Understanding different MFT modalities helps clients make informed decisions about their care, enhancing their empowerment and engagement in the healing process. When clients are well-informed, they can collaborate more effectively with their therapists, leading to a more personalized and fulfilling therapeutic experience that aligns with their unique needs and goals.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behaviors. Effective for individuals and couples dealing with anxiety, depression, and relationship conflicts. - Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)/ Imago Therapy
A structured approach to individual & couples therapy that focuses on improving emotional bonds. Helps partners recognize their family of origin attachment injuries, and express emotional needs differently than they have been so far. Over time, they learn to foster a true secure attachment. - Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
Emphasizes finding practical solutions to specific problems rather than focusing on the past. It is goal-directed and effective in short-term therapy. - Narrative Therapy
Helps clients reframe their life stories by separating themselves from their problems, empowering individuals to view their life and relationships from a new perspective. - Family Systems Therapy
Views problems as arising from within the family structure rather than individuals, focusing on improving communication, reducing conflict, and strengthening family dynamics. - Structural Family Therapy
Reorganizes family structures by addressing dysfunctional patterns, emphasizing improved communication and boundaries within the family. - Bowenian Family Therapy (Bowen Theory)
Aims to reduce anxiety in family systems by increasing differentiation—helping individuals separate their emotions from family influences. - Gestalt Therapy
Encourages individuals to experience the present moment and become aware of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, emphasizing self-awareness and emotional expression. - Psychodynamic Therapy
Explores how unconscious processes and early experiences influence current behavior, helping clients understand unresolved issues from their past. - The Gottman Method
These techniques focus on building healthy relationships by enhancing communication, fostering emotional connection, and addressing conflict. The method uses decades worth of research-based techniques to improve intimacy and resolve issues, emphasizing the importance of friendship, shared meaning, and managing conflict constructively. - Experiential Therapy
Uses activities like role-playing or guided imagery to help clients’ express emotions and gain insights, breaking through emotional barriers. - Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Incorporates mindfulness practices to increase self-awareness and manage stress, often used to help couples become more attuned to each other’s emotions. - Systemic Therapy
Systemic therapy is a therapeutic approach that views individuals within the context of their relationships and family systems. It focuses on understanding and addressing the patterns and dynamics within the family or group, rather than just the individual’s issues. By improving communication, resolving conflicts, and altering dysfunctional patterns, systemic therapy aims to create healthier relationships and overall family functioning. - Collaborative Therapy
A client-driven approach where the therapist and client work together to explore solutions, emphasizing a non-hierarchical relationship. - Transgenerational Therapy
Examines how behavior, emotional responses, and family roles are passed down through generations, helping clients break unhealthy patterns. - Multicultural Therapy
Addresses the cultural and social influences that affect individuals and families, helping clients navigate challenges related to diverse backgrounds. - Trauma-Focused Therapy
Helps individuals and couples work through trauma (e.g., childhood trauma or PTSD) that affects relationship dynamics. - EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
This is a therapeutic approach designed to alleviate distress associated with traumatic memories by using guided eye movements to process and integrate these memories. It helps individuals reframe and heal from past trauma, reducing the emotional impact of distressing experiences. - Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT)
Focuses on modifying behaviors that contribute to relationship conflict, often used for couples dealing with substance abuse, infidelity, or chronic dissatisfaction. - Attachment-Based Therapy
Centers on strengthening emotional bonds by addressing attachment styles developed in early childhood, fostering emotional security. - Couple and Family Play Therapy
Uses play to help children and families communicate emotions they may struggle to express verbally, often used with young children in family therapy. - Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Helps clients regulate emotions and develop healthier interpersonal relationships by balancing acceptance and change, effective for high-conflict couples. - PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy)
Combines neuroscience, attachment theory, and biology to help couples build secure, healthy relationships. It emphasizes how early childhood attachment styles and neurobiology shape behavior and emotional responses in relationships. - IFS (Internal Family Systems Therapy)
Focuses on identifying and healing the various parts within an individual that are in conflict or have experienced trauma. It views the mind as made up of different “parts” and helps clients heal by creating harmony between these internal parts and re-integration and development of their most authentic selves. - IFIO (Intimacy from the Inside Out)
An adaptation of IFS specifically designed for couples therapy. It helps partners explore their internal dynamics, heal from past wounds, and improve intimacy by understanding how their inner parts (e.g., vulnerable or protective parts) impact the relationship.
