Individual therapy — also known as counseling or psychotherapy — allows our patients to work through their challenges on a one-on-one basis. During these sessions, we confront the barriers that are interfering with your emotional and mental health.
There are many types of individualized therapy that focus on the way you think and behave, your unconscious thought process, or the impact of your responsibilities on you. Although all can be effective, you may gravitate to one approach more than another.
At the Military Family Wellness Center, we offer a variety of individually tailored treatment approaches that have been shown to help improve many common mental health conditions including depression, PTSD, and anxiety.
During the assessment process, we will explain all of the available options and work with you to develop an individualized treatment plan that meets your needs. Most of our individual therapy treatments are also available through our telehealth system.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the relationship between thoughts, behaviors, and mood. It is useful for a broad range of mental health problems including depression, PTSD, and eating disorders.
During treatment, your therapist will work with you to recognize and understand the thoughts and beliefs contributing to your troubled mood and develop tools for challenging these ideas using structured, approachable cognitive exercises and behavioral strategies.
Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT): Founded on the principle that life events and a person’s overall mental health are related, IPT practitioners attempt to improve mood difficulties by helping patients engage in interpersonal relationships healthily and adaptively.
Originally developed for the treatment of depression, IPT has since been demonstrated to be useful for a wide variety of mental health problems, such as PTSD, without the need for discussing or revisiting traumatic memories. In treatment, your therapist will work with you to choose an area of focus, which could be grief and loss, significant life changes, interpersonal skills, or struggles with a significant other.
Prolonged Exposure (PE): Although several types of interventions exist for the treatment of PTSD, PE is recognized as the gold standard. Our PE therapists can help you combat common symptoms of PTSD by supporting you as you actively recall your trauma in a structured manner.
You will confront situations that typically make you feel anxious throughout your life, and you will gradually be able to engage these environments with less fear. You will spend time in treatment processing your trauma, and use insights gained during these sessions to understand how your experiences may have affected your beliefs regarding yourself, the world and others. As a result, you will make positive changes in the way you view yourself and how you relate to other people.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): Traumatic events can change the way you think about yourself and the world. CPT is a treatment for PTSD that can help you break the negative thinking cycle that’s holding you back. This proven, evidence-based approach is grounded in the idea that our thoughts affect the way we feel and how we act. Together with our specialized clinicians, you will safely work through these difficulties to establish control, safety, and trust in yourself and others, which in turn often leads to feeling better.
Virtual Reality-Enhanced Exposure Therapy: The interface of technology and medicine is creating exciting possibilities for psychiatry and the behavioral sciences. A particularly interesting advancement is the marriage of virtual reality (VR) technology to established psychotherapeutic principles and techniques for the treatment of anxiety disorders. VR places you in a controlled computer-generated environment where you can safely learn how to control automatic responses to anxiety-provoking situations better. VR-enhanced exposure therapy can be an effective treatment method for anxiety and stress disorders caused by specific events and situations. Our psychologists are recognized for their unparalleled experience in VR-enhanced exposure therapy in treating phobias and traumatic stress disorders. In addition to treating trauma and anxiety using VR-enhanced exposure therapy, we also offer mindfulness-based VR training.
Pharmacotherapy: Depending on your specific needs, you may meet with a psychiatrist who may prescribe a course of medication treatment. Your progress will be carefully monitored, and treatment will be adjusted as needed. Pharmacotherapy may be offered alone or in addition to psychotherapy.