Behavioral therapy is talk therapy with a structure to it. Rather than only exploring how you feel, it works on the specific patterns of thinking and behaving that keep a problem going, and it teaches skills you can use outside the room.
Our therapists are trained in several of these approaches and choose between them based on what you are dealing with. Sessions are available at all three of our locations and by video for eligible patients.
What Behavioral Therapy Involves
The core idea is that thoughts, feelings, and behavior feed each other. Someone anxious about social situations avoids them, the avoidance brings short term relief, and the relief teaches the brain that avoiding was the right call. The anxiety grows. Behavioral therapy works on that loop directly.
In practice this means sessions have a focus. You and your therapist agree on what you are working toward, you try things between appointments, and you review how it went. Many people find that structure a relief, particularly if previous therapy felt open ended.
It is not a quick fix, and it does ask something of you. What it tends to offer in return are skills that stay with you after the therapy ends.
The Approaches We Use
You do not need to pick one of these. Your therapist will explain what they are using and why, and may combine more than one.
CBT. Identifying and testing the thought patterns that drive distress, then building more workable ones
DBT. Concrete skills for managing intense emotion, tolerating distress, and steadying relationships
ACT. Making room for difficult feelings rather than fighting them, and acting on what matters to you
Mindfulness based approaches. Noticing what is happening in the moment without being swept along by it
Motivational interviewing. Working through ambivalence when part of you wants change and part of you does not
For trauma specifically, EMDR therapy is also available and is often a better fit than talking through the events in detail.
What It Helps With
Plenty of people also come in for a difficult stretch that does not have a name. Grief, a divorce, burnout, or a transition that has knocked things sideways all count.
Why Choose A Ray of Hope
Our therapists are trained in particular methods rather than applying one approach to everyone, and we try to match you with someone whose training fits what you are dealing with. If medication turns out to be part of the picture, your prescriber is in the same practice.
Licensed therapists trained in CBT, DBT, ACT, and more
Care for children, teens, and adults
Thoughtful matching rather than the next available slot
Prescribers in the same practice if medication is needed
In person at all three locations, or by video
Neurology alongside, when symptoms could be either
Find the Right Provider
Browse our therapists and what each of them works with, or call and describe what is going on and we will suggest a match.
Ready When You Are
Choose the office nearest you to request an appointment, or give us a call and we will help you find the right provider.
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