Therapy Styles
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a mindfulness-based behavioral therapy that derives its name from one of its core messages: accept what is out of your personal control, and commit to taking action that will improve and enrich your life. The aim of ACT is to maximize the human potential for a rich, full and meaningful life. ACT achieves this by:
​
1) teaching you mindfulness based psychological skills to deal with painful thoughts and feelings in an effective manner thereby reducing their impact and influence on your well being.
2) helping you to clarify what is truly meaningful and important – i.e your values – and to use that knowledge to motivate and inspire you to change your life for the better.
ACT has proven effective with a diverse range of clinical conditions; such as depression, OCD, workplace stress, chronic pain, anxiety, and PTSD to name a few.
​
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy aimed at helping you to recognise unhelpful or unhealthy styles of thinking, feeling and behaving that are contributing to your problems. The goal of therapy is change these patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving using a collaborative approach.
CBT aims to be an efficient and time limited form of psychotherapy so will often involve goal setting and homework. CBT has demonstrated efficacy for treating a wide range of disorders such as anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a cognitive behavioral treatment originally developed to treat chronically suicidal individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). It is now accepted as the gold standard psychological treatment for this population. More recently, research has demonstrated the efficacy of DBT in the treatment of a wide range of other disorders such as substance dependence, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders. The goal of DBT is to help people learn and use new skills and strategies to develop a life that they experience as worth living. DBT skills include skills for:
-
Mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment
-
Emotion regulation: how to change emotions that you want to change
-
Distress tolerance: how to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it
-
Interpersonal effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others
During a course of DBT, the therapist works with you to help you move away from a chaotic life and towards a life that you find personally meaningful and fulfilling.
EFT – Emotional Freedom Techniques or Tapping
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is a brief novel intervention combining elements of exposure and cognitive therapy, and somatic stimulation. It is often referred to as ‘Tapping’ as it uses a two finger tapping process with a cognitive acceptance statement. EFT has been researched in more than 10 countries, by more than 60 investigators, whose results have been published in more than 20 different peer-reviewed journals. Australian research has established that EFT for obesity and food cravings, as well as smoking, to be extremely successful and durable over time. Efficacy has also been established for phobias, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and pain.
How Does it Work?
EFT appears to affect the amygdala (stress centre in the brain) and hippocampus (memory centre), and both play a role in the decision process when you decide if something is a threat. EFT has also been shown to lower cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone. Too much cortisol can result in lowered immune function and ultimately affect our physical health. Because Tapping is a tool which is practical, hands-on, and easy to apply, it is a unique way to assist people from all walks of life. It has an immediate calming effect and can be used with children as young as 3-4 years of age. Mudgeeraba psychology services. Gold Coast Psychologist
Research and Evidence
​
For more research on the mechanism of how EFT works, please see:
The effect of emotional freedom techniques on stress biochemistry: A randomized controlled trial EFT Research Bibliography:
http://www.eftuniverse.com/research-and-studies/eft-research
Website with summaries of all EFT research to date: