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What is IPT?

Interpersonal therapy (IPT) is a time-limited, evidence-based practice. It is also an attachment-focused treatment. It centers on relieving the symptoms of several mental health disorders. This is achieved by improving and enhancing interpersonal functionality. This means that this short-term treatment strives to cultivate strong attachments as it believes that relational deficits impact mental health.

The treatment is short, usually about 12-16 weeks. Its goal is to reduce the suffering of the patients to improve their relationships with those around them. The primary focus of this approach is on the social support you receive from others and how those relationships affect your mental health. The proponents believe that your mood and life situations, especially your relationships, are related. And working on interpersonal effectiveness skills can improve your mental health.

For example, a person going through a job transition may feel that their depressive symptoms have developed after getting into the new role. In this case, IPT may help them better adjust to these changes, accept the new life, and practice mastery over it. It's crucial to rebuild your self-esteem, and this treatment approach can help by assisting you in feeling in control of the demands of your new job. Your therapist will also assist you in developing a feeling of hope and improved coping mechanisms for any challenges your new life and career may present. We frequently lose control over the situations in our lives, but we do have power over how we react to those circumstances. With IPT, you can constructively exercise this power and lead you to the path of recovery!

Treatment Structure

The treatment process generally starts with a general patient assessment. Then, it is structured into four parts. This is what the treatment model looks like:

• Initial Sessions: The initial phase requires the IPT practitioners to conduct an interpersonal inventory. This includes a brief description of the people in the patient's life and how those relationships impact them. This can analyze the patient's relationship patterns, level of intimacy, and specifically, an evaluation of existing relationships. The therapist will have to figure out those relationships which can be classified as one of the four focus areas. These are grief and loss, role disputes, role transitions, or interpersonal deficits. This determines the rest of the therapy.

  This is followed by signing a contract, which includes details about each session's number, frequency, and duration. It also provides information about the agreed clinical foci of the treatment, the roles and expectations from the patient and the therapist, contingencies, such as missed sessions, medical illnesses, and holidays, and critical information about treatment boundaries and conduct.

• Intermediate Sessions: The middle phases need a collaborative effort of the therapist and the patient to address the problems rectified in the initial clinical trials. After identification, the patient must explore their perceptions and expectations about the relationship. This can help determine the link between the challenging area and the symptoms exhibited.

  Following this is a brainstorming session to find out and put in place the proposed solution. The patient is also responsible for sharing feedback about the tried solution and its outcomes in the following session. The patient and therapist then discuss these outcomes and make any necessary adjustments. This can be beneficial in managing similar future scenarios.

• Treatment Conclusion: The terminal 3-4 sessions revolve around the termination of the contract. It also reviews the progress of the patient in terms of symptom relief. This provides better proof of the effectiveness of IPT. The specific targets of treatment completion are to foster the patient's independent functioning. It also aims to increase their sense of competence. This part of the treatment process aims to consolidate gains and anticipate future problems. Even though the patient is expected to function independently and effectively, the IPT therapist will be in contact in case of emergencies.

• Maintenance Therapy: Maintenance treatment intends to prevent relapse and maintain productive and efficient interpersonal functionality. Unlike traditional therapy, IPT does not terminate after the concluding sessions. In fact, therapeutic encounters in the future are anticipated, and provisions are prepared for them.

What are the Benefits?

There are various benefits of IPT. These include:

• Improved Relationships: Through this form of therapy, patients can better understand how their relationship difficulties affect their moods. So, as it is a two-fold process, patients can also find the interpersonal problem areas and work on them to improve the interpersonal situation and relieve symptoms of mood disorders.
• Decreased Depression: The cyclic pattern of this treatment believes that tense relationships can affect your mood. And the onset of symptoms of mood disorders can also cause tension in your relationships. Thus, the goal of IPT is to alleviate symptoms of mental health concerns and major depression by working on your social roles.
• Coping Skills: In this treatment, you'll learn how to deal with grief, the death of a loved one, or an unwanted feeling in a better way. You'll learn to control your anger without letting it out on others. IPT can also teach you how to deal with bereavement without affecting your daily life.
• Problem-Solving: This approach assists you in discovering effective, secure methods for problem-solving. You can learn skills like managing stress and speaking your mind. You won't struggle with solving problems anymore but will be doing it yourself.
• Present-Oriented: Unlike some psychotherapy approaches, IPT does not center around your past experiences that cause inner conflicts. Instead, the focus is primarily on your current relationships, how they could affect your symptoms, and how you might enhance your interactions for a better mental state.
• Trackable: As the treatment approach is timed and structured, it is easier to track progress.

