Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) is a time-limited, evidence-based psychotherapy that focuses on resolving interpersonal problems and improving relationships with others. It has been found to be effective in treating a variety of mood and anxiety disorders and is also commonly used as an adjunctive treatment for patients with other medical or psychiatric conditions.
The goal of IPT is reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety while improving communication skills and promoting greater social connectedness and support. We focus on enhancing relationships with friends, family, romantic partners, and colleagues, resolving role disputes and role transitions, assessing social skills and deficits in social connection, and addressing complicated grief.
To break these areas of focus down a bit further:
In complicated grief, the normal period of low mood following a loss becomes even more complex with symptoms in addition to or instead of healthy mourning.
Role disputes arise in relationships where participating individuals have disputes over expected behaviors in that relationship. Disputes can occur at home with family members, amongst friends, or at work.
Role transitions can cause depression because individuals may not know how to cope with the change. Even normally happy events, such as the birth of a child or a promotion at work, can cause distress for individuals who cannot effectively cope with the changes brought on by these shifts in structure and functioning.
A lack of interpersonal connectedness can contribute to low mood. The cause of reduced interpersonal connectedness may be tied to a voluntary withdrawal from relationships after a significant life event, or it may be due to a lack of skills to help form and maintain quality interpersonal relationships.
Developing new strategies for interacting with others may involve practicing new skills, such as active listening, assertiveness, or saying “no”. At CBT Denver, when we are working with clients, we seek to help our clients become better observers of their own emotions and how these feelings, and resulting behaviors, impact their relationships, their mood, and ultimately their overall sense of connection.
Four Simple Problems, Numerous Complications
Interpersonal therapy focuses on four basic problems that can underlie many complicated disorders, especially depression:
Complicated grief
Role disputes
Role transitions
Lack of interpersonal connectedness
In complicated grief, the normal period of low mood following a loss incorporates a number of symptoms in addition to or instead of healthy mourning.
Role disputes arise in relationships where participating individuals have disputes over expected behaviors in that relationship. Most commonly, intimate partners disagree about what each partner is expected to bring to the relationship.
Role transitions can cause depression because individuals may not know how to cope with the change. Even normally happy events, such as the birth of a child or a promotion at work, can cause distress for individuals who cannot effectively cope with the changes brought on by these shifts in structure and functioning.
A lack of interpersonal connectedness can contribute to low mood. The cause of reduced interpersonal connectedness may be tied to a voluntary withdrawal from relationships after a significant life event, or it may be due to a lack of skills to help form and maintain quality interpersonal relationships.
Your Recovery Story
Like a story, interpersonal therapy consists of a beginning, middle, and end, or what we might call Act I, Act II and Act III. In Act I, an individual and their therapist introduce yourselves and work together to identify the cause of your depression.
In Act II, an individual and their therapist work together to resolve the problem using specific strategies that have been proven to be effective in resolving the issues you face. A major component is learning to identify, value, and express emotions. If you know what you are feeling and why, you can better resolve the primary issue rather than engage in unproductive and often destructive conflict with others. It’s also important to realize when the true source of emotion is related to other issues that may seem distant from the present conflicts—the true source may even be previous relationships and can only be dealt with in that context.
In Act III, an individual and their therapist review the progress that has been made and the lessons that have been learned. The individual learns that they have the tools to face and overcome future issues.
