Different people respond better to different types of therapy, and most therapist will do multiple types of therapy with their patients.
CBT - Most common type of therapy because it works well for all mental health problems.
ACT - Especially helpful for treating anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, OCD, psychosis and substance abuse.
DBT - Specifically created for BPD. This type of therapy works really well for personality disorders, PTSD, eating disorders, substance abuse and impulsive control disorders.
Interpersonal therapy - Created to treat major depressive disorder but is now also used for other depressive and mood disorders.
There are lots of other types of therapy too (:
Gonna add my two cents as a research psychologist:
CBT does NOT work well if the individual has a history of being emotionally manipulated or gaslit, nor does it work well when the individual is working through traumas that have been used against them or disbelieved. CBT can feel like gaslighting, toxic positivity, denial of the seriousness of a situation, or emotional manipulation if not done very carefully. As such, it might be best to avoid it and find something else if you have a history of problems with the aforementioned experiences.
ACT also works REALLY WELL for individuals coping with sudden and "devastating" changes! It's often adapted for use by disability specific clinics to help newly diagnosed patients learn to cope with the limitations on their environments. People with disabilities (PWDs) tend to feel pressured to not express their disability related distress around non-PWDs and, as such, tend to see those feelings as shameful. There's a lot of "I should be more grateful" or "it's not as bad as it could be" feelings around disability as a result of this pressure and ACT is great for undoing them!
DBT is generally amazing for stress disorders and preventing stress disorder symptomatology in at risk populations. It teaches you stress tolerance skills and how best to avoid or diminish conflicts, allowing you to avoid the sorts of environmental triggers that commonly worsen stress disorder symptoms.
Interpersonal therapy is also great for neurodivergent folks, victims of childhood emotional abuse, and children of parents with untreated/unmanaged psychiatric disorders. Essentially, if you grew up with difficulty interacting effectively with and relating to others, interpersonal therapy can help you understand why and change those interactions in the future. Healthier relationships and social interactions are a great way to break the cycle of abuse for those of us raised by parents who were emotionally abusive and/or had untreated mental illnesses.
Since no one has mentioned it on this post, I'd like to add that most therapists these days practice a sort of integrative therapy. They'll take what they find most effective from each type of therapy for each individual problem, and piece together something a little more tailor made for their patients. This is part of why seeing an actual therapist is so important. Not every aspect of the aforementioned therapies will be relevant to every problem. Some aspects may even be harmful to handling some problems. The therapist is trained to pick out these things and adjust accordingly, unlike the average self help book or online resource. But knowing the types of therapies available and what you want to get from therapy is an immense part of finding a therapist that will suit your needs, so please research things carefully and think over what you need before selecting one!
Go to therapy, y'all!
As someone who both practices therapy and has been in treatment for a very, very, very, VERY long time:
THESE MODALITIES BUILD ON EACH OTHER.
An example from my life: The radical acceptance and dialectical thinking gained through DBT helped me stabilize when I was in a very bad place with my mental health just shy of ten years ago. ACT is what I use to deal with the emotional volatility that just comes with being ADHD. CBT gave me the tools to actively change my behaviors and thought patterns. Interpersonal therapy is what I'm using now to figure out my interpersonal traumas and issues I have with relationships (go figure).
There's some other stuff from other systems that have gotten me where I am now (far far far from where I started) but the point I'm trying to make is that these modalities work well together because they very often grew out of each other and when you are in session you will often find them building off each other as you work towards your treatment goals and that's a super good thing. When something is working? Tell your therapist. When something isn't working tell your therapist.
But most important?
Go to therapy, y'all!
