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Talking therapies for mental health

Expert reviewer, Dr Zach Vogiatzis, Chartered Psychologist
Content editor review by Rachael Mayfield-Blake, Freelance Health Editor, May 2023.
Next review due May 2026.

Talking therapies are psychological treatments that involve talking to a trained professional about your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. If you’re struggling with your mental health and wellbeing, talking therapies can help to better understand your problems and learn healthy ways to cope. They have an important role in treating mental health conditions, often alongside medicines.

About talking therapies

Doctors use the term ‘talking therapies’ to group together a number of types of psychological therapy. You may also hear these therapies referred to as ‘psychotherapies’ or even just ‘counselling’.

Talking therapies all involve talking to a professional (called your counsellor or therapist) who listens to you carefully without judging you. They can help you understand what might be causing your problems, and explore ways of helping you deal with them.

You may have one-to-one therapy or, depending on the problem, therapy may be with your partner, your family or in a group. Some types of therapy can be undertaken online.

The various types of talking therapy use different methods to help you. Some focus on helping you to change how you think, feel and behave. Others explore issues in childhood that may be affecting you. Certain types may be especially helpful if you have particular mental health conditions.

If your problem is related to a particular event such as a bereavement and you’re otherwise in good mental health, a short course of therapy may be enough. If you have more complex problems, you may need longer-term therapy. Talk to your therapist about how many sessions would be best for you in your particular circumstances.

Your GP or psychiatrist can help you decide which type of talking therapy would help you the most. Depending on your situation, they may also recommend you take medication.

If you need help now

This page is designed to provide general health information. If you need help now, please use the following services.

  • Samaritans. 116 123 (UK and ROI) - This helpline is free for you to call and talk to someone.
  • NHS Services has a list of where to get urgent help for mental health.
  • Mind website. Click the ‘Get help now’ button on the page. This is a tool that is designed to help you understand what’s happening to you and how you can help yourself.

If you think you might harm yourself or are worried someone else might come to immediate harm, call the emergency services on 999 or go to your local accident and emergency department.

Types of talking therapy

Talking therapies can be grouped together in different ways. These include:

  • the school of thinking and theory behind them
  • who goes to the sessions – for example, individual or group therapy
  • whether the therapy aims to help with a particular issue – for example, help with your marriage or with a traumatic event

This means that there are lots of different, and sometimes quite complicated, names for the different talking therapies. Try not to feel overwhelmed by this. It’s good that there are lots of options available to suit different situations and problems. Talk to your doctor about what might work best for you.

The following are just some examples of talking therapies that can help in particular situations. There are also types of psychological therapy that are not based on talking – for example, art, music or drama therapy. These aren't covered here.


Counselling

Some people may refer to all talking therapies as ‘counselling’, but the term really describes one specific type of talking therapy.

Counselling is a process you can engage with when you would like to change something in your life, or just explore your thoughts and feelings and understand your behaviours in more detail.

Counselling focuses on specific emotional problems over a shorter period of time. Counselling may be helpful if you’re generally well and healthy but going through a difficult time in life. This might be because of a bereavement, for example, or loss of a pregnancy, divorce or other life-changing situation. Counselling might also be helpful if you have depression or drug or alcohol problems.


Family therapy

Family therapy helps family members communicate with each other. A therapist meets with your family in a safe environment (individually or as a group) to help you explore each other’s point of view and relationships.

Family therapy is designed to work with your family’s strengths to help you try different ways of behaving towards each other. This can help if there’s a particular problem or condition that a family member is dealing with.

Family therapy can be used in a variety of situations, including:

  • relationship difficulties for couples
  • emotional or behavioural problems in children
  • eating disorders
  • alcohol dependence
  • schizophrenia

Cognitive behavioural therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of talking therapy that combines:

  • cognitive therapy – which focuses on the way you think about things
  • behavioural therapy – which helps you cope with problems by changing how you behave

CBT therapy focuses on dealing with problems in the present rather than looking back at your past or childhood. Common CBT techniques include challenging negative thoughts you have and replacing them with more helpful and realistic ones. You’ll probably be given some ‘homework’ to do between sessions to practise these techniques. A course of CBT can last from six weeks to six months.

CBT can help people with a variety of problems including anxiety, depression, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

With guidance from a therapist, you can do a form of CBT on your computer at home or from self-help books. Your GP or local mental health services may be able to guide you to the best resources.


