For many adults, the workplace is where they’ll spend most of their time. Work gives employees a sense of purpose and meaning and acts as an outlet for socialization; therefore, a negative work environment can lead to physical and mental health concerns.
The World Health Organization reported that depression and anxiety have a significant global economic impact, causing a global loss of $1 trillion dollars in productivity each year. Workplaces that promote and support mental health are more likely to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, improve employee retention and morale, and benefit from associated economic gains, such as reduced healthcare costs.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 1 in 5 Americans may experience a mental health condition each year. Work sites are uniquely situated to become leaders on the front lines of promoting good mental health.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Employers can use this time to develop a healthy workplace by making mental health self-assessment tools and counseling easily available, host workshops to address topics like depression, stress management, anxiety, or substance use, dedicate spaces for relaxation, and normalize discussions about mental health.
THERAPY AT EDEN HEALTH
Eden Health’s behavioral health team provides individual therapy to employees. Treatment at Eden Health can average around six months of weekly or bi-weekly 45 minute sessions. Each therapist is extensively trained and specializes in evidence-based treatment modalities including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Psychodynamic/Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing.
BREAKING DOWN DIFFERENT FORMS OF THERAPY
We work with patients to decide which type of therapy would be most beneficial for them. Share the descriptions below with your employees so they can learn more about what resources are available to them.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on how a person’s unhelpful thinking patterns affect their emotions and behaviors. CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking and behavioral patterns through exercises in the session, such as identifying and challenging cognitive distortions, role playing problematic interactions with others, and learning relaxation and grounding techniques with homework to implement new skills outside of the session. CBT therapists emphasize what is going on in the person’s current life with the goal to move forward by coping more effectively. In essence, the CBT therapist helps the patient become their own therapist.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that provides patients with new skills to manage difficult emotions and decrease conflict in interpersonal relationships. DBT specifically focuses on providing therapeutic skills in four key areas: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Mindfulness focuses on improving an individual’s ability to accept their feelings and be present in the current moment. Distress tolerance are skills used for increasing a person’s tolerance of negative emotion, rather than trying to avoid it or get rid of it. Emotion regulation helps develop strategies to manage and change intense emotions that are causing difficulties. Interpersonal effectiveness are techniques that help a client recognize how their behaviors impact their relationships and how to make positive changes through learning to communicate in a way that is assertive, maintains self-respect, and strengthens relationships.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a behavioral therapy that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, commitment, and behavior change strategies to increase psychological, behavioral, and emotional flexibility through six main core processes. ACT therapists help clients recognize ways in which their attempts to suppress, manage, and control emotional experiences create challenges and prevent them from living a meaningful, fulfilling life. Through the use of metaphors, values clarification, developing values congruent therapy goals, and experiential exercises, the client can make room for values-based actions that support their well-being.
Psychodynamic/ Psychoanalytic Therapy– Psychodynamic therapy looks at the inner drives and forces of an individual and how they affect their relationship with the external world through the use of self-reflection, self-examination, and identifying problematic relationship patterns. Psychodynamic therapy can help individuals increase insight and awareness into unresolved, repressed, or unconscious issues, needs, desires, and urges. It can also help identify emotional patterns and core beliefs, which in turn helps to develop healthier coping mechanisms.
Solution Focused Therapy (SFT). SFT is a short-term, goal-focused therapeutic approach. It incorporates positive psychology principles and practices to help clients change by constructing satisfying solutions rather than focusing on problems.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT). EFT is a humanistic psychotherapy developed with the science of adult attachment and developmental theory of personality and intimate relationships. EFT prioritizes emotion and emotional regulation as the organizing agents in an individual’s experiences and relationship interactions. EFT is best known as the gold standard for couples and family therapy, but it is also used to address individual depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress.
Motivational Interviewing (MI). MI is an evidence based approach to behavioral change that involves supporting one’s motivation to change. MI attempts to move someone from a state of uncertainty or indecision toward finding the motivation to make positive choices in order to accomplish an established goal. MI creates behavioral change by helping people resolve ambivalence and explore opportunities, determine the discrepancy between the behavior and goals or values, and adjust to resistance.
Want to learn more about how Eden Health can support your workforce’s mental health needs? Reach out to our team today.
Authored by Ashley Pearson, LMHC, NCC, CCMHC.
This blog is intended to be informational in nature. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.
If you have any questions or concerns, please talk to your Care Team or other healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this blog or in any linked materials.
