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Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) can be a challenge to diagnose. People consider panic attacks a hallmark of all anxiety disorders, but GAD is different in that there are generally no panic attacks associated with the condition.

As a result of this misconception, without the experience of panic attacks, a person may think they are “just worrying too much.” Their struggles with constant worry may be minimized or dismissed and, in turn, not properly diagnosed or treated. 

Most of us experience worry and situations that can cause us to feel anxious, so what are professionals looking for to help determine if someone’s worry and anxiety are related to GAD?

The first step is to evaluate symptom criteria, as outlined in “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” 5th Edition, Text Revision (also known as the DSM-5-TR). Mental health professionals look for factors like excessive, hindering worry paired with a variety of physical symptoms, then use proven diagnostic assessments to make a diagnosis and rule out other possibilities.

Symptoms of GAD

The DSM-5-TR outlines specific criteria to help professionals diagnose generalized anxiety disorder. Having a standard set of symptoms to reference when assessing clients helps them to more accurately diagnose mental health concerns and, in turn, create a more effective plan of care.

Excessive worry means worrying even when there is no specific threat present or in a manner that is disproportionate to the actual risk. Someone struggling with GAD experiences a high percentage of their waking hours worrying about something. The worry may be accompanied by reassurance-seeking from others.

In adults, the worry can be about job responsibilities or performance, one’s own health or the health of family members, financial matters, and other everyday, typical life circumstances. In children, the worry is more likely to be about their abilities or the quality of their performance (for example, in school). Many people with GAD also experience symptoms such as sweating, nausea, or diarrhea.

The anxiety, worry, and other associated symptoms make it hard to carry out day-to-day activities and responsibilities. They may cause problems in relationships, at work, or in other important areas of life.

In order to give a diagnosis of GAD, these symptoms also must be unrelated to any other medical conditions and cannot be explained by a different mental disorder or by the effect of substance use, including prescription medication, alcohol, or recreational drugs.

Clinical Assessment

During an assessment, your clinician will use the diagnostic criteria, standardized assessments, and their clinical judgment to make a diagnosis.

Generally, they will ask about your symptoms in an open-ended way, but you may also be asked to complete self-report questionnaires. These typically brief measures can help determine the diagnosis (as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 does) or severity of symptoms.

In specialized care settings, like an anxiety disorders clinic, standardized assessment tools are sometimes used to evaluate symptoms. In this case, your clinician conducts a semi-structured interview. The interview is likely to include a standardized set of questions, and your answers will help your clinician to make an accurate diagnosis.

Commonly used and well-validated diagnostic interviews for adults include the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID) and the Anxiety and Related Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-5 (ADIS-5). There is a child version of the ADIS, in which both the parent and the child are asked about the child’s symptoms. These interviews also evaluate the presence of other associated conditions such as depression.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Discussion Guide

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Your Visit

Remember to be honest with your provider at the first visit—both when filling out forms and discussing your symptoms face-to-face. Being upfront and honest can help determine what is happening and put together a plan of care specifically tailored to your needs.

Self-Assessment

If you are wondering whether you or your child might have GAD, you can consider completing a brief online self-screening tool for adults or for children provided by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). If you do this, you should still speak with a mental health professional or your physician for a proper diagnosis and treatment.

When to Seek Help 

Many people who struggle with GAD experience symptoms for a long time before seeking help. Reaching out for a diagnosis can feel challenging, especially when anxiety feels so constant and widespread.

Only around 20% of people who have symptoms of anxiety seek treatment. In 2020, a national coalition of women’s health professionals recommended that all women aged 13 and older should be screened for anxiety. The lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders is approximately two times higher in women than in men, so preventative screenings may be helpful in ensuring that women and girls receive appropriate interventions to improve health and well-being.

Contacting a mental health or other clinical provider is a courageous step that can help clarify what is happening and, in turn, lead to creating a plan of care that can help you find relief and regain a sense of well-being.

When deciding to seek help, something to consider is how difficult it is to feel any sense of calm, comfort, and reassurance around your worry.

Also, know that not experiencing panic attacks is another primary reason people don’t seek help for their anxiety. Their worry may be chronic and concerning but, because there are no periods of acute panic attacks, they simply chalk the challenges up to being a “worrywart.”

They may even be told this by others when seeking reassurance or trying to find comfort. Remember, however, that GAD is different in that panic attacks aren’t typically present, so don’t let this factor stop you from seeking help.

