Exposure and response prevention is designed to gradually reduce the anxiety that feeds obsessions and compulsions. One way in which this is thought to happen is through a process called habituation, whereby people become less physiologically aroused by triggering stimuli or obsessions after being repeatedly and safely exposed to them.

Further, individuals with OCD, anxiety, phobias, or eating disorders learn over time that the stimuli, thoughts, and feelings that prompt compulsions are more bearable than they anticipated. They also realize that being exposed to their fears does not actually lead to the outcomes they dread. They come to recognize that they are capable of coping with the triggers without resorting to compulsive rituals.

via Psychology Today

The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) defines Art Therapy as the following:

An integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.

Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.

via the American Art Therapy Association

Humanistic therapy, also known as humanism, is a form of talk therapy that focuses on a person’s individual nature, rather than assuming that groups of people with similar characteristics have the same concerns. Humanistic therapists aim to consider the whole person, especially their positive characteristics and potential for growth, not only from their professional viewpoint but from a client’s own personal sense of their behavior. The emphasis in sessions is on a person’s positive traits and behaviors and developing their ability to use their instincts to find wisdom, growth, healing, and fulfillment.

Three core components of Humanistic Therapy are:

• Unconditional Positive Regard

• Empathetic Understanding

• Congruence, or Genuineness

Existential therapy focuses on free will, self-determination, and the search for meaning—often centering on the individual rather than on their symptoms. The approach emphasizes a person's capacity to make rational choices and to develop to their maximum potential. Some practitioners regard existential therapy as an orientation toward therapy, not a distinct modality, per se. This type of therapy is often useful for patients who experience existential threat or dread when security and identity feel in peril.

The existential approach stresses that:

• All people have the capacity for self-awareness.

• Each person has a unique identity that can be known only through relationships with others.

• People must continually re-create themselves because life’s meaning constantly changes.

• Anxiety is part of the human condition.

via Psychology Today

Gestalt therapy is an approach to psychotherapy that helps clients focus on the present to understand what is actually happening in their lives at this moment, and how it makes them feel in the moment, rather than what they may assume to be happening based on past experience. Along with person-centered and existential therapy, it is one of the primary forms of humanistic therapy.

The term “gestalt” is derived from a German word that means “whole” or “put together.” Gestalt therapy was developed in the 1940s and 1950s by Fritz Perls, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and his then-wife, psychotherapist Laura Perls, as an alternative to traditional, verbally-focused psychoanalysis. Their foundational premise is that people are best thought of as a whole entities consisting of body, mind, and emotions, and best understood when viewed through their own eyes.

via Psychology Today

Feminist therapy is an integrative approach to psychotherapy that focuses on the challenges that women face as a result of bias, stereotyping, oppression, discrimination, and other factors, and how those stressors can negatively affect their mental health. It is based on the belief that wellness is inextricably linked to an individual’s social and cultural identities and the political environment in which they live.

The therapeutic relationship, based on equality between therapist and client, and their ability to forge an authentic connection, helps clients understand some of the social factors that may contribute to their mental-health concerns, discover and claim their unique identity, and uncover and build on their personal strengths to advance their own lives and those of others.

via Psychology Today

Ecotherapy, also known as nature therapy or green therapy, is the applied practice of the emergent field of ecopsychology, which was developed by Theodore Roszak. Ecotherapy, in many cases, stems from the belief that people are part of the web of life and that our psyches are not isolated or separate from our environment. Ecopsychology is informed by systems theory and provides individuals with an opportunity to explore their relationship with nature—an area that may be overlooked in many other types of psychotherapy. While some professionals teach and practice ecopsychology exclusively, other mental health practitioners incorporate aspects of ecotherapy into their existing practices.

via Good Therapy