Clinical Psychologist
&
Longer term
Psychotherapy
New York, NY 10023
212-252-3121
&
Psychological
Assessments
Neuropsychological
Learning Disabilities
Memory Disorders
Dementia
Cognitive problems due to accidents
Psychological
School Placement
Emotional Disorders
Personality
Time-limted
Cognitive-Behavioral (CBT)
&
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)
Longer Term
Integrated Interpersonal-psychodynamic psychotherapy
Time-limited psychotherapy is focused on a specific problem or symptom that is treated within a limited time period that is decided before treatment starts. Examples of problems that can be treated this way are phobias & fears, panic attacks, anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive symptoms, and eating disorders. Time-limited therapy often lasts from 3 to 9 months.
Longer term therapy can have a broader area of concern and, while it helps reduce specific symptoms, is more focused on personality change. Some typical complaints that bring people into longer term therapy are a general dissatisfaction with who they are, difficulties advancing in their career or in finding a long-term romantic partner, sexual issues, a sense that life is not as rewarding as it used to be, etc. Longer term therapy usually lasts over a year, is multiple times a week, and can continue for years until the patient and the therapist decide that substantial, permanent change has occurred.
The divisions between time-limited and longer term are not always clear. Many of the problems that might be thought of as for longer term therapy can be treated using time-limited therapy. Equally often, a patient who comes in for time-limited therapy decides that what is troubling her or him is connected to larger, harder to define issues and needs more time for exploration.
A common theme to both approaches is that each requires hard work, dedication, and a willingness to change. It takes a therapist well versed in both approaches to help the patient decide which is the best. I am comfortable in both modes and consider each approach valid in different ways. If you are interested in exploring these issues more, please feel free to contact me.