Psychotherapy or talk therapy is effective in treating depression. Talking to an expert such as psychiatrist or psychologist about your symptoms can help resolve depression to certain extent.
There are many forms of psychotherapies - short term therapy over a period of 10 - 20 weeks. Talking helps the depressed individual to gain insight into and resolve their problems through verbal exchange combined with homework assignments between sessions.
Types of therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) - CBT helps the depressed person to identify, challenge and change negative thoughts and ideas. The person is taught how to develop a positive approach towards all areas of life.
- Interpersonal therapy looks in the patient’s personal troubled emotional relationships that cause and increase the state of depression.
- Psychodynamic therapy focuses on resolving patient’s feelings of conflicts and traumas that has occurred at some point in their lives, e.g. sexual abuse during childhood, loss of parent, etc.
- Group Therapy allows coming together of people suffering from depression with similar issues to sit down and share experiences and find ways to overcome depressive issues. Group therapy is conducted in the presence of a qualified therapist.
The length of the talk therapy treatment depends on how deeply the person is affected. Mild versions of depression can be treated in 5-7 sessions or less, while moderate to severe depression cases may require 10 ? 12 or more sessions. Depending upon the severity of depression, the therapist will schedule sessions either once or twice a week. If the person experiences major bouts of depression, the sessions could be held more frequently as in daily.