Additionally, take note of the physical symptoms that are accompanying your worry. As the anxiety continues, you may find more and more challenges with things like headaches, digestion, restlessness, and fatigue. Should you find that your worry feels excessive and begins leading to other physical symptoms, you may benefit from talking with a mental health or other care providers.

Finding a Clinician

Take time to research and seek out providers who specialize in the treatment of anxiety. Because anxiety is present in so many mental health conditions, you will want to talk with someone who understands the specific criteria required so you can be accurately diagnosed and treated.

Primary care physicians can often provide referrals to trusted and specialized mental health providers. Otherwise, to find a psychotherapist in your area, consult referral resources such as:

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is a national organization of psychiatrists that can also provide recommendations for local providers who are able to provide psychiatric evaluation and prescribe medications.

Another option is to try an online therapy program.

Differential Diagnosis

Anxiety symptoms can be found in many categories of mental health conditions listed in the DSM-5-TR, such as mood disorders, eating disorders, and cognitive disorders. Within the category of anxiety disorders, there are many symptoms that will overlap and anxiety conditions can sometimes be confused with one another.

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommends that all adults under the age of 65 get screened for anxiety symptoms during routine doctor visits. While sitting with a mental health provider, they will be seeking information that will help them to best diagnose your condition. To give a differential diagnosis means to distinguish one condition from another when there are symptoms that overlap.

Some conditions that may need to be ruled out include:

Although some of these conditions are discussed more casually by the general public, there are specific criteria that would need to be met in order for one of these (or other conditions) to be properly diagnosed.

There can be other behaviors and symptoms that can be present with anxiety. For example, when someone engages in self-sabotaging behavior, such as procrastination, they can be perceived as struggling with self-regulation and behavioral conditions. Overlooking elements of anxiety related to this behavior can end up creating an obstacle for someone to receive effective treatment.

Keep in Mind

Remember: GAD is a treatable condition. There is no need for you (or your child) to worry in silence. Treatment, particularly psychotherapy, self-help approaches, or other therapies, will teach you a variety of ways to cope with your anxiety. There are also medications that can help.

Perfection is a double-edged sword—the driving force behind a high achiever or a personal liability. It’s a matter of degree. Here are 10 signs of perfectionist traits to watch for when nothing is ever good enough for yourself or someone around you.

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All-or-Nothing Thinking

Perfectionists, like high achievers, set and work hard to achieve lofty goals. Whereas a high achiever can be satisfied knowing they did their best and achieved a goal, a perfectionist will accept nothing less than perfection. “Almost perfect” is seen as a failure.

Being Highly Critical

Someone with a perfectionist personality is more critical of themselves and others than a high achiever. High achievers take pride in their accomplishments and tend to be supportive of others, yet perfectionists often spot mistakes and imperfections.

Feeling Pushed By Fear

High achievers are often pulled toward their goals by a desire to achieve them. They are also happy with any steps made in the right direction. Perfectionists, on the other hand, tend to be pushed by a fear of anything less than a perfectly met goal.

Having Unrealistic Standards

Another sign of being a perfectionist is setting goals that may not be reasonable. High achievers can set their goals high, enjoying the fun of going a little further once these goals are reached. Perfectionists often set their initial goals out of reach.

Focusing Only on Results

High achievers can enjoy the process of chasing a goal as much or more than the actual reaching of the goal itself. Conversely, perfectionists see the goal and nothing else. They’re so concerned with hitting the goal and avoiding failure that they can’t enjoy the process of growing and striving.

Feeling Depressed by Unmet Goals

Perfectionists are often less happy than high achievers. While high achievers are able to bounce back fairly easily from disappointment, perfectionists tend to beat themselves up and wallow in negative feelings when their high expectations go unmet. They struggle to move on when things don’t work out the way they had hoped.

Fear of Failure

Perfectionists have a greater fear of failure than high achievers. Because they place so much stock in results and become disappointed by anything less than perfection, failure becomes a scary prospect. And since anything less than perfection is seen as a failure, it makes it difficult to get started on anything new.

Procrastination

It seems paradoxical that perfectionists would be prone to procrastination since this personality trait can be detrimental to productivity. But research has found that a perfectionist person who isn’t able to adjust to their situation or environment—called maladaptive perfectionism—is often more prone to procrastinate.

The reason for this is because, fearing failure as they do, perfectionists will sometimes worry so much about doing something imperfectly that they become immobilized and fail to do anything at all. This procrastination can then lead to greater feelings of failure, further perpetuating a vicious and paralyzing cycle.

