their emotions, and behaviour, or those with long-standing problems with relationships. Schema therapy can also be beneficial for individuals who have not benefited from other therapies.