Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy that helps people accept their thoughts and feelings, while also engaging in committed, value-driven action. ACT recognizes that many people engage in emotional avoidance and as such, treatment is focused on helping individuals acknowledge and accept difficult thoughts, feelings, and experiences rather than trying to control or avoid them. ACT is based on the principle that trying to control or eliminate unwanted thoughts and feelings can often lead to more suffering. ACT emphasizes the importance of exploring and understanding our own personal values and engaging in meaningful, values-based activities even in the presence of difficult thoughts and feelings.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on helping people understand how their thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and body are connected. In CBT, individuals learn new skills that help them to reframe negative thought patterns, make changes in their automatic behaviour responses, and learn effective strategies to calm their body. CBT focuses on developing a trusting and collaborative relationship between client and therapist. It is generally considered to be a short-term and goal-oriented therapy.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that focuses on understanding how trauma impacts our beliefs. CPT involves exploration of the impact of the trauma on a person’s beliefs about themselves, others, and the world. Individuals are asked to engage in formal processing of the trauma(s), including writing about their traumatic experiences and learning how to change the pattern of emotional avoidance and modify unhelpful beliefs that may have developed from the trauma. Themes of safety, trust, power, control, self-esteem, and intimacy are often explored. The goal of CPT is to help a person create a new understanding and conceptualization of their trauma and reduce its negative impact on the present.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills (DBT Skills) is a combination of skills that help teach people how to manage difficult emotions, improve their relationships, and better cope with stress. The core components of DBT Skills are: Mindfulness (being present in the moment without judgment), Distress Tolerance (tolerating pain and distress in effective and healthy ways), Emotion Regulation (identifying and managing intense emotions and developing new coping tools), and Interpersonal Effectiveness (improving communication, assertiveness, and setting healthy boundaries in relationships).

Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the importance of emotions in the human experience. It aims to help people better understand and regulate their emotions. The goal of EFIT is to increase our emotional awareness by being able to clearly identify our emotions, develop skills to transform our emotions, and ascertain meaning from them to help guide our thoughts and actions in helpful and effective ways. EFIT also focuses on strengthening our sense of self and relationships with others. EFIT acknowledges the influence of our past, especially as it relates to the development of our attachment styles, communication patterns, vulnerabilities and sensitivities, and the ways in which we protect and defend ourselves in our relationships. It is considered an experiential therapy, where these emotions are accessed and processed in the present moment.

Somatic therapy is a body-based therapeutic approach that aims to foster a deeper awareness of how our bodies store and express emotions, memories, and trauma. It emphasizes the importance of the mind-body connection and being able to notice how negative experiences and emotions may manifest in the body. In connecting with our body and our physical experiences, we better learn how to regulate our emotions, release tension, and calm an overstimulated nervous system. Somatic therapy integrates elements of breathwork, body scans, movement, grounding techniques, and mindfulness.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychotherapy approach designed to help people heal from traumatic or distressing experiences by reprocessing memories that have not been properly stored by the brain. Guided by a trained therapist, clients briefly focus on troubling memories while engaging in bilateral stimulation (most commonly side-to-side eye movements, tapping, or sounds). This can help reduce the emotional intensity of those memories and allows them to be integrated more adaptively. Based on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, EMDR recognizes that traumatic memories are stored differently than other memories, often remaining “stuck” and easily triggered by sights, sounds, or sensations that make the past feel like the present. EMDR helps repair this disruption so memories can be recalled without overwhelming distress, while also supporting a shift toward more positive beliefs about oneself (e.g., “I am safe now” or “I am worthy”). Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR does not require extensive discussion of the traumatic event, making it less overwhelming for some individuals. It is most commonly used to treat PTSD and has also been shown to be effective for complex trauma, anxiety, depression, phobias, grief, chronic pain, and other distressing life experiences.