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Individual Therapy

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy allows the therapist and client to focus on each other, building a rapport and working together to solve the client's issues...

What is individual therapy?

According to the APA, Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a way to help people with a broad variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties. Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms so a person can function better and can increase well-being and healing.

Problems helped by psychotherapy include difficulties in coping with daily life; the impact of trauma, medical illness or loss, like the death of a loved one, co-occurring substance use disorders; and specific mental disorders, like depression or anxiety. There are several different types of psychotherapy and some types may work better with certain problems or issues. Psychotherapy may be used in combination with medication or other therapies. Our talented therapist are trained in various techniques, specifically the use EMDR therapy to assist individuals in healing from their past. 

Our Therapy Techniques

  • Co-Occurring Therapy-Individual therapy for co-occurring disorders centers on tasks like building motivation, identifying self-defeating thoughts and learning positive new behaviors. Today, the leading rehab facilities and co-occurring experts have abandoned the old, confrontational style of therapy in favor of a non-confrontational, collaborative approach to treatment that focuses on reinforcing the client’s sense of self-worth, self-kindness and preventing future relapse.
  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.  Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.  EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma.  When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound.  If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.  The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health.  If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
  • CBT- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps people identify and change thinking and behavior patterns that are harmful or ineffective, replacing them with more accurate thoughts and functional behaviors. It can help a person focus on current problems and how to solve them. It often involves practicing new skills in the “real world.”
  • IPT- Interpersonal Therapy is a short-term form of treatment. It helps patients understand underlying interpersonal issues that are troublesome, like unresolved grief, changes in social or work roles, conflicts with significant others, and problems relating to others. It can help people learn healthy ways to express emotions and ways to improve communication and how they relate to others. It is most often used to treat depression.
  • MET-Motivational Enhancement Therapy is a counseling approach that helps individuals resolve their ambivalence about engaging in treatment and stopping their drug use. This approach aims to evoke rapid and internally motivated change, rather than guide the patient step-wise through the recovery process. This is used most often in co-occurring therapy and addiction treatment programs.
  • Supportive Therapy- Supportive therapy uses guidance and encouragement to help patients develop their own resources. It helps build self-esteem, reduce anxiety, strengthen coping mechanisms, and improve social and community functioning. Supportive psychotherapy helps patients deal with issues related to their mental health conditions which in turn affect the rest of their lives.
  • Reality therapy is a client-centered form of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy that focuses on improving present relationships and circumstances, while avoiding discussion of past events. This approach is based on the idea that our most important need is to be loved, to feel that we belong, and that all other basic needs can be satisfied only by building strong connections with others. Reality therapy teaches that while we cannot control how we feel, we can control how we think and behave. The goal of reality therapy is to help people take control of improving their own lives by learning to make better choices.

Let us show you how these different types of therapy can work in your life... 

What our clients say about us.

""My struggles with depression and addiction no longer have to define who I am. I am learning to love myself enough to heal.""
Individual Therapy Client

Altoona, Iowa

""Therapy has helped me be kinder to myself. My connection with my therapist is so important to me.""
Individual Therapy Client

Des Moines, Iowa

""Therapy is my safe place. It is my time to focus on me.""
Individual Therapy Client

West Des Moines, Iowa

""Our relationship is improving...we are learning how to communicate in a way that is no longer harmful.""
Couples Therapy Client

Des Moines, Iowa

Discover why kä(l)m therapy is right for you. Request an Appointment