The Value of Psychotherapy in Comprehensive Mental Health Care
By Matthew Solit, LMSW, Director of Therapy at Advanced Psychiatry
Psychotherapy is one of the most misunderstood branches of healthcare. While it is widely known to be beneficial in treating mental health challenges, the mechanisms, approaches, and outcomes of therapy can vary dramatically from person to person. The media often contribute to this misunderstanding by portraying psychotherapy as little more than lying on a couch while a white-bearded fellow scribbles notes and asks about your relationship with your mother. To further complicate many people’s understanding of psychotherapy, we are guilty as a culture of looking at the mind and body as mutually exclusive, which they are most certainly not.
What Psychotherapy Actually Involves
Evidence-Based Approaches
Psychotherapy utilizes established approaches, such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and many others, depending on the patient’s challenges and needs, to address specific challenges that are creating significant problems in day-to-day functioning. These therapeutic approaches are supported by clinical research, while professional organizations such as the American Psychological Association and the National Association of Social Workers establish ethical standards that emphasize evidence-based practice, appropriate training, and clinical competence.
More Than Just Talking
Psychotherapy goes well beyond just talking about the problem. It’s a systematic and proven way to not only address mental health challenges, but to help sustain those successes so the patient can continue without the psychotherapist when the time is right. Psychotherapy addresses the challenges we face, the factors contributing to them, and the ways those challenges manifest in our lives and make it harder to function.
Matching You with the Right Therapist
Psychotherapy in many ways depends on the rapport and connection between the therapist and the patient, while maintaining the boundaries of the clinician/patient relationship. There are times when a patient will start with a therapist and realize that, perhaps, it is not the right fit. It’s important for patients to not throw the treatment away as a whole due to a mismatch. Sometimes it’s about finding the right clinician who works for you. Too many patients give up when what they needed was a therapist they clicked with.
How Therapy Complements Other Mental Health Treatments
Often, psychotherapy is paired with other mental health treatments, particularly with psychiatry. For some patients, combining psychotherapy with medication management or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) can improve outcomes. These treatments can complement one another: medication or TMS may reduce symptoms that make it harder to engage in psychotherapy. If a patient feels that psychiatric interventions like medication management or neuromodulation could be helpful, that should be discussed with your psychiatrist or primary care doctor, but a psychotherapist can help with education and next steps.
A Map for the Road
When it comes to utilizing multiple avenues of therapeutic approaches, a good way to think about it is that the medication and neuromodulation put gas in the car, but psychotherapy tells you how to drive and where to go. They can work particularly well together, and patients don’t have to choose between one and the other when they can do both. After all, there’s no sense in answering “true or false” to a multiple-choice question.
Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts
Combining psychotherapy with psychiatric treatments such as medication management, TMS, SPRAVATO (esketamine), or IV ketamine therapy (used off-label for psychiatric conditions) can be similar to combining diet and exercise. Which approaches to combine, and when, should depend on the patient's clinical needs and the available evidence. Both can be important, and for some patients, together they can become greater than the sum of their parts. It’s hard work to do either, but combined, they can help treatment take hold and stay held.
When Is the Right Time to Start Psychotherapy?
For those who start with non-psychotherapy treatments, there’s often the question of “when is the right time to start psychotherapy?” The answer is different for everyone. Therapy can begin before, during, or after other psychiatric treatments, depending on the patient’s needs. Some describe feeling like they have a clear path forward, but don’t know where to go. For others, they still have the underlying issues present that caused the challenges that need to be addressed. It’s important in those cases to make that decision collaboratively with your psychiatric provider.
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Advanced Psychiatry Can Help
When you’re ready to reach out, Advanced Psychiatry is here. Contact our team to learn more about the value of therapy, how psychotherapy complements other psychiatric conditions, and the right approaches for your specific mental health needs.