Defensiveness

Because a less-than-perfect performance is so painful and scary to perfectionists, they will often respond defensively to constructive criticism. High achievers, on the other hand, can see criticism as valuable information that will help improve their future performance.

Low Self-Esteem

High achievers tend to have equally high levels of self-esteem. This isn’t the case with perfectionists. Although striving for perfectionism is associated with higher self-esteem, when someone with a perfectionist personality evaluates themselves critically, this contributes to low self-esteem instead.

Perfectionists can also be lonely or isolated due to their critical nature and rigidity pushing others away. This can lead to even lower self-esteem, ultimately having a serious impact on the person’s self-image and overall life satisfaction while also impacting their relationships.

Are You a Perfectionist? Take the Quiz

Our fast and free perfectionist quiz can help you determine if your behavior suggests that you are a perfectionist:

Causes of Perfectionism

Many factors can affect a person’s chances of having a perfectionist personality. Some of the main causes of perfectionism include:

• A fear of judgment or disapproval from others
• Early childhood experiences, such as having parents with unrealistically high expectations
• Having a mental health condition associated with perfectionist tendencies, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Poor self-esteem
• Feelings of inadequacy
• A need for control
• Tying self-worth to achievements

Societal and cultural expectations can also play a role in perfectionism.

Pitfalls of Perfectionism

Being a perfectionist is challenging because it’s difficult to be perfect, or even of reaching a personal best. Another problem with perfectionism—and the reason you’ll want to know if you possess perfectionistic traits—is that perfectionists actually tend to achieve less and stress more than high achievers.

Unhealthy perfectionism is characterized by an excessive focus on control. Perfectionists can become extremely picky and preoccupied with making sure everything is flawless, which can lead to attempts to control situations or people. This can take a toll on interpersonal relationships.

It can also contribute to higher levels of stress. The stress caused by perfectionism can then lead to feelings of anxiety and has been linked to a variety of negative outcomes, including low self-esteem, eating disorders, sleep disturbances, and psychological distress.

How to Overcome Perfectionism

If you are a perfectionist and want to reduce some of its negative impacts on your life, there are a few things you can do. Strategies that can help you overcome perfectionism include:

• Creating an environment where you feel accepted
• Engaging in positive self-talk
• Not comparing yourself to others
• Practicing mindfulness to help you learn how to focus on the present without worrying as much about the past or future
• Using techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), such as challenging negative thoughts

Healthy perfectionism can drive people to perform their best, but unhealthy perfectionism can lead to stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, and other issues that can affect their quality of life. Perfectionists are often critical, driven by fear, have unrealistic expectations, fear failure, and are defensive when they face any criticism.

If you see some of these perfectionist traits in yourself, don’t despair. Recognizing that a change may be needed is a very important first step. Once you recognize how these tendencies might be affecting you negatively, you can begin working toward taking a healthier approach that will still allow you to achieve your goals with less stress and negativity.

Whether you’ve been dumped by your date or you’ve had a rough day at the office, having healthy coping skills can be key to getting through tough times. Coping skills help you tolerate, minimize, and deal with stressful situations in life.

Coping skills are the tactics that people use to deal with stressful situations. Managing your stress well can help you feel better physically and psychologically and impact your ability to perform your best.

But not all coping skills are created equal. Sometimes, it’s tempting to engage in strategies that will give quick relief but might create bigger problems for you down the road. It’s important to establish healthy coping skills that will help you reduce your emotional distress or rid yourself of the stressful situations you face. Examples of healthy coping skills include:

• Establishing and maintaining boundaries
• Practicing relaxation strategies such as deep breathing, meditation, and mindfulness
• Getting regular physical activity
• Making to-do lists and setting goals

This article explores coping skills that can help you manage stress and challenges. Learn more about how different strategies, including problem-focused and emotion-focused skills, can be most helpful.

Problem-Based vs. Emotion-Based

The five main types of coping skills are: problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, religious coping, meaning-making, and social support.

Two of the main types of coping skills are problem-based coping and emotion-based coping. Understanding how they differ can help you determine the best coping strategy for you.

• Problem-based coping is helpful when you need to change your situation, perhaps by removing a stressful thing from your life. For example, if you’re in an unhealthy relationship, your anxiety and sadness might be best resolved by ending the relationship (as opposed to soothing your emotions).
• Emotion-based coping is helpful when you need to take care of your feelings when you either don’t want to change your situation or when circumstances are out of your control. For example, if you are grieving the loss of a loved one, it’d be important to take care of your feelings in a healthy way (since you can’t change the circumstance).

