Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy (talk therapy or counseling) uses various techniques to help people overcome mental health challenges. Board-certified psychiatrist Ahmar M Butt, MD, at Balance TMS, Esketamine, and Psychiatry, PLLC, in Ankeny, Iowa, is an expert in psychotherapy. He combines it with medication and other treatments to deliver effective results to patients suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, and many other conditions. Call Balance TMS, Esketamine, and Psychiatry, PLLC, today or schedule a consultation online to benefit from outstanding psychotherapy.

What is psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy helps you recover from mental health problems or manage incurable ones. Many different psychotherapy approaches are available. Common ones include:

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic therapies focus on underlying problems that make you vulnerable to mental health disorders. These include trauma, abuse, and other distressing experiences from your past.

You might not realize how much an experience has affected your mental health — often, people repress unpleasant memories. Psychoanalysis identifies such problems. With your psychiatrist’s help, you can process the emotions associated with the problems and free yourself from them.

Behavioral therapy

Behavioral therapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) address current problems that affect daily life. Your psychiatrist helps you analyze the thoughts and emotions causing difficulties, like not wanting to drive or leave your home. You learn to challenge the thoughts fuelling your problems and change them to be more realistic and optimistic.

Psychotherapy also helps you recognize the harmful feelings, thoughts, and behaviors your condition causes and understand them.

What problems does psychotherapy treat?

Psychotherapy is usually the foundation for most psychiatric disorder treatments. Balance TMS, Esketamine, and Psychiatry, PLLC, uses psychotherapy to help people with:

• Mood disorders
• Depression (major depressive disorder)
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Bipolar disorder
• Substance use disorder (addiction)
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Anxiety disorders
• Schizophrenia
• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
• Eating disorders
• Personality disorders
• Impulse control disorder
• Adjustment disorders

Psychotherapy also helps people who don’t have a mental health disorder but face challenges like losing a loved one, a job loss, broken relationships, and long-term health problems.

Balance TMS, Esketamine, and Psychiatry, PLLC offers individual, family, and group psychotherapy to adults and children.

What does having psychotherapy involve?

Psychotherapy provides a confidential, judgment-free space to openly discuss your feelings and thoughts. Sessions usually last an hour.

The pattern your therapy sessions follow varies depending on your disorder, how severe it is, and the form of therapy your psychiatrist uses. In every case, the first stage is a complete assessment where your psychiatrist reviews your medical and mental health history, evaluates your symptoms, and asks about your home and work environments.

The personalized plan your psychiatrist creates recommends treatments you might need alongside psychotherapy. These include medication, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and Spravato® esketamine nasal spray. You might benefit from doing exercises at home between sessions for faster, better results.

Call Balance TMS, Esketamine, and Psychiatry, PLLC today, or book a psychotherapy appointment online.