Am I Normal?
May 8, 2026
Quick Guide to 5 Modern Therapy Approaches
Learn about some of the approaches your therapist may be using and how they work.
- CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy): Targets cognition and behavior. It bridges the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to help you identify and restructure unhelpful, negative thinking and behavioral patterns into realistic perspectives.
- EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): Targets memory. It uses bilateral stimulation (like side-to-side eye movements or tapping) to help the brain process and desensitize traumatic memories to reduce triggers and their cognitive impact and to decrease physical response. EMDR in theory connects the body and brain during the processing just as the body and brain both went through the trauma, so it also goes through the processing unlike cognitive therapies which are not structured to include physical connection.
- Mindfulness: Targets awareness. It teaches non-judgmental, purposeful attention to the present moment, helping you observe difficult thoughts and emotions like without judging them. Mindfulness works on setting down the weight of past and future worries and grounding in the moment. Perhaps noticing that in the moment nothing dangerous or of concern is happening or that in a given moment needs are met. In challenging moments mindfulness works to keep a person grounded and able to examine with curiosity as they choose their actions.
- Narrative Therapy: Targets identity. It views you as the expert of your life, separating you from your struggles (“the person is not the problem”) to help you externalize issues and rewrite self-limiting life stories. Like CBT it can help a person deconstruct negative understandings about the world, perhaps learned from family, culture, or social pressures, allowing the person to explore and build new narratives.
- Parts Therapy (IFS & Ego States): All parts work targets internal dynamics hoping to heal wounded parts, think of the movie “Inside Out” or the “Sybil.” In both movies internal parts of the person are reacting to situations in different ways. The goal of IFS is to learn self-leadership by the core self and to heal the burdened, managerial, and reactive parts. Internal Family Systems (IFS) categorizes these parts into Exiles, Managers, and Firefighters. It views the psyche as a collection of sub-personalities or parts that act as an internal family. Within that family there is a core self or essence, which acts from the 8 C’s: Curiosity, Compassion, Calm, Clarity, Courage, Confidence, Creativity, and Connectedness.
Learn more about how I apply these therapy services to help you find healing.
Dorothy Smith is an artist and mental health therapist (LCSW) in Virginia. She works in steel, bronze, paint and other media. Dorothy is focusing on her paintings and doing large welded monumental works. As a therapist, Dorothy does online therapy and Walk and Talk, out walking in nature while doing therapy.