There isn’t always one best way to proceed. Instead, it’s up to you to decide which type of coping skill is likely to work best for you in your particular circumstance. The following are examples of stressful situations and how each approach could be used.

Reading Your Performance Review

You open your email to find your annual performance review. The review states that you are below average in several areas and you’re surprised by this because you thought you were performing well. You feel anxious and frustrated.

• Problem-focused coping: You go to the boss and talk about what you can do to improve your performance. You develop a clear plan that will help you do better and you start to feel more confident about your ability to succeed.
• Emotion-focused coping: You spend your lunch break reading a book to distract yourself from catastrophic predictions that you’re going to be fired. After work, you exercise and clean the house as a way to help you feel better so you can think about the situation more clearly.

Getting a Teenager to Clean

You have told your teenager he needs to clean his bedroom. But it’s been a week and clothes and trash seem to be piling up. Before heading out the door in the morning, you told him he has to clean his room after school “or else.” You arrive home from work to find him playing videos in his messy room.

• Problem-focused coping: You sit your teenager down and tell him that he’s going to be grounded until his room is clean. You take away his electronics and put him on restriction. In the meantime, you shut the door to his room so you don’t have to look at the mess.
• Emotion-focused coping: You decide to run some bathwater because a hot bath always helps you feel better. You know a bath will help you calm down so you don’t yell at him or overreact.

Giving a Presentation

You’ve been invited to give a presentation in front of a large group. You were so flattered and surprised by the invitation that you agreed to do it. But as the event approaches, your anxiety skyrockets because you hate public speaking.

• Problem-focused coping: You decide to hire a public speaking coach to help you learn how to write a good speech and how to deliver it confidently. You practice giving your speech in front of a few friends and family members so you will feel better prepared to step on stage.
• Emotion-focused coping: You tell yourself that you can do this. You practice relaxation exercises whenever you start to panic. And you remind yourself that even if you’re nervous, no one else is even likely to notice.

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Healthy Emotion-Focused Coping Skills

Whether you’re feeling lonely, nervous, sad, or angry, emotion-focused coping skills can help you deal with your feelings in a healthy way. Healthy coping strategies may soothe you, temporarily distract you, or help you tolerate your distress.

Sometimes it’s helpful to face your emotions head-on. For example, feeling sad after the death of a loved one can help you honor your loss.

Other times, coping skills may help you change your mood. If you’ve had a bad day at work, playing with your kids or watching a funny movie might cheer you up. Or, if you’re angry about something someone said, a healthy coping strategy might help you calm down before you say something you might regret.

Other examples of healthy ways to cope with emotions include:

• Care for yourself: Put on lotion that smells good, spend time in nature, take a bath, drink tea, or take care of your body in a way that makes you feel good such as painting your nails, doing your hair, putting on a face mask.
• Engage in a hobby: Do something you enjoy such as coloring, drawing, or listening to music.
• Exercise: Do yoga, go for a walk, take a hike, or engage in a recreational sport.
• Focus on a task: Clean the house (or a closet, drawer, or area), cook a meal, garden, or read a book.
• Practice mindfulness: List the things you feel grateful for, meditate, picture your “happy place,” or look at pictures to remind you of the people, places, and things that bring joy.
• Use relaxation strategies: Play with a pet, practice breathing exercises, squeeze a stress ball, use a relaxation app, enjoy some aromatherapy, try progressive muscle relaxation, or write in a journal.

Healthy Problem-Focused Coping Skills

There are many ways you might decide to tackle a problem head-on and eliminate the source of your stress. In some cases, that may mean changing your behavior or creating a plan that helps you know what action you’re going to take.

In other situations, problem-focused coping may involve more drastic measures, like changing jobs or ending a relationship. Here are some examples of positive problem-focused coping skills:

• Ask for support from a friend or a professional.
• Create a to-do list.
• Engage in problem-solving.
• Establish healthy boundaries.
• Walk away and leave a situation that is causing you stress.
• Work on managing your time better.

