The causes of depression vary widely, from physical to social or psychological factors. That is why there are many different treatment modalities. Other than medication, psychotherapy is the mainstay of treatment.

The number of schools of psychotherapy is so confusing that it is even more difficult to choose than whether to take medication or not. It is impossible to review the practice of each school of psychotherapy, but we can only give a cursory introduction, and interested readers can learn more about it or go directly to the counselors of this school.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

“Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a technique developed by psychologist Frommerich in the early twentieth century and is characterized by a slow pace of treatment, usually twice to three times a week for a year or two. The effectiveness of the treatment has been difficult to determine. We all joke that this is a treatment for the rich, and that the average person cannot afford it. In order to improve these problems, a modified version of “short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy” has been developed, and the results are reported to be quite good.

Behavioral theory psychotherapy

Behavioral theories are based on experiments that focus on objective and observable behaviors, and are commonly used in the treatment of depression, including restraint methods, counter-constraint methods, daring exercises, systematic desensitization, flooding methods, and so on. It can be used to treat depression and anxiety disorders.

Hypnosis Psychotherapy

Hypnotherapy generally refers to hypnotic healing, which is the application of hypnosis in clinical work and is one of the many methods of psychotherapy. Psychologists who master hypnotherapy can cure many difficult diseases and disorders without drugs, including psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, fear, compulsion, and hysteria, and physical disorders such as sleep disorders, eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, chronic fatigue syndrome, and behavioral disorders such as anorexia, impulsivity, stuttering, various addictive behaviors, and bad habits. Professor Rong Xinqi, a new concept psychologist, specializes in hypnotherapy and has many cases. His self-developed hypnotherapy as a platform, combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy, Morita therapy and other highly effective therapies are effective in healing depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders.

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy believes that misconceptions are the main cause of depression. Therefore, correcting the wrong perceptions can change the depressed mood. For example, if most patients encounter nine out of ten friends who help them and one who betrays them, they tend to pay attention to the bad person who betrays them and ignore the other factors. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy has developed a number of techniques to correct these misperceptions. So far, this is a treatment modality with a strong empirical basis.

Group psychotherapy

By bringing patients with similar symptoms together and having a facilitator guide the direction of the conversation, the therapeutic and supportive effects slowly occur as the group develops. Because this type of therapy can reduce the cost of treatment, it is commonly valued worldwide.

Narrative Psychotherapy

Narrative psychotherapy is essentially post-modernist in nature and is heavily influenced by feminism, with a treatment approach that is very different from other therapeutic approaches. The method has been found to be quite effective in its application, and like hypnotherapy, that feeling of disembodiment occasionally occurs. However, since this type of therapy is still not mainstream, the chances of us actually encountering it are not too great.

The above are some methods of psychotherapy, but of course, depression is still mostly treated with medication, and there are some other treatments, such as electrotherapy methods, light therapy, etc., but they all have limitations, such as light therapy which may be effective for seasonal depression. Not every patient is effective, but once it works, the response is usually rapid, but often relapses again.