Supportive therapy helps individuals to develop their own resources through guidance and encouragement. This approach helps to reduce anxiety, build self-esteem, improve social and community functioning, and strengthen coping mechanisms.



University of San Diego

Supportive interventions consist of crisis interventions and shoring up existing coping skills and strategies. These are a better fit during periods of acute stressors, frequent dissociation, and/or severe depression and anxiety.

Supportive Interventions and DDD

- Psychodynamic Therapy 
- Supportive Therapy 
- Humanistic Therapy
- Cognitive Therapy
- Behavior Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Integrative or Holistic Therapy
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)
- Creative Therapy
- Play Therapy

Types of Psychotherapy

Casarella, J. (2020, July 29). Types of Psychotherapy for Mental Illnesses. WebMD. Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-psychotherapy

Types of Psychotherapy 

Supportive Therapy




Dialectical Behavior therapy is a specific form of CBT that is used to help regulate emotions. This type of therapy is usually used to treat individuals with chronic suicidal thoughts, and also people with borderline personality disorders, eating disorders, and PTSD. This approach helps teach new skills to individuals to help them take personal responsibility to change unhealthy behavior. This approach involves both group and individual therapy.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy



Integrative Body Psychotherapy is a holistic approach to treatment, integrating multiple modalities. IBP aims to increase awareness of the ways the body and mind relate and address obstacles to well-being. IBP practitioners teach individuals how to recognize and understand steps they can take to move away from these obstacles. IBP is considered to be a helpful approach for somatization, relationship concerns, and the effects of past trauma.



Integrative Body Psychotherapy




A therapy approach that is utilized to treat chronic depression that incorporates several components of cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy. This therapy helps people realize the outcomes of their behavior and actions, how to interact healthily with others, change negative coping mechanisms, and better interpersonal skills.

Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP)

A type of psychotherapy that aims to help clients become more self-aware and embrace themselves. Humanistic therapy centers around the belief in individuals' ability to make rational choices and grow to their fullest potential, while also highlighting the significance of empathy and concern for others. Humanistic philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Buber, and Søren Kierkegaard have played a significant role in shaping this type of psychotherapy. 

Humanistic Therapy

Integrative or holistic therapy is characterized by therapists who do not limit themselves to a single type of Psychotherapy. Instead, they incorporate various elements from different approaches and customize their treatment to meet the specific needs of each individual client

Integrative or Holistic Therapy

Cognitive therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach grounded in the idea that a person's thoughts directly dictate their emotions and behaviors. By helping clients identify and alter dysfunctional thought patterns, therapists aim to alleviate emotional distress and foster more logical, rational interpretations of situations.

Cognitive Therapy

Behavior therapy is a therapeutic approach that applies principles of learning to help clients change undesirable behaviors, without focusing on the unconscious mind. It operates on the belief that dysfunctional behaviors, such as phobias or bedwetting, can be resolved by teaching clients new, more constructive behaviors. This therapy utilizes both classical and operant conditioning techniques to facilitate this change.

Behavior Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) centers on the utilization of acceptance, values, mindfulness and conventional behavior change methods with the goal of reducing psychological inflexibility. 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 

Compassion-focused therapy is an integrated psychotherapeutic approach designed to train individuals in cultivating inner safeness, developing a self-generated internal soothing system, and replacing shame and harsh self-criticism with qualities such as self-kindness, self-understanding, contentment, and gentle self-care.

Compassion-focused Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy centered on helping clients examine and change the relationship between their thoughts and their behaviors. The primary goal is to identify and modify cognitive distortions and self-defeating actions, thereby changing not only how individuals think but also how they act in response to various situations.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

A type of therapy that helps clients, often children, to prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth by utilizing a therapeutic process of play. It harnesses children's natural urge to explore and uses it to help them express emotions that might be otherwise difficult to communicate. Play objects allow the child to displace difficult feelings, dreams, fantasies, and traumas. A therapist may observe the behaviors of the child while playing and also utilize play therapy to assist in the diagnosis process. Both nondirective and directed play therapy are possible.

Play Therapy

The sociocultural model in therapy emphasizes the influence of societal and cultural contexts on an individual's mental health. This therapeutic approach involves integrating a client's cultural and social norms into the treatment process from the very beginning. Therapists collaborate with clients to understand their specific cultural patterns, using this information to develop a personalized treatment plan tailored to their unique situation.

Sociocultural Model in Therapy

The psychodynamic perspective is a modern therapeutic approach that evolved from Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories. While it continues to focus on the influence of internal drives, unconscious forces, and childhood experiences on behavior, its application in therapy is typically less intensive than traditional psychoanalysis. The goal is to help individuals gain self-awareness and change problematic patterns in their thoughts, feelings, and relationships.

Psychodynamic Therapy

A client in a therapy session states, "I gave a presentation at work and my boss didn't praise it, so I'm convinced I'm going to be fired. I'm a total failure." The therapist responds, "Let's examine that thought. What is the evidence that not receiving praise means you will be fired? Is there another way to interpret your boss's silence? We can work together to challenge this pattern of thinking and develop more balanced perspectives." Which therapeutic approach is this therapist most likely using?

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