Comprehensive Guide to 100+ Psychological Therapy Techniques Across Major Therapeutic Approaches

Evidence-Based Tools for Mental Health Professionals to Support Client Healing, Growth, and Transformation

Here’s a comprehensive overview of psychological techniques used in therapy, including more than 100 techniques categorized by major therapeutic modalities and styles. These are widely used by clinicians depending on the client’s diagnosis, personality, and goals for treatment.

1. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Focus: Changing maladaptive thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.

Core Techniques:

  • Cognitive restructuring – Challenging irrational thoughts.
  • Behavioral activation – Scheduling pleasant activities to improve mood.
  • Thought records – Journaling thoughts, emotions, and evidence.
  • Socratic questioning – Encouraging critical thinking.
  • Exposure therapy – Facing fears to reduce avoidance.
  • Graded exposure – Step-by-step desensitization.
  • Behavioral experiments – Testing the validity of beliefs.
  • Activity scheduling – Planning daily rewarding tasks.
  • Coping cards – Written reminders of coping strategies.
  • Mood tracking – Monitoring emotional changes daily.
  • Problem-solving training – Structured problem-solving approach.
  • Self-monitoring – Tracking behaviors/thoughts to increase awareness.
  • Cognitive rehearsal – Visualizing new behavior before acting.
  • Relaxation training – Deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation.
  • Assertiveness training – Teaching respectful self-expression.
  • Social skills training – Practicing interpersonal communication.
  • Time management – Organizing tasks to reduce stress.
  • Cognitive distortions identification – Spotting thinking errors.
  • Decatastrophizing – Challenging worst-case thinking.
  • Token economies – Reinforcing desired behaviors with rewards.

2. Psychodynamic Therapy

Focus: Unconscious motives, early experiences, and internal conflicts.

Core Techniques:

  • Free association – Speaking freely to uncover unconscious content.
  • Dream analysis – Exploring symbolism in dreams.
  • Transference interpretation – Understanding client projections.
  • Countertransference awareness – Therapist’s emotional reactions.
  • Interpretation – Providing insight into unconscious processes.
  • Working through – Repetition of insights to resolve inner conflicts.
  • Defense mechanism analysis – Identifying psychological defenses.
  • Resistance analysis – Understanding why change is avoided.
  • Attachment exploration – Investigating early relational patterns.
  • Object relations work – Examining internalized relationships.
  • Projective identification – Understanding transferred roles/emotions.
  • Narrative reconstruction – Exploring and reframing life stories.
  • Relational interpretation – Exploring dynamics in therapy relationship.
  • Trauma reenactment awareness – Identifying patterns from trauma.
  • Symbolic interpretation – Making meaning of metaphorical language.

3. Humanistic and Existential Therapies

Focus: Self-actualization, authenticity, and the here-and-now experience.

Core Techniques:

  • Unconditional positive regard – Total acceptance and support.
  • Active listening – Reflecting and clarifying.
  • Empathic attunement – Deep understanding of client emotions.
  • Gestalt empty chair – Dialoguing with self or others in imagination.
  • Here-and-now focus – Grounding in present experience.
  • Congruence – Therapist’s authentic presence.
  • Existential questioning – Exploring purpose, death, isolation, freedom.
  • Self-discovery – Encouraging introspection.
  • Values exploration – Discovering guiding principles.
  • Authentic dialogue – Mutual exploration of the therapeutic relationship.
  • Creative expression – Use of art, writing, or music.
  • Somatic awareness – Tuning into physical sensations.
  • Mind-body integration – Exploring bodily felt sense (e.g., Focusing).
  • Role-playing – Rehearsing real-life interactions.
  • Inner child work – Reconnecting with and healing early emotional wounds.

4. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Focus: Balancing acceptance with change; managing intense emotions.

Core Techniques:

  • Mindfulness – Awareness without judgment.
  • Distress tolerance – Surviving crises skillfully.
  • Radical acceptance – Fully accepting current reality.
  • TIPP skills – Changing body chemistry (Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, Progressive muscle relaxation).
  • STOP skill – Pause before reacting (Stop, Take a step back, Observe, Proceed mindfully).
  • Wise mind – Integrating emotional and rational thought.
  • DEAR MAN – Assertiveness strategy (Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce, Mindful, Appear confident, Negotiate).
  • Emotion regulation – Managing emotions through behavior.
  • Opposite action – Doing the opposite of emotion-driven behavior.
  • PLEASE skills – Physical self-care (treating illness, eating, sleep, exercise).
  • Validation – Acknowledging the other’s experience.

5. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Focus: Embracing thoughts/feelings while committing to meaningful action.

Core Techniques:

  • Cognitive defusion – Separating from thoughts to reduce their power.
  • Acceptance – Allowing painful experiences without resistance.
  • Values clarification – Identifying core values and goals.
  • Committed action – Taking value-based steps.
  • Self-as-context – Observing self as awareness, not identity.
  • Mindful breathing – Anchoring attention to the breath.
  • The observing self – Developing metacognition.
  • Experiential exercises – Living through values.
  • Metaphors (e.g., passengers on the bus) – Illustrating complex concepts.
  • Creative hopelessness – Recognizing the limits of control.
  • Expansion – Making room for difficult feelings.

6. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Focus: Healing trauma through bilateral stimulation.

Core Techniques:

  • Bilateral stimulation – Eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones.
  • Target identification – Selecting distressing memories.
  • Desensitization – Reducing emotional disturbance.
  • Installation – Reinforcing positive beliefs.
  • Body scan – Detecting residual physical tension.
  • Closure – Re-stabilization after session.
  • Future template – Envisioning positive behavior in future scenarios.
  • Cognitive interweaves – Therapeutic prompts to shift stuck processing.

7. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

Focus: Building on strengths and past successes.

Core Techniques:

  • Miracle question – Imagining life without the problem.
  • Scaling questions – Measuring progress and confidence.
  • Exception finding – Identifying when the problem was absent.
  • Coping questions – Highlighting strengths during adversity.
  • Goal setting – Defining achievable solutions.
  • Complimenting – Reinforcing progress and competence.
  • Future-focused conversation – Orienting toward change.
  • Constructive reframing – Offering new perspectives on problems.

8. Narrative Therapy

Focus: Rewriting the client’s personal story.

Core Techniques:

  • Externalization – Separating the person from the problem.
  • Re-authoring – Developing preferred storylines.
  • Unique outcomes – Highlighting events that defy the problem story.
  • Documenting change – Creating letters or certificates of progress.
  • Thickening narratives – Enriching alternative perspectives.
  • Mapping influences – Analyzing how problems impact life.

9. Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)

Focus: Improving interpersonal relationships and communication.

Core Techniques:

  • Role-playing – Practicing interpersonal scenarios.
  • Communication analysis – Reviewing real-life interactions.
  • Interpersonal inventory – Mapping significant relationships.
  • Grief processing – Exploring loss and its impact.
  • Conflict resolution – Managing interpersonal disputes.
  • Role transitions – Adapting to life changes (e.g., divorce, parenthood).

10. Somatic and Body-Oriented Therapies

Focus: Integrating bodily sensations and trauma.

Core Techniques:

  • Somatic tracking – Monitoring body sensations.
  • Grounding exercises – Anchoring attention in the body.
  • Titration – Processing trauma in small doses.
  • Pendulation – Moving between distress and calm.
  • Sensorimotor integration – Movement-based processing.
  • Touch-based interventions – Used in some trauma models.
  • Bioenergetics – Releasing emotional tension through posture and breath.

11. Other Integrative and Specialized Techniques

  • Motivational interviewing (MI) – Enhancing intrinsic motivation for change.
  • Hypnotherapy – Inducing trance to access unconscious resources.
  • Reparenting – Meeting unmet childhood needs in therapy.
  • Art therapy – Expressing emotions through visual art.
  • Music therapy – Using sound and rhythm therapeutically.
  • Drama therapy – Role play and performance for healing.
  • Eclectic therapy – Drawing techniques from multiple modalities.
  • Bibliotherapy – Using books and literature in healing.
  • Journaling – Writing to explore thoughts and emotions.
  • Psychoeducation – Teaching psychological concepts and coping skills.
  • Inner critic work – Confronting internal negative self-talk.
  • Voice dialogue – Engaging internal parts or subpersonalities.
  • Mindful self-compassion – Building inner kindness.
  • Visualization – Imagining safe or successful scenarios.
  • Chairwork – Dialoguing between parts of self or with others.