Therapy Glossary

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

An approach highlighting acceptance, rather than avoidance, of negative emotions. Places value on commitment to healthy, positive choices that endorse value systems. Co-developed by Dr Steven C. Hayes.

Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT)

Animal-assisted therapy involves interacting with animals as well as a therapist to help you explore your feelings and experiences in a different way. Including animals can help clients open up and feel more at ease.

Art Therapy

Art therapy uses art as the primary mode of expression, alongside talking with an art therapist. It aims to reduce distress and improve social, emotional and mental health by promoting insight, self-compassion and a sense of agency and self-worth.

Attachment-Based Therapy

Attachment-based therapy is a brief, process-oriented form of therapy. The client-therapist relationship is based on developing or rebuilding trust and centres on expressing emotions. An attachment-based approach to therapy looks at the connection between an infant’s early attachment experiences with primary caregivers, usually with parents, and the infant’s ability to develop normally and ultimately form healthy emotional and physical relationships as an adult. Attachment-based therapy aims to build or rebuild a trusting, supportive relationship that will help prevent or treat mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Behaviour Therapy

Using the principles of social learning theory, desirable behaviour is reinforced through structured reward programmes and undesirable behaviour is reduced through either the absence of a desired response or the presence of an undesired consequence. Often used for behavioural difficulties. Linked with Skinner, Watson and Pavlov.

Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)

Time-limited integrative therapy looking at how past learned beliefs and behaviour influence relationship patterns and individual thoughts. Founded by Anthony Ryle.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) & Trauma-Focused CBT

Thoughts, emotions and actions are linked and negative thoughts/emotions can get stuck. Challenging thought patterns can transform emotions and behaviour. Helpful for anxiety and depression. Founded by Aaron T. Beck.

Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT)

Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) is a set of techniques designed to teach ‘thinking skills’ and can be thought of as a form of cognitive rehabilitation. It involves training in a set of tasks designed to improve cognitive abilities and social functioning (after Wykes and van der Gaag, 2001).

Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)

Using a mindful approach, practising self-compassion, negative feelings such as shame and self-criticism can be transformed to self-acceptance. Founded by Professor Paul Gilbert.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

Evidence-based therapy that works with “dialectics,” i.e. contradictions such as love/hate within a person’s interpersonal functioning. Integrates core skills such as emotional regulation and distress tolerance. Founded by Marsha M.Linehan.

Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP)

Attachment and family-focussed therapy using affective-reflective dialogue to explore past and present relationships. Using the tenets of Playful, Accepting, Curious and Empathic (PACE), children and/or their families begin healing from developmental trauma. Founded by Daniel A. Hughes.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Complex and single event trauma can be trapped in the brain and body. By focussing on the memory & using bilateral stimulation, thoughts, feelings and body sensations become more adaptive and less distressing. Founded by Francine Shapiro.

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP)

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy is a contextual, behavioural, relational approach to psychotherapy in which therapists focus on what happens in session between the client and therapist to shape the interpersonal behaviours, emotional awareness, and self-expression necessary for clients to create and maintain close relationships and to live meaningful lives (Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1991; Tsai et al., 2009; Tsai, Callaghan & Kohlenberg, 2013).

Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt therapy is a type of humanistic and person-centred therapy that focuses on the immediate here and now and how that can be explored to help you. It looks at how your past affects and influences how you’re feeling in this moment rather than how you felt back then.

Integrative Therapy

Integrative therapy is an individualised, holistic approach to therapy that combines ideas and techniques from different therapeutic schools of thought depending on the unique needs of a given client.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

IPT is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on relieving symptoms by improving interpersonal functioning. It addresses current problems and relationships rather than childhood or developmental issues.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness therapy focuses on learning how to become more aware of internal thoughts, feelings, and emotions, as well as external surroundings and situations, whilst seeking to suppress automatic responses such as judgment or stress.

Mentalisation-Based Therapy (MBT)

Mentalisation-based therapy (MBT) is a type of long-term psychotherapy. Mentalisation is the ability to think about thinking. It helps to make sense of our thoughts, beliefs, wishes and feelings and to link these to our actions and behaviours.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing is a therapeutic approach designed to help people find the motivation to make a positive behaviour change. This client-centred approach is particularly effective for people who have mixed feelings about changing their behaviour.

Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)

Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) is an evidence-based, short-term treatment for traumatised survivors of organised, sexual or domestic violence as well as war or natural disasters.

Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy seeks to be a respectful, non-blaming therapeutic approach, centring on people as the experts in their own lives. It views problems as separate from people and assumes people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives.

Neuro-Behavioural Intervention

Neuro-behavioural intervention or rehabilitation uses evidence-based psychological treatment, involving behavioural interventions, which seek to modulate neural function to improve health markers and outcomes in psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and functional movement disorder (FMD), for example.

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)

PBS is a person-centred approach for supporting people with a learning disability. This approach is often associated with supporting Autistic children, but it can also be used with people with intellectual, learning, developmental and social challenges.

Person-Centred Therapy (PCT)

Person-centred therapy (or client-centred therapy) seeks to empower the client to take ownership of their mental wellbeing by providing a safe space for clients to become more self-aware and find their own solutions. It can be helpful for various types of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and more.

Play Therapy and Theraplay©

Play therapy uses play as a way of helping children understand and express their thoughts and feelings. Play therapy helps children to communicate at their own level using everyday play things. This can help them learn to cope with what they’re going through and to build relationships by developing positive self-esteem. Theraplay© practitioners utilise evidence-based techniques focusing on four essential aspects of healthy parent-child relationships: Structure (fostering security), Nurture (helping emotional dysregulation), Engagement (through validating life experiences), and Challenge (seeking to increase confidence).

Psychoanalytic Therapy

Based on Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis, this approach has developed over time to become an effective longer-term therapy strategy. Together with your clinician, you will explore how the unconscious mind, shaped by childhood experiences, influences thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Developing on from Psychoanalytic Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy uses self-reflection and self-analysis, often drawing on the unconscious self. It often focuses on deeply impactful psychological issues such as severe depression, anxiety and addiction.

Schema Therapy

Integrative approach to address maladaptive, behaviour thoughts and behaviour. Schemas such as abandonment, failure and emotional deprivation can paralyse self-development. Recognising and processing the origins of schemas through the therapeutic relationship can foster adaptive, healthy adult coping strategies. Founded by Jeffrey E.Young.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP)

Developed by Dr Pat Ogden in the 1970s, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a therapeutic modality for trauma and attachment issues. SP is a holistic approach that includes somatic, emotional, and cognitive processing and integration. SP enables clients to discover and change habitual physical and psychological patterns that impede optimal functioning and wellbeing.

Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT)

Constructive therapy based on finding solutions rather than solving problems. With the premise that people are “meaning makers,” and in control of their own lives. Focus on current situations and future aspirations not past experiences. Founded by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg.

Strategic Family Therapy

Strategic family therapy focuses on the family’s central role in a child’s life. It aims to change harmful interaction patterns within the family. By tackling behaviours that cause issues, this therapy helps families function better, allowing children to overcome challenges.

Systemic Therapy

An approach which seeks to understand the individual within the context of relationships such as a couple, family or community. Facilitates awareness of self and others to understand negative dynamics within these relationships.

Video Interaction Guidance™ (VIG)

Video Interaction Guidance™ (VIG) is a powerful tool that helps strengthen relationships by enhancing communication through video feedback. Practitioners take a client-centred approach, recording interactions and highlighting attuned moments to foster positive change at the client’s pace. VIG supports relationships across all ages, including extended family and professionals, promoting secure attachment and optimal development.

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