Psychotherapy

What Is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy, also called talk therapy, is a type of mental health treatment.

It’s often used either alone or with medications to treat mental disorders. During a psychotherapy session, you talk to a doctor or a licensed mental health care professional to identify and change troubling thoughts.

Benefits of Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy helps people with a mental disorder to:

• Understand the behaviors, emotions, and ideas that contribute to their illness and learn how to modify them
• Understand and identify the life problems or events -- like a major illness, a death in the family, a loss of a job, or a divorce -- that contribute to their illness and help them understand which aspects of those problems they may be able to solve or improve
• Regain a sense of control and pleasure in life
• Learn healthy coping techniques and problem-solving skills