Underlying emotional issues which are left over from childhood relationships with parents are reworked in the relationship with the therapist. More than one meeting per week is often needed. Humanistic approaches emphasize the real relationship between the therapist and client and tend to use feedback to clarify the client's thoughts and emotions. Feminist approaches emphasize the social causes of difficulties experienced as a result of gender roles and uses techniques aimed at empowering the client to be free to gender role demands. Psychoanalysis is an intensive form of psychoanalytic therapy requiring about three to four meetings each week for several years.
Group therapy uses meetings of from several to a dozen clients with one or two therapists.
In some groups the counselor will work with each participant individually with few comments from other participants during the work. Other groups rely more on observations and discussion from participants with the counselor providing consultation as necessary to facilitate the work. Some groups combine these approaches. Couples therapy focuses on problems in a marriage or other love relationship by improving partners' understanding of each other's needs, facilitating communication and exploring unstated assumptions about the relationship. Family therapy addresses problems that occur in a family context.