In recent years, significant advances have been made in the field of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is the treatment of a patient by a therapist using psychologic techniques and making systematic use of the patient-therapist relationship. Psychiatrists are not the only mental health professionals trained to practice psychotherapy. Dynamic psychotherapy is derived from psychoanalysis and is based on helping the patient understand unconscious conflicts and patterns that may be creating symptoms and difficulties with relationships. Cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses primarily on distortions in the patient's thinking.
Interpersonal therapy focuses on how a loss or change in a relationship affects the patient.
Behavioral therapy is geared toward helping patients unlearn conditioned ways of reacting to events around them. In practice, many psychotherapists combine techniques, depending on a patient's needs. Psychotherapy is appropriate in a wide range of conditions. Even people who don't have a psychiatric disorder may find psychotherapy helpful in coping with such problems as employment difficulties, bereavement, or chronic illness in the family. Group psychotherapy and family therapy are also widely used.