These involve a therapist listening to your experiences, exploring connections between present feelings and actions and past events. It aims to help you understand more about you and your relationships.

Therapists have different different approaches and different styles of working -some may seem detached and analytical while others seem friendly and supportive. Some will take the lead with questions while others will follow your train of thought

Psychodynamic therapy can help people get to know themselves better, improve their relationships and get more out of life. It can be especially useful in helping people with long term or recurring problems get to the root of their difficulties

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) aims to help people change patterns of thinking or behaviour that are causing problems.

Changing how you think and behave also changes how you feel. It is a structured approach - you agree goals for treatment with your therapist and try things out between sessions.

More research has been done on cognitive behaviour than on other therapies and it has been shown to work for a variety of of mental health problems. In particular it can help depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder and some eating disorders