WHAT IS IPT?

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) aims to help the client to develop skills to manage their relationship difficulties by making sense of how they might act in relationships.   The premise of this approach is that when an individual’s relationships improve, so do their psychological problems.

Areas which IPT can work with are:

• A conflict with another person: this can include difficulties that might arise in any relationship for example  with a partner, child, or work colleague.  The aim of working with this area would be to enable the client to move forward in understanding how to deal with tension and unhappiness
• Life events which involve change: this refers to times of change in a person’s life which might feel very challenging for example becoming a parent, taking on a new job.  The therapy would be directed at helping the client to tackle feelings of being overwhelmed or finding it hard to adjust.
• Grief and loss:  Though it is understandable that a person will feel sadness at the death of a loved one, at times people can struggle with letting go of that relationship.  This can interfere in a person’s ability to continue with daily life.  IPT would aim to help the client to explore how the process of grief has become stuck to allow them to mourn and subsequently move forward with their lives.
• Difficulty in having relationships with other people.  It may be that you are struggling to build relationships or perhaps the relationships which you choose feel shallow and you have a sense of being disconnected to those around you. In times of stress it is important for us all to feel that we have others around us to offer support.  This therapy involves helping the client to develop better resources to connect with others which in turn boosts mood.

For more information about this model of therapy please see the website details on www.interpersonalpsychotherapy.org