Learn about the different approaches on offer and which might suit you. Each one works differently, and knowing the basics helps you make an informed choice.
Most pages here describe a talking therapy. Coaching and hypnotherapy are different kinds of help, and their pages say so. If you are not sure where to start, our guide to the main approaches compares them side by side.
Changing thoughts and habits
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) Make room for hard thoughts and feelings, and act on what matters to you.
- Behavioural therapy and behavioural activation Change what you do, one planned step at a time, and let your mood follow.
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) Notice how thoughts, feelings and actions feed each other, then change the loop.
- Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) Quieten a harsh inner critic and build a kinder, steadier voice.
- Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) Skills for emotions that feel too big, balancing acceptance with change.
- Exposure and response prevention (ERP) Facing an obsessive fear step by step, without the compulsion. A form of CBT for obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) An eight-week course to spot low mood returning before it takes hold.
Understanding the past and its patterns
- Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) Mapping the patterns you keep repeating, in a set number of sessions.
- Internal family systems (IFS) Getting to know the different parts of you, including the ones that protect you.
- Jungian therapy Finding meaning in dreams, images and symbols, in the tradition of Carl Jung.
- Psychoanalytic therapy and psychoanalysis Deep, open-ended work with the unconscious, from weekly sessions to psychoanalysis.
- Psychodynamic therapy How early relationships and hidden feelings shape the way you live now.
- Relational therapy Working through old patterns in the relationship with your therapist.
- Schema therapy Changing deep patterns that formed early in life, and meeting the needs behind them.
- Transactional analysis (TA) Seeing the Parent, Adult and Child in how you talk and relate to people.
Growth, meaning and the whole person
- Existential therapy Facing meaning, freedom and mortality with a therapist beside you.
- Gestalt therapy Noticing what you feel, think and do, here and now.
- Humanistic therapy Growth, choice and meaning, with you seen as a whole person.
- Narrative therapy Separating you from the problem, so a new story can grow.
- Person-centred therapy You lead, and your therapist listens without judging or directing.
- Transpersonal therapy Therapy that makes room for spiritual experience and questions of meaning.
Trauma and the body
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) Processing traumatic memories with guided eye movements or taps.
- Somatic therapy Noticing what your body does under stress, and working with it as you talk.
- Trauma-focused CBT Revisiting a traumatic memory with support so its meaning can change.
Couples, families and relationships
- Behavioural couples therapy Practical changes as a couple, and the approach NICE names for depression.
- Couples counselling Talking things through together, with someone who takes neither side.
- Emotionally focused therapy (EFT) For couples and families caught in the same painful pattern.
- Family and systemic therapy Looking at the patterns between people, with whoever matters in the room.
- Imago relationship therapy Taking turns to speak and listen, with a guided dialogue.
- Interpersonal therapy (IPT) A set course that links how you feel to your relationships and life changes.
- Psychosexual therapy Talking therapy for sex and intimacy, with a GP check first where needed.
- The Gottman method Friendship, conflict and shared meaning, mapped by assessment.
Creative and outdoor therapies
- Art therapy Making images alongside talking, with a therapist who looks at them with you.
- Dance movement psychotherapy Using movement as well as talk, with a therapist who watches how you move.
- Dramatherapy Working through role, story and movement rather than talking straight at it.
- Ecotherapy and nature-based therapy Therapy that happens outdoors, on a walk, in a garden or alongside animals.
- Music therapy Playing and listening with a therapist, where talking is not the main route.
General, brief and other kinds of help
- Coaching Forward-focused help towards a goal you choose. Not a therapy.
- Counselling A trained counsellor and a steady space to talk through what is troubling you.
- Hypnotherapy Relaxation and focus to change a habit, alongside your usual care.
- Integrative therapy One therapist drawing on several approaches, shaped around you.
- Motivational interviewing (MI) A way of talking through being in two minds, without being pushed either way.
- Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) A short, forward-looking therapy that builds on what already works for you.
