Was going to reply when I realized I actually don’t know for sure, so had to go look up my T’s website to find out. As far as I can tell he’s predominantly CBT (ha ha that’s exactly the type of therapy I DIDN’T want to go into and mostly he doesn’t use that approach with me) together with person centred and psychodynamic training, as well as specializing in PTSD, and EMDR (which he mentioned at beginning of therapy but hasn’t brought up since.)

It’s funny about the CBT because when I was looking to go back into therapy this time, I discounted anyone who listed CBT as their approach yet this guy was the only one whom I felt had really listened to me and gave me the sense that I would be understood. But I do often pull him up during sessions with snarky comments like ‘that’s bloody CBT again’ and he accepts that - he understands that the one thing I DON’T need is more hooking into the rational thinking about thinking mode that I’ve been stuck in for years so he uses the person centred and psychodynamic approaches much more.

I don’t know about the transference thing I haven’t really run into it yet (as far as I can tell that is - if you don’t count that every encounter with another person is a form of transference!) I’m wondering how different therapeutic approaches deal with transference actually - I suspect that a pure CBT approach wouldn’t allow for it at all. Just my thoughts though.

Lamplighter

My T does psychodynamic therapy with interpersonal and some behavioral thrown in. It also seems like he follows some of Kohut's self-psychology model with a bit of Rogerian thrown in for good measure. He describes himself as eclectic.

I'm not a big fan of CBT therapy because it does not suit my issues. Occasionally my T has tried a little bit of CBT and it would freak me out and I would get mad at him LOL. I'm not an easy patient

Hi Emogirl,
My therapist was originally trained in Cognitive Behavorial Therapy (CBT) and he still uses some principles but I would identify his approach as eclectic. He has been practicing for around 30 years and reads constantly to stay up on advances in the field. It's definitely psychodynamic and he uses a lot of Kohut's principles. We have based most of our work together on attachment theory and he's very excited about mindfulness and Interpersonal Neurobiology. But the most important factor is his experience. He has really good instincts and he pays alot of attention so he's learned over the years what works and what doesn't. He told me once that he usually trusts his gut. I'm glad he's got a good gut. The most important part of how he does therapy though is based on Bruber's I/thou construct. He doesn't presume to know better than his patients, he practices being very patient and very open to the whole experience in a gestalt way and in that way learns what he needs to know so that he can help. It was essential to my healing.

I must admit that one of the reasons I do love the man is that he likes to discuss neurobiology.

AG