Dialectical behaviour therapy

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is based on cognitive behaviour therapy. But it focuses on balancing changes to your thoughts and behaviour with acceptance of who you are as a person. It also pays particular attention to helping you manage strong emotions. DBT has been used to help people with borderline personality disorder, but it may help with other mental health problems too.

You’ll usually have regular sessions over a year to 18 months, and it will be a mix of individual and group sessions.


Interpersonal therapy

Interpersonal therapy (IPT) is a time-limited therapy that helps you understand how your mental health problems (such as depression) are often a response to difficulties in your interaction with others. This in turn can impact on the quality of your relationships with others causing a cycle. The therapy focuses on helping you strengthen relationships to improve your connections and experiences with others and so help improve your symptoms.

IPT is a treatment for depression, including postnatal depression, but may also be helpful for a range of other problems including panic disorder, bereavement, social phobia and insomnia.


Psychodynamic therapy

Psychodynamic therapy helps you think about how your experiences in the past may affect what’s happening in your life at the moment. It gives you a regular time to talk to a therapist about your feelings towards yourself and others. It can help you make future decisions based on what is good for you, not what your past experiences drive you to do.

Short-term psychodynamic therapy can be used to treat depression and social anxiety.

You’ll usually have 50-minute psychodynamic therapy meetings once a week, or more if you need them. How long you need to continue with psychodynamic therapy varies. You may only need a few weeks or months of therapy, or longer if your problems are more complicated. Psychodynamic therapy is often one-to-one, but you can also attend group therapy. This usually lasts for around 90 minutes and you go once or twice a week.


Cognitive analytic therapy

In cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), you’ll work with a therapist to look at how your past experiences have led to the problems in your life now. Your therapist helps you look at the ways of coping that you’ve developed to deal with problems. They then help you think about how to change these ways of coping so that you feel better and coping becomes easier.

Your therapist may put all this in writing at the start and help you to map out your problems on paper. At the end, they’ll give you a letter that summarises your therapy. They may ask you to keep a diary, and to do some work at home between sessions.

CAT can be used for a wide range of mental and emotional problems, including eating disorders, anxiety, depression, personality disorder and drug or alcohol dependency.

You’ll usually have about 16 sessions of CAT.

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) is one of several treatments recommended for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rather than talking with a therapist, in EMDR you’re asked to make rhythmic eye movements while recalling the traumatic event. It’s not certain how this works, but it might change the way you process memories, rather like what happens when you sleep. This allows you to reprocess an unpleasant or traumatic memory so that you can recall it without feeling the original emotional impact each time.

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Accessing services

You may be able to get counselling or talking therapy through:


Talking therapies often involve meeting a specialist in person, but this isn’t always the case. Some counsellors and therapists also offer sessions over the phone or online through messages and web chats. It’s really important to check that any counsellor or therapist you contact is qualified. One way to do this is by searching for their name on the Professional Standards Authority register.

Talking therapy in mental health is psychological treatments that involve talking to a trained professional about your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. There are different types of talking therapies that may help you to better understand mental health and wellbeing problems and learn healthy ways to cope. Talking therapies are an important treatment for mental health conditions.

See our section: About talking therapies above for more information.

Examples of talking therapies include counselling, which aims to help you be clearer about your problems and to come up with your own answers. And interpersonal therapy (IPT), which helps you understand how your mental health problems may be linked to your relationships and how they work.

See our section: Types of talking therapy above for more information.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is one of many types of talking therapy. CBT focuses on dealing with problems in the present rather than looking back at your past or childhood. You can meet with a therapist to do CBT in person or you can do a form of CBT online at home or with self-help books.

See our section: Types of talking therapy above for more information.

Neither CBT nor DBT are better. The right therapy for you will depend on your individual circumstances. CBT will look at how you can deal with problems in the present and will challenge negative thoughts and replace them with more helpful and realistic ones. DBT focuses on balancing changes to your thoughts and behaviour with acceptance of who you are as a person, and help you to manage strong emotions.

See our section: Types of talking therapy above for more information.

More on this topic

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of talking therapy. It helps you change how you think, feel and behave.

Read more

Anxiety

It’s normal to feel anxious sometimes. But if your anxiety is severe, it can interfere with your everyday life.

Read more

Depression

Read our guide for information about the symptoms, treatment and causes of depression.
Read more

Grief and bereavement

Feeling grief and mourning are reactions to losing someone we love. There is no right or wrong way to grieve.

Read more

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