Common Techniques

IPT uses various traditional and directive techniques. All types are implemented to help the patient modify their interpersonal relationships. Some common techniques include:

• Empathetic Listening: Primarily employed in grief counseling, empathetic listening is when mental health professionals try to understand and comprehend their client's feelings and how they process their unresolved grief. In this method of active listening, a supportive environment is provided to the client to trace their progress through the stages of grief.
• Clarification: The therapist may ask the client to re-evaluate their misconceptions about their relationships by asking them to rephrase what they have said. This helps the client understand their feelings and thoughts about others. It also highlights inconsistencies and connections in what the client has said.
• Role Playing: Role-playing can be an effective intervention to achieve the goals set for the particular problem area. Using new and innovative interpersonal communication techniques might be beneficial to help the client explore and examine their emotions. Assisting the client in improving self-reflexivity and understanding the other person's mind can achieve this.
• Decision Analysis: Decision analysis is a helpful tool for evaluating the different courses of action for many problems. It can also determine their potential consequences.
• Encouragement of Affect: This procedure enables you to feel uncomfortable or undesirable sentiments and emotions related to your interpersonal issues in a secure therapeutic setting. Doing so makes it simpler to accept such emotions and feelings as a natural part of your experience.
• Analyzing Past Relationships: This technique can help address interpersonal disputes. Here, the interpersonal therapist and the client work together to analyze past relationships. They identify the issues that have been problematic in previous relationships. Once patterns have been identified, the two work together to determine how to change behavior to avoid repeating the same problems. To build stronger connections, the patient will also form new interactions and use the new skills they have learned in therapy.
• Mindfulness and Attention Regulation: This is a widely-researched technique for improving self-awareness and self-knowledge. It can also help realize that opinions are not facts. In this, the client learns they are "not the victim" of their thoughts and that they can choose how they perceive their flow of awareness. This is crucial in the development of their consciousness.

What Conditions Can it Help Treat?

IPT was initially developed by Gerald Klerman and Myrna Weissman as a brief therapy for major depressive disorder because patients with depressive symptoms frequently struggle with connections. This can lead to social isolation. However, it can now treat several other mental health conditions. These consist of:

• Depressive Disorders: While events surrounding relationships might not cause depression, depression occurs within an interpersonal context and can impact your bonds. IPT focuses on these issues and emphasizes how symptoms of this condition are related to a person's social relationships. The short-term goal of the treatment plan is rapid symptom reduction and enhanced social adjustment. The long-term goal is to empower those who suffer from depression to make the necessary changes on their own. When they can accomplish that, symptoms are easier to manage and lessen. Interpersonal therapy sessions can help with clinical depression, dysthymic disorder, postpartum depression, teen and adolescent depression, etc.
• Anxiety Disorders: Growing research studies attest that IPT can benefit patients with anxiety disorders by targeting different mechanisms than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Patients with anxiety disorders may struggle to approach others, vent their rage, and communicate their wishes. For such patients, IPT offers an alternate strategy. This is because it aims to bring into harmony people's emotions in the context of interpersonal relationships.
• Eating Disorders (ED): Some difficulties and challenges, like feeling lonely, or fights with their partners, might make people turn to food. And IPT-ED focuses on those challenges and helps patients correct these. It can particularly help those with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders.
• Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Rapid mood fluctuations, cognitive distortions, and impulsivity within personal relationships are primarily manifested in this condition. Therefore, IPT's emphasis on interpersonal dysfunction between oneself and others may enhance these patients' associations. It can also increase their ability to control the instability brought on by their mood and behavioral patterns.
• Substance Use Disorders: Some individuals may turn to alcohol or drugs due to tensions in their social associations. Through IPT, their social skills can be enhanced, having a positive impact on the choices they make.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): This life-event-based illness can affect social functioning. Therefore, adopting IPT to manage this condition's symptoms is natural, as it can help improve social functioning.

Get Counseling from a Trusted Therapist With DocVita

We often dismiss the importance of sustaining relationships. However, as illustrated, it can lead to several severe problems. IPT can help you cope with many of these interpersonal conflicts, but some people think there is a shame when seeking therapy. This is not the case at all.

There is no shame in seeking help if you need it. We all have our problems, and sometimes, we need someone else to talk to. A professional knows how the mind works and can teach you some techniques to cope productively.

And with IPT, you can learn this and more. Speaking to a counselor is beneficial and can help you grow. A good counselor will tell you if they can help you, and you can try a session and see if it's for you. You never know; you may improve little by little and come out with a new outlook on life.

At DocVita, we have several experts in this field. They can lend you a helping hand and a compassionate ear, helping you through this challenging phase of life by providing effective treatment to suit your personal needs. Book an appointment with us today!