Talking to people has historically been an approach to self-improvement. Although, some historians would argue that geographical, cultural, and gender differentiations have prevented the full extent of talk therapy or may have even criticized the effectiveness of such an idea, the idea that talking to someone about your needs/problems/concerns/ or opinions may be beneficial. Some would suggest that the exact opposite comes from sharing your thoughts and feelings with others. The truth is, competence, and ethical professionals are generally equipped to discuss things with you from a more pragmatic perspective that places individual attention on your needs or benefits from the talk. I certainly do not dismiss the value of talking with family, a mentor, a trusted peer, or an overall enhanced communication process and the influence such a process holds on personal development. I would caution that talking to the incompetent, the well-meaning but opinionated (their views are right and all others are wrong), and the unethical or even deviant can cause much trouble or produce negative outcomes for the person seeking solace just for solace sake. Reliance on an untrusting, uncaring, or incompetent person to talk to must be evaluated for each individual’s betterment or destruction, this is one of those unhappy truths when humanity is considered in the depth by which the measures warrant.
With that caveat aside, the idea that a person talking to just talk will not always equal improvement (no matter what the unicorns and faux Guru’s say or suggest). I want to introduce you to some of the positivity found within talk therapy or talking with another person to assist you with your own personal development needs. Talking to others that are competent, and ethical will most certainly provide you with areas and ideas that can assist you with your own journey toward being a better human. Knowledge, experience, scope of practice capacity, and personal disposition are all factors for consideration when you choose to talk to others from a candid and personal context. The focus here is to discuss four types of talk therapy to consider.
Cognitive Behavioral Talk Therapy
The basic idea of CBT is to create an environment or space for people to discuss their thoughts and how those thoughts lead to behavioral choices (again we do not go into the required depth of the construct here in this blog post – we merely introduce you to the terms and the general idea behind the construct as it relates to human personal development, or performance enhancement). Some would include NLP, and positive self-talk as forms of CBT while others postulate varying perspectives on modality of the talking specifics and design purpose such as Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) where the purpose of the discussion is to assist another in finding mindfulness regarding their irrational thoughts and resulting behaviors. Other concerns addressed through CBT are said to be sensations, sensitivity, imagery, and personalization of trauma as a few more examples of areas where CBT is utilized.
Dialectic Behavioral Talk Therapy
Very familiar in use and assessment with typical CBT. The main differentiation being that DBT focuses on extreme negative influences from emotional exaggerations, or harmful (self or to others) irrational thoughts. Basically a specialized area of CBT that focuses on darker and more violent or harmful thoughts and emotional connectivity to behaviors or considered behavioral responses (suicide, mass shooting, necromancy, or sexually deviant concerns such as pedophilia to name a few examples of the type of darkness being discussed with this type of talk therepay)
Psychoanalytic Talk Therapy
Freud, the idea that discussion with skilled and competent practitioners an individual will find blockages, or subconscious influencers of their conscious barriers, or hindrances of specific behavioral choices or consideration. Hypnosis, or opening of memory and mindfulness of past actions that led to feelings of regret, doubt, or fear (could be the positive memory too when applied to memories of satisfaction, comfort or companionship). Generally centered around a need or desire for healing or personal change in circumstances and wanting to discuss internal reasoning or rationalization perhaps, are are few examples of when psychoanalysis, or psychodynamic therapy is utilized.
Humanistic Talk Therapy
The conversations that emphasize free will, self- discovery, self – actualization, and how to become better. The idea that discussions can lead to activity or actionable process and performance exercises which increase the persons personal growth and higher self, or individual capacity.