I’m a career coach, so why am I writing about therapy?

Because I believe the secret to a meaningful career change is working on ourselves, not just our CVs or our interview pitch. That work incorporates self-awareness and self-development, which can be done via coaching or therapy or both at the same time!

If you don’t engage in self-development or some kind of healing, then you risk a career change where you’ve removed the immediate pain but not the root cause. For example,

You leave because the company caused you to burnout, but you bring your people pleasing tendencies and lack of boundaries to the next job. Thereby re-creating the very environment you wanted to get away from.

You might also not be finding any jobs you like because of what you’re telling yourself. Your inner critic is calling you a lazy procrastinator, whereas actually what’s going on is that your nervous system goes into freeze mode when you’re under pressure – and that’s a stress response your body learned so early on that you don’t even know it’s unprocessed trauma, you think it’s a character flaw.

Your inability to pick a direction could be because you don’t trust yourself to make a decision. And that could stem from growing up in a family where you were constantly told off and criticised, making you feel like you always do the wrong thing, and blocking you from exploring your own voice.

You see? The stuckness may be coming from a deeper place.

That’s why therapy works beautifully alongside coaching.

Therapy helps you understand and heal the deeper patterns that hold you back and coaching helps you move forward with confidence, strategy, motivation and direction.

BUT, here’s what most people don’t realise: there isn’t just one type of therapy. There are many!

And they’re very different to each other. There are talking therapies, body-based therapies, trauma-focused approaches, and other evidence-based methods that help with different kinds of “stuck.”

Why is this important?

Because it may have taken you years to pluck up the courage to finally go see a therapist (WELL DONE).

You find one and so you begin. You go week in, week out, and you think it’s helping….sorta. It’s hard to tell. You feel better because you’re talking, but also – nothing is changing. You’ll get to a point where you think:

‘So what? So what that I know about my problems and so does this therapist.  So what that I’ve combed through my childhood and laid out my traumas. I’m aware of them, but how do I change? How do I move forward?”

If you don’t feel like anything big has shifted, you may be tempted to write therapy off altogether.

Don’t.

Don’t give up on your mental health.

Because it IS possible to change your mood and mind. You just need the right type of therapy. So try another approach to the one you’ve experienced.

And if you’re thinking “where do I even begin?” I’ve got you. This is why I’ve created this guide: to give you an overview of the main therapy approaches out there, comparing them to alternative or lesser-known therapies, all so you can feel into what feels right for you.

Let’s begin with the two main categories…

Talking Therapy vs. Somatic (body-based) Therapy

What’s the difference?

Talking therapies help you work through thoughts and emotions by…..talking! No surprises there. They’re super powerful for making sense of experiences and putting names to emotions, problems and events.

But talking only gets you so far.

You’re talking about what you remember.

What about all the stuff that happened in childhood? During pre-verbal stages? When your memory store wasn’t fully developed?

Well, those ‘memories’ are still in there, but they’re stored in your body, not your mind, and they’re stored as feelings and physical sensations rather than crystal clear memories.

Those memories, particularly if they are traumatic, impact the nervous system, leaving the body in a state of hyper-vigilance ie. in fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown. Over time, this can manifest in health issues like chronic stress, fatigue, digestive issues like IBS, sleep problems, or emotional triggers like panic attacks that seem to come “out of nowhere.” These are unprocessed emotions calling out for attention – asking to be heard and healed.

Another reason why talking therapies are sometimes not enough is that when your body is stuck in fight, flight, or freeze, you’re in survival mode. Your mind and body is focused on keeping you safe, not reflecting on the past, analysing patterns or processing emotions. (Read more on the impact of trauma on your brain and body here)

Body-based approaches help regulate the nervous system first, so your mind can finally engage and make sense of what’s been stored in the body.

Then they help the nervous system complete responses that were frozen or stuck during traumatic events, and in doing so, allow the body and mind to heal and integrate those early experiences.

List of Talking Therapies

Here is a brief overview of the main types of therapies that would be classified as talking therapies. Now, don’t think these are any worse or less effective than body-based therapies. Talking therapies are a great starting point. There is a lot of power in opening up to a professional in a safe, non-judgemental space, and articulating what you’re feeling. It’s also this trusting relationship that does a lot of the healing. That’s why books, podcasts and webinars are not enough – you need to be in the presence of an individual who can make you feel safe and held in order to do challenging things like confront avoidance patterns, see blind spots and work with the ‘shadow self’.

Some therapists are trained in more than one approach. Usually they will list all of them, but they can also call themselves ‘integrative therapists’ as a short-hand for saying they integrate many different approaches.

Psychotherapy

This is the most common type of therapy. Variations of this are called counselling, psychodynamic therapy,

⏳ Duration: Long-term (weekly sessions going on for months or years)

🔍 Helps with: Deep-rooted emotional issues, childhood trauma, relationship patterns, self-awareness

💡 What to expect: Exploring past experiences and unconscious thoughts, gaining insight into behavioral patterns, and making connections between past and present.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

⏳ Duration: Short to medium-term (anywhere between 6–20 sessions, usually weekly)

🔍 Helps with: Anxiety, depression, phobias, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), low self-esteem, negative self-talk, perfectionism, inner critic

💡 What to expect: The therapist will introduce you to the CBT theory which is that your thoughts affect your behaviour with effects your results. You’ll then work through exercises that help with reframing thoughts to change beliefs and behaviours. This is a structured, problem-solving approach which also usually involves homework between sessions.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

⏳ Duration: Short to medium-term (anywhere between 6–20 sessions, usually weekly)

🔍 Helps with: Anxiety, depression, stress, chronic pain, self-acceptance, self-compassion

💡 What to expect: It’s almost like the opposite of CBT. Where CBT focuses on changing your thoughts, ACT, as the name suggests, gets you to accept your emotions instead of fighting them. It doesn’t mean you surrender to them and don’t do anything – there’s value in meeting yourself where you are and then making a plan for going forward. It uses mindfulness techniques and you can expect to do some work on your values.

Humanistic Therapy (Person-Centered, Gestalt, Existential)

⏳ Duration: Medium to long-term (varies but usually weekly)

🔍 Helps with: Self-esteem, personal growth, existential concerns, emotional difficulties

💡 What to expect:

Person-Centered Therapy: This therapist positions the client is an expert on themselves and so doesn’t intervene, but instead helps the client gain self-acceptance. They offer empathy and support without directing the conversation (ie. they’re very hands off.)

Gestalt Therapy: The therapist focuses on the here and now, encouraging you to notice your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations as they arise. You might explore unfinished business from the past or role-play situations. Where person-centered therapy is one of the softest approaches, Gestalt is the opposite. It’s the most direct and confronting. There’s no hiding from the therapist – they call you out on everything.

Existential Therapy: This approach likes to meet the anxieties and uncertainties of life such as death, the fear of the unknown and the meaning of life head on. It’s one of the most philosophical of psychology approaches and focuses on the present, rather than the past. Expect to explore questions of purpose, freedom, and responsibility. It’s also about making peace with contradictions.

Transactional Analysis (TA)

⏳ Duration: Medium to long-term (can range from weeks to years)


🔍 Helps with: Relationship patterns, communication issues, self-awareness


💡 What to expect: Unlike the Humanistic approaches where the client is the expert, with TA, the therapist is the expert in the relationship and they will teach you about the key concepts of the approach. TA is based on the idea that there are three ego states – Parent, Adult and Child – from which we communicate. You basically want to be communicating Adult to Adult, but sometimes we drop into the other two ego states. TA teaches you to identify this and correct for it so you’re not being pulled into unhealthy dynamics.

List of Somatic/ Body-based Therapies

The following therapies work with the nervous system, subconscious mind, and energy pathways to release stuck emotions, calm stress responses, and help you feel more integrated.

Expect to yawn in some of these sessions and even feel your tummy rumbling! This is a sign you’re healing because your nervous system is shifting from fight, flight, or freeze (the sympathetic or dorsal vagal states) into the ventral vagal state or the ‘rest and digest’ state which is a place of safety, connection, and relaxation.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

⏳ Duration: Short to medium-term (between 4–12 sessions, sometimes ongoing as needed)


🔍 Helps with: Anxiety, stress, trauma, phobias, emotional blocks, chronic pain


💡 What to expect: You’ll tap on specific acupressure points on your body while focusing on emotions or memories. You’ll be talking much less than in other forms of therapy as you focus on your body and the bubbling emotions there, allowing them to ‘express’ themselves and therefore integrate and heal.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

⏳ Duration: Medium-term (usually 6–12 sessions, can be longer for complex trauma)


🔍 Helps with: PTSD, trauma, anxiety, phobias, depression


💡 What to expect: You’ll select a current problem to treat in the session and the therapist will guide you through specific eye movements or other bilateral stimulation whilst you focus on the body sensations. There’ll be a moving dot to focus on screen that makes you move your eyes side-to-side, imitating REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep (which is when we process our experiences).

The In-Betweeners

These approaches fall between talking and somatic.

Hypnotherapy

⏳ Duration: Short to medium-term (anywhere between 3 – 12 sessions, sometimes ongoing)


🔍 Helps with: Anxiety, phobias, habits, trauma, stress management


💡 What to expect: You don’t talk as much as in psychotherapy, but you don’t work with the body, you work with the subconscious. The therapist guides you into a relaxed, focused state to access the subconscious mind. This can help change unhelpful patterns, reframe thoughts, and reduce emotional triggers.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

⏳ Duration: Medium to long-term (varies, often several months)


🔍 Helps with: Trauma, self-criticism, anxiety, depression, relationship issues


💡 What to expect: The therapist will guide you to explore and talk to the different “parts” of yourself (e.g. inner critic, wounded child) in a compassionate, structured way. IFS encourages awareness of bodily sensations associated with these parts. This helps you understand, heal, and integrate these parts rather than fighting or suppressing them.

Bonus ones

I’ve listed psychology-based approaches, but there are many ways to heal.

I can’t go into all of them in detail as new ones spring up a lot, but I’ll give you a list and you can use the old Google or ChatGPT to research them at your leisure.

Heads up: these therapies aren’t regulated in the same way as the above therapies. This means that practitioners might not need a licence or formal accreditation to offer them. If you decide to explore these approaches, please always check their qualifications, professional memberships, and training to make sure you feel safe and supported.

A good thing to look out for is if professionals has had ‘trauma-informed’ training which means they understand how to work safely with people who have experienced trauma. This means they know what to do if a client gets triggered.

Nature Therapy / Ecotherapy

Uses time in natural environments to reduce stress, improve mood, and support emotional healing. This can include forest bathing, guided nature walks, or outdoor mindfulness practices.

Reiki

Practitioners use gentle touch or hover their hands over specific areas of the body to help balance your body’s energy.

Craniosacral Therapy

Gentle hands-on therapy that works with the craniosacral system (the membranes and fluid around the brain and spinal cord) to release tension and improve nervous system functioning.

Shamanic or Spiritual Healing Practices

Often incorporates ritual, meditation, energy work, or guided journeying to release emotional blocks and foster personal growth.

Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (under professional guidance)

Involves substances like psilocybin, MDMA, or ketamine in a controlled therapeutic setting to address depression, PTSD, or trauma. Helps the brain process emotions and trauma in a unique, often profound way.

Ok folks, that’s all for now. If you found this useful, do share.

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