Treatment:
Treatment:
What are they? How do they differ? What's right for you?
What are they? How do they differ? What's right for you?
Types of Therapy
Psychologists, or therapists, are trained professionals that aid in a specialized therapy practice. Typically, most traditional therapists will follow a psychotherapy model by utilizing talk therapy. However, there are other forms of therapy...
Exposure Therapy: A therapeutic practice that allows individuals to overcome certain fears or phobias. Therapists will teach a relaxation technique to the patient that they practice in a neutral setting. The patient will then create a phobia hierarchy list and practice integrating their learned relaxation techniques while being exposed to their phobias.
Play Therapy: Typically used with younger patients who are shy or afraid to open up to a therapist. Using toys like blocks to create a more playful and safe environment for the patient may encourage them to feel safer opening up.
Art Therapy: Comes in various artistic forms including, but not limited to, creative writing, music, dance, acting, and fine arts. This form of therapy can be extremely encouraging for patients who are curious to explore their struggles in more creative ways or who may have a difficult time vocalizing their experiences.
Positive Psychology Therapy: This approach is fairly modern, and tends to be subtly integrated into most talk therapy sessions. A therapist that specifically utilizes positive psychology will encourage the patient to adapt an optimistic and open minded approach to their issues. They may encourage the patient to utilize more positive vocabulary in their language and self talk.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Takes on the perspective that most psychological problems stem from issues in disordered thinking patterns. Focuses on how the patient can reframe thoughts to be balanced between logic and emotion. Encourages patients to question thoughts and beliefs about themselves. Can be especially helpful for those suffering from anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD, and paranoia.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Similar to CBT, but rather than focusing on thought patterns, tends to focus more on the emotional regulation aspect. Allows patients to integrate mindfulness, emotional regulation, conflict resolution and relationship maintenance into their lives. DBT is very helpful for those struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder, anxiety, PTSD, suicidal behavior and depression.
Somatic Therapies: Somatic Experiencing (SE), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.. Somatic therapies focus on bodily sensations and reactions to stimuli, rather than talking modalities. It can be a much more useful theraputic approach for those who experience trauma.
Individual, Group, Couples, and Family Therapy
Therapy can be administered in several formats, though the most popular are individual, couple, family, and group therapy. When a is admitted to an addiction or mental health facility for treatment, they are typically at a very extreme point and are seeking immediate care. The patient may first be admitted to a hospital for the first 24 hours depending on the cause of admission.
Some reasons for an immediate admission may be a patient who has admitted to having a plan for suicide, a patient who may have gotten in trouble with the law for being intoxicated, or a patient who may have overdosed from drugs or alcohol. After the 24 hour hold to monitor the safety of the patient, the patient may then be admitted to a care facility or sent back home if the situation is safe to do so.
Inpatient and Outpatient Treatment
A patient who may need more care has the option to be admitted to an inpatient program, which is in the psychiatric unit at a hospital for usually 30 days. While in the inpatient, a patient will be provided with medical and psychiatric care. Meals are typically provided and the patients are enrolled in group therapy programs with their peers.
Upon release, patients are immediately switched over to an outpatient program to ensure that they have enough support o manage their mental health or addiction. In outpatient, patients will be enrolled in group therapy anywhere from 3-5 days a week. Outpatient release is typically dependent on the therapist and the patient's discretion.
In some cases, indivuals may need further support or housing assistance and may instead choose to a housing program or Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP). In these programs, houses are monitored by a team of managers that maintain rules and levels for each individual. Levels are granted to indivduals on the basis of their effort towards healing or following the rules, the more freedoms are granted with a progression through levels in the house until release.
Text or dial 988 for immediate suicide and crisis support.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, SAMHSA is an organization that works to help those with crisis support and provide resources to recovery assistance.
National Helpline (open 24/7)
1-800-662-HELP (4357)
The National Institute of Mental Health is an informational resource that covers an in depth description of most mental health topics.
For more information regarding a mental disorder you or a loved one may be struggling with, please use this website for further research.
This site also provides opportunities for people to participate in clinical studies.
Self-Help Techniques
There are some individuals who may find modes of therapy to be more distressing than helpful for them. Not responding to therapy is perfectly normal, and you are not alone in this! There are several practices you can integrate into your daily routines that can allow you to become your own counselor. While most of these may be redundant, it's important to be aware of all options that exist for you.
Journaling: Many people tend to be off-put by the daunting task of journaling. With therapeutic journaling, it can often be helpful to establish a goal, routine, or set of questions to ask yourself prior to starting. The most progress with journaling is observed when there is consistency in writing, it can allow you to observe how your thought patterns and behaviors change over time.
Exercising: This is a highly important activity for people to integrate into their daily routine, however those who suffer from depression or anxiety may find it to be a difficult task to begin. An important tool can be establishing a self rewarding system, if that's an incentive that works for you. Moving our bodies is important to getting ourselves out of our heads and into our bodies.
Sleep: It has probably been stressed to you already that maintaing a sleep schedule of 7-8 hours of sleep a night is importnat to your mental health. Again, however, there are mental health conditions that may increase sleep disturbances or insomnia. Depending on the severity of sleep issues, it may be important to seek out a doctor's advice on how to move forward.
