Adult Therapy

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Most mental health clinicians work with you or your loved one by assessing your reasons for seeking professional help, offering support and providing advice or specific treatments to address your needs. In some cases, people seek therapy to develop a particular skill (e.g. problem solving, being more mindful) or for support in adjusting to current life circumstances (e.g. grief, separation, new opportunities). Others seek individual therapy when suffering from a mental health condition like depression, anxiety or substance abuse. 

Mental health research has come a long way in helping improve outcomes through individual therapy. Whilst the quality of the client-clinician relationship is understood to be the stronger predictor of positive individual therapy outcomes generally , there is a significant body of scientific research supporting the use of particular approaches depending on the mental health disorder being treated. Your mental health clinician is trained to understand this and will be mindful of this research when you engage in individual therapy. Find below a brief summary of several treatment approaches supported at Inner North.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a treatment where you learn about the relationship between your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours. Change is founded on the premise that these components are interconnected, and psychological difficulties or distress reflects difficulty in one or more of them. Relief and positive change can arise from actively modifying them, with the support of your clinician. For example, worries can be relieved by understanding and modifying negative automatic thoughts, or our mood can be improved when we engage in activities we enjoy.  Many decades of research supports the effectiveness of CBT for common mental health disorders including depressive disorder, generalised anxiety and phobias. Clinicians are trained to assess your individuals needs and use CBT to help you set goals and make positive changes.

Mindfulness Therapy

Mindfulness therapies help address psychological problems through techniques that help build purposeful attention on the present moment and equanimity or ‘non-reactivity’ to your experience in this.  Therapy typically involves psychoeducation (e.g. learning about psychological experiences), informal exercises (e.g. practicing mindfulness during routine daily activities) and formal mindful meditations. Whilst mindfulness can be learned and practiced without a therapist, a clinician is trained to apply mindfulness more formally (e.g. setting specific structured tasks, home activities, and supporting your individual training) in response to your individual needs. Following a clinical assessment, mindfulness therapy can be helpful in treating a range of mental health conditions including stress, sleep disorders, depression and anxiety.

Visit our FAQs to answer common questions on individual therapy.