Demystifying My Approach to Therapy

In 2024, therapists use all types of big words, phrases, and acronyms to describe what they do. You may have seen our profiles on Psychology Today or Good Therapy say how we practice Gestalt Therapy, CBT, or Dialectical Behavior Therapy. You may have also seen us proudly proclaim how we take a “humanistic, person-centered” approach to our work, one which is “holistic” and cares for the “whole individual.”

While this sounds great, to the common person looking for a therapist, especially someone without a strong background in mental health jargon that has never heard of Gestalt Therapy, a Psychodynamic approach or ACT, it offers little explanation about what sitting across from us may be like and how our approach might benefit the client. I’ve certainly been guilty of this, and may still be depending on what you think of my online profiles!

For potential clients who have never heard of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Adlerian Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, etc., listing our different approaches without any further context as to why or how we use them probably doesn’t have a lot of value to the reader. It reminds me of the international trips I’ve taken, trying to decide what to eat off a menu written in a foreign language. I might not have admitted it in the moment, but the reality was I had no idea what I was looking at!

Obviously, your mental health is more important than what’s on the lunch menu during your foreign vacation. So, while you may be comfortable consuming whatever mystery dish the polite foreign waiter brings back to your table, choosing a therapist should ideally involve a more thorough decision-making process. If our clients don’t know what something is, how it’s used, or how it may help, how can they be sure it’s right for them, especially during a potentially vulnerable period in their lives? More importantly, as therapists, we cannot assume the people who look up our profiles online will automatically be familiar with the different approaches we use and how we use them.

I once ordered Roasted Cow Udder in Bangkok. Not what I was expecting, but I couldn’t read the menu!

Obviously, your mental health is more important than what’s on the lunch menu for your foreign vacation. So, while you may be comfortable consuming whatever mystery dish the polite foreign waiter brings back to your table, choosing a therapist should ideally involve a more thorough decision-making process. In general, if our clients don’t know what something is, how it’s used, or how it may help, how can they be sure it’s right for them, especially during a potentially vulnerable period in their lives?

While there’s no foolproof methodology for finding the perfect therapist match, providers and private practices could likely do a better job of explaining their specific approaches, including how and why they use them, so their client’s are more informed and comfortable about their choices when seeking help.  

To my potential clients, this blog is my attempt to demystify my approach to therapy. By reading this, you’ll learn more about the different styles of therapy I use, why I use them, and how my approach can be tailored to fit your specific needs!

It’s up to us to bridge the information gap for our clients…

COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy argues dysfunctional thinking is common to all psychological disturbances and mental health issues. CBT emphasizes teaching clients structured approaches to processing information, helping them break unhelpful patterns negatively affecting their lives. CBT also focuses on relapse prevention by equipping clients with behavioral analysis techniques helpful for learning to “be their own therapist” while navigating life outside of therapy in the real world.

What I Like About CBT: Its great for learning effective ways to “get outside your own head” and become a “student of yourself.” CBT teaches a number of different self-monitoring techniques helping people understand themselves better from a “cause and effect” perspective. I’ve always felt CBT helps my clients become more objective in their evaluation of themselves, which can be an empowering experience when life situations have become unnecessarily confusing or challenging. There’s always been a part of me that is a rational, structured thinker, and this approach works well for those types of minds.  

Best Fit: Anxiety; depression; improving self-awareness; identifying, evaluating, and changing unhelpful thought and behavioral patterns; rational and structured thinkers.

Learning how all your pieces connect can be life changing…

DIALECTICAL BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (DBT)

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), a derivative of CBT, is known for its various strategies emphasizing mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. It is one of the most adaptable therapeutic orientations due to its effectiveness helping clients learn, retain, and apply new skills in real time. It also emphasizes important elements of the therapy process, promoting close collaboration between the therapist and client, encouraging clinicians to teach and practice skill-building in sessions with their clients while discouraging them from continuing to reinforce ineffective behavioral patterns in life.

What I Like About DBT: This approach is great for learning practical strategies for managing intense emotions and developing a toolkit for stress management. DBT operates on the basic assumptions that people are doing the best they can with what they have, and although they may want to improve, they need skills to do so. I agree with the assertion we are all doing the best we can with what we have and that learning new skills that are easy to remember and apply is often the key to creating and maintaining growth.  

Best Fit: Anxiety; depression; complex trauma; managing intense emotions; improving relationships and communication; Hands-on learners who retain information better through active processes such as learning new acronyms, participating in activities, and tracking ongoing progress.

ACCEPTANCE & COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT)

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy is an approach rooted in mindfulness and present-moment awareness, encouraging people to embrace difficult emotions and the parts of life that cannot while committing to values-based actions when addressing life’s challenges.