Meditation and Breath-work: If you are struggling to get yourself to meditate, a useful support tool can be guided meditations. There are several apps such as Calm and YouTube that post voiced guided meditations under a plethora of topics. These can be helpful to keep your focus on your practice and to give your practice a purpose. Breath-work is fascinating tool that is not widely talked about, but heavily endorsed by all who participate in it. In a typical practice, there is usually a guide in the room with you that directs you when to begin and end your fast-paced breath to transition to a calm breath.
Holotropic breath-work (a fast based breath that uses two breaths in and one breath out all through the mouth), transformational (practice used to usher in a new energy or desire) , pranayama (the practice of using your breath in yoga to control the stability in your movements), and rebirthing (using the breath to move energy in and out of the body).
Self-Help Checklist:
How often do you find you are able to accomplish everything on this or your own self-care list? What obstacles prevent you from maintaining your self care? How can you hold yourself more accountable to your goals?
Feeding your body a proper amount of good quality food and nutrients.
Drinking enough water so that you are not experiencing dehydration symptoms.
Showering, brushing your teeth, washing your face and grooming.
Connecting with friends, peers, or family.
Getting enough sleep each night.
Taking breaks from work as needed, or distractions when necessary.
Indulging in hobbies that make you feel content. :
Creating short or long term goals to work towards.
Meditating, journaling, yoga, exercising or breath-work.
Spending some time outside or in a new calming environment.
Seeking Help and Insurance
A common issue that may prevent somebody from looking for help is the lack of insurance or the minimal services they may be willing to cover.
For those who have limited or lower income status, it is important to look into applying for insurance programs such as MediCal, Medicaid and Medicare. The current eligibility requirements for patients seeking MediCal coverage are a yearly salary of around $47,000 or...
65 or older.
Blind.
Disabled.
Under 21.
Pregnant.
In a skilled nursing or intermediate care home.
On refugee status for a limited time, depending how long you have been in the United States.
A parent or caretaker relative of an age eligible child.
Enrolled in one of the following programs: CalFresh, SSI/SSP, CalWorks (AFDC), Refugee Assistance, Foster Care or Adoption Assistance Program.
Applications for MediCal can be accessed through the CA.gov website.
Medicaid uses essentially the same process as MediCal, but is not specific to California.
Through Medicaid.gov, patients can select the state they currently reside in to check for state qualifiers and income limitations.
This website will also outline the steps to apply for Medicaid and what patients can expect for insurance fees once in the program. Medicare offers a very similar program to Medicaid, however it is only provided to patients in the age range of 65 years or older.
Patients have the option to apply for this program 3 months before they turn 65.
This program can be accessed through Medicare.gov. CHIP is Children's Health Insurance Program and is available for application for children under 19 years of age that are uninsured in families that may make just above the maximum income amount to qualify for Medicaid.
HMO or PPO?
When looking into existing insurance companies and plans, it is important to evaluate the plan based on the amount you are willing to pay towards each one and what is offered within those limitations. As a general rule of thumb, an HMO plan stands for Health Maintenance Organization and tends to be the cheaper option. What this means for the patient, is that they will only be covered for services and providers listed under the HMO.
If they choose to seek care outside of their HMO network, they will be subject to fees and pricing in the full amount out of their pocket. HMO's tend to offer lower copayments for visits within the covered state and will lower the cost of any out of pocket fees that are still covered underneath their network.
A PPO is a Preferred Provider Organization, and plans that include a PPO to have a greater monthly or annual fee. The important aspect of a PPO is that it does not limit the patient to only seeing service providers within their network, and if they need to see a specialist at any point, it is not necessary for them to seek out a referral from a doctor (unlike an HMO).
Patients in a PPO may also be able to receive coverage outside of the state they currently reside, making big procedures more accessible. It is also not a requirement of PPO to select or stay with a primary care doctor to direct medical excursions, the patient can decide when and where to seek care.
Medication Treatment
There are several instances where a patient may be put on a psychotropic medication prior to seeking therepeutic help: a patient that goes to see their primary care provider for a mental illness complaint, or a patient who chooses to seek out a psychiatrist first for mental health help. The main and only role of a psychiatrist is to evaluate the mental concerns of the patient and determine what medication/s may be benefical for them.
The psychiatrist will then put the patient on a treatment plan or timeline and choose to assess where they are at following a period of time on medication. Should the patient be experiencing problems with the medication, it is the role of only the psychiatrist to mitigate this concern by either tapering the patient off of the medication to try a new one or helping the patient evaluate what lifestyle circumstances may be contributing to the ineffectiveness. Patients should be aware that there is a clear distinction in the roles of a psychologist and psychiatrist.
In some cases, a clinician may be labeled as both a Psychiatrist and a Psychologist. In these unique circumstances, the clinician is well versed on what medications are suitable for the patient as well as administering thereauptic services. Seeking out a clinician that doubles in both is extremely preferable for some clients as it helps the patient feel as if their meds are in accordance to how they are evolving through therapy.
Even after a psychiatrist prescribes a medication, it is important to read up on it as much as possible to make sure that it may not individually effect any other health issues youa are already dealing with. There are a wide range of medications for depression that include both SSRI's and SNRI's.