Psychotherapy is focused on the care of one’s mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Many phrases reflect the lovely nature of the work, such as “Tending the Soul” or “Tending the Garden”. This focus directly impacts one’s physical health, and directly impacts one’s capacity for social relating.
In the words of an early teacher, “There are many ways to do this (tend the soul)…but the one that involves talking about these things with a trained and experienced person is what is properly called psychotherapy.
There are literally hundreds of kinds of psychotherapy. They might be divided up into four main branches: behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, humanistic psychotherapy, and psychodynamic therapy. Behavioral therapy seeks to change troubling behaviors through the application of learning techniques. Cognitive therapy concentrates on correcting wrong thinking, attempting in that way to remove destructive thought patterns that cause problems. Humanistic therapy emphasizes the realization of personal potentials in the caring and supportive environment of the therapeutic setting.