 What I Like About ACT: These approaches align well with my personal approach to life and background in sport psychology, where I often tell my performance clients to “control the controllables, learn to manage the rest.” This philosophy, of course, is directly transferrable to everyday life. Learning you are capable of sitting in your discomfort, without judgment or becoming unnecessarily reactive, before committing to taking well-thought out, values-based actions in alignment with your goals is one of the most important life skills I believe anyone can develop.

Best Fit: Anxiety, stress management, grief, sport and workplace performance, life transitions, developing empathy and compassion for self and others.

From difficulty comes strength…

PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY

Psychodynamic Therapy emphasizes the connection between early life experiences, particularly those from childhood and adolescence, and their lasting, sometimes hidden effect on your current self-image, relationship patterns, and emotional well-being. One of the underlying premises of this approach is the idea of earlier life experiences programming the subconscious, or unconscious mind to automatically respond to certain life situations in patterns beyond our awareness. This apporach helps uncover these patterns, freeing the person to consciously design their new reality.

 What I Like About Psychodynamic Therapy: Some therapists prefer to treat symptoms without exploring causes, an approach which can be effective, but I’ve always preferred exploring the foundational causes of how some things come to be. Its likely a matter of preference, as both approaches work. Exploring root causes of issues can be particularly effective when attempting to break old cycles and feel confident in your ability to create, and sustain, new beginnings.

Best Fit: Identifying the root causes of deeper issues, breaking old patterns, developing greater self-awareness

Sometimes the way out is identifying the way you got in in the first place…

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Positive Psychology is a newer field of psychology formed over the past 25 years which focuses on teaches the science of hope, resilience, post-traumatic growth, grit, self-discipline, values, optimism, and other positive concepts. Positive psychologists believe positive emotion is something we actively create, as opposed to passively experience. It’s a great transition away from the typical “deficit model” of most other therapeutic orientations. With positive psychology, therapists focus less on what is not working and more on teaching practical strategies for creating and maintaining the happiness and positive feelings you seek in life.

What I like about Positive Psychology: As I’ve become a more seasoned clinician I realized, particularly for my longer term, higher functioning, high performance clients, that primarily focusing on what’s wrong or needs fixing (deficit model) limited the scope of my ability to serve them after the initial reasons they came to therapy had been successfully addressed. For many, learning strategies and concepts promoting resilience, grit, self-discipline, and optimism can be effective approaches to navigating mental and emotional roadblocks in life. Growth isn’t just something that happens as a result of fixing something that’s wrong, it can also be attained from focusing on what you already do well and learning new ways to expand that reality (strengths model).

Best Fit: Learning practical approaches to resilience, hope, optimism, and sustaining therapeutic, personal and professional growth

Happiness is a byproduct of consistent intentionality…

SPORT & PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY

Sport and Performance Psychology focuses on teaching clients practical skills for improving their mental and emotional approaches to their performance areas, whatever they may be. To be more specific, as a sport psychology consultant, also referred to as a mental performance coach or mental skills coach, I teach clients strategies for improving motivation, controlling arousal and stress levels, leadership, goal-setting, imagery and visualization, focus and concentration, and other mental and emotional management strategies that help them perform their jobs at a higher, more sustainable level. This field of practice is commonly utilized by professional and college athletes, corporate professionals, entertainers such as actors and musicians, and people in high performing, results-oriented jobs such as law, medicine, education, military and law enforcement.

As both a trained clinical therapist and elite mental performance coach, I also focus on the intersection of mental health and its complex impact on performance. by helping people understand the different ways who they are as a person impacts who they are as a performer.

What I Like About Sport Psychology: Similar to DBT, sport psychology approaches are hands-on, often activity based, and involves learning new ways of managing and coaching yourself to success, particularly in areas you may have been struggling or seeking improvement. Sport psychology is also similar to Positive Psychology in that it often emphasizes a strengths-based model, helping clients identify and lean into what they are good at while creating practical plans for addressing areas of improvement. It’s also results-oriented. Focus on what works, not what doesn’t.

Best Fit: Improving sport and work performance, learning mental skills for effective thought and emotion management in everyday life, leadership training, confidence development

Now you have an idea of how all the pieces fit together…

To my prospective clients who are still reading, I sincerely hope this blog helped you get to know my style better as you determine whether our practice is a fit for your needs. Everything we do is multilayered and tailored to the specific needs of our clients.

On behalf of MadeMind Wellness & Performance, I promise that we’ll meet you where you’re at, develop a plan that best fits your needs, and collaboratively work together to help you achieve your goals. Thank you for choosing MadeMind!

To schedule your first appointment today, just click the link below, or Contact Us if you have any questions!