aPPROACHES

Experiential Therapy

At It Begins Within, we offer experiential therapy using a variety of activities to help you break through emotional barriers. Our expert therapists provide a supportive environment, fostering self-awareness and personal growth for a more fulfilled life.

What is Experiential Therapy?

Experiential therapy is an alternative to talk therapy. While talk therapy treatments focus more on the cognitive experience of the person seeking therapy, experiential therapy delves more into having actual experiences that dive into negative emotions and other mental health issues during therapy sessions. Experiential therapies are intended to help people explore emotional processing in a way that may not be as accessible through traditional talk therapy.

Different methods of experiential therapy

Each type of experiential therapy has a specific approach and the reasoning behind it may vary, but just as with other forms of therapy, there may be an exploration of inner thoughts, attempts to process emotions, processing painful memories or traumatic events, role playing, and exploring a wide range of emotional experiences.

Just as there are various forms of talk therapy, there are multiple types of experiential therapy. Just a few include:

  • Music therapy

  • Adventure therapy

  • Recreational therapy

  • Art therapy

  • Therapeutic play or play therapy

  • Equine therapy

What is experiential therapy used to treat?

Experiential therapy works by helping clients determine new ways to work through challenging emotions, understand current or future relationships, and find ways to release negative emotions that may be continuing to impact a person's perception of their current life. Since perception, emotions, and communication (or expression) impact all areas of life, experiential therapy may work for a variety of issues.

Just as there are many forms of experiential therapy, there are a variety of difficulties that the approach can focus on. Experiential therapy may be particularly effective for the following:

self esteem struggles

Experiential therapy encourages clients to explore their true selves, helping build self-confidence and a stronger sense of identity.

mood disorders

This approach helps individuals with mood disorders by encouraging them to actively engage with and process underlying emotions through creative or physical activities, breaking negative thought patterns and releasing repressed feelings.

anxiety and depression

Experiential therapy allows individuals to explore deep-seated emotions in a safe, supportive environment, which can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Behavioral Issues and Anger Management

For individuals struggling with anger or other behavioral challenges, experiential therapy provides a space to express and understand these emotions in healthier ways.

issues that have been unresponsive to other talk therapy approaches

If an individual is unresponsive to traditional talk therapy, engaging in hands-on activities that bypass intellectual defenses can allow them to access and process deep-seated emotions and traumas. This approach often leads to emotional breakthroughs and healing where other methods may have stalled.

How can experiential therapy help me?

Any therapy technique is going to be influenced by the relationship between the client and therapist, which has been shown to be one of the most important factors. Experiential therapists focus on helping clients engage differently with both positive emotions and negative emotions than they have in the past, developing expressive tools to promote healing.

Experiential techniques can help clients to approach or process issues in ways that they have not currently experienced in the past, allowing for new pathways to be built and explored in the process. This can lead to new connections, revelations, and experiences that may not have occurred when attempting other therapeutic methods in the past.

Are there any downsides to experiential therapy?

As with any therapeutic intervention, it is important to keep in mind the risk of feeling worse before you feel better. This often occurs when we work on improving self awareness. Experiential therapy work is uniquely designed to utilize that self awareness directly in sessions instead of the self awareness work occurring predominantly outside of therapy sessions. While some of that will still occur, experiential therapy can help a client feel more in control or like they are directly getting something out of a session in the moment.

Schedule Free Consultation

We offer comprehensive mental health services and free consultations for all of our skilled therapists. Our belief is that the strongest factor in your success through therapy is the relationship with your therapist - and we want to ensure that.