Unhealthy Coping Skills to Avoid

Just because a strategy helps you endure emotional pain, it doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Some coping skills could create bigger problems in your life. Here are some examples of unhealthy coping skills:

• Drinking alcohol or using drugs: Substances may temporarily numb your pain, but they won’t resolve your issues. Substances are likely to introduce new problems into your life. Alcohol, for example, is a depressant that can make you feel worse. Using substances to cope also puts you at risk for developing a substance use disorder and it may create health, legal, financial problems, and social problems.
• Overeating: Food is a common coping strategy. But, trying to “stuff your feelings” with food can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and health issues. Sometimes people go to the other extreme and restrict their eating (because it makes them feel more in control) and clearly, that can be just as unhealthy.
• Sleeping too much: Whether you take a nap when you’re stressed out or you sleep late to avoid facing the day, sleeping offers a temporary escape from your problems. However, when you wake up, the problem will still be there.
• Venting to others: Talking about your problems so that you can gain support, develop a solution, or see a problem in a different way can be healthy. But studies show repeatedly venting to people about how bad your situation is or how terrible you feel is more likely to keep you stuck in a place of pain.
• Overspending: While many people say they enjoy retail therapy as a way to feel better, shopping can become unhealthy. Owning too many possessions can add stress to your life. Also, spending more than you can afford will only backfire in the end and cause more stress.
• Avoiding: Even “healthy” coping strategies can become unhealthy if you’re using them to avoid the problem. For example, if you are stressed about your financial situation, you might be tempted to spend time with friends or watch TV because that’s less anxiety-provoking than creating a budget. But if you never resolve your financial issues, your coping strategies are only masking the problem. 

Proactive Coping Skills

Coping skills are usually discussed as a reactive strategy: When you feel bad, you do something to cope. But, research shows that proactive coping strategies can effectively manage the future obstacles you’re likely to face.

For example, if you have worked hard to lose weight, proactive coping strategies could help you maintain your weight after your weight loss program has ended. You might plan for circumstances that might derail you—like the holiday season or dinner invitations from friends—to help you cope. You also might plan for how you will cope with emotions that previously caused you to snack, like boredom or loneliness.

Another study found that people who engaged in proactive coping were better equipped to manage their type 2 diabetes. Participants who planned ahead and set realistic goals enjoyed better psychological well-being.

So, if you are facing a stressful life event or you’ve undergone a major change, try planning ahead. Consider the skills you can use to cope with the challenges you’re likely to face. When you have a toolbox ready to go, you’ll know what to do. And that could help you to feel better equipped to face the challenges ahead.

Find What Works for You

The coping strategies that work for someone else might not work for you. Going for a walk might help your partner calm down. But you might find going for a walk when you’re angry causes you to think more about why you’re mad—and it fuels your angry feelings. So you might decide watching a funny video for a few minutes helps you relax.

You might find that certain coping strategies work best for specific issues or emotions. For example, engaging in a hobby may be an effective way to unwind after a long day at work. But, going for a walk in nature might be the best approach when you’re feeling sad.

When it comes to coping skills, there’s always room for improvement. So, assess what other tools and resources you can use and consider how you might continue to sharpen your skills in the future.

Psychology is such a broad field that conveying its depth and breadth can be difficult. As a result, a number of unique and distinctive branches of psychology have emerged, each one dealing with specific psychological areas within the study of the mind, brain, and behavior.

Understanding what these subtopics represent can help you decide where your interests may lie. Here is more information about 18 major types of psychology if you are interested in studying, earning your degree, or creating a career in this expansive field.

Overview of the Branches of Psychology

The major areas of psychology include:

• Abnormal psychology
• Behavioral psychology
• Biopsychology
• Clinical psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Comparative psychology
• Counseling psychology
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Educational psychology
• Experimental psychology
• Forensic psychology
• Health psychology
• Industrial-organizational psychology
• Personality psychology
• School psychology
• Social psychology
• Sports psychology

Each of these psychological areas looks at questions and problems from a different perspective. While they all have their own focus, they still share a common goal of studying and explaining human thought and behavior.

Because human behavior is so varied, the number of subfields in psychology is constantly growing and evolving. Some of these subfields have been firmly established as areas of interest, and many colleges and universities offer courses and degree programs in these topics. 

Each type of psychology represents a specific area of study focused on a particular topic. Oftentimes, psychologists specialize in one of these as a career. The following are just some of the major branches of psychology. For many of these, working in that specific area requires graduate study in that particular field.

Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal psychology looks at psychopathology and abnormal behavior. It involves the study of people’s emotional, thought, and behavior patterns to identify, understand, and potentially resolve any issues that may be negatively affecting a person’s life.

Mental health professionals in this branch of psychology assess, diagnose, and treat a wide variety of psychological disorders, including anxiety and depression. Counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychotherapists often work directly in this field.

Behavioral Psychology

Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Behavioral strategies such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning are often utilized to teach or modify behaviors.

While this type of psychology dominated the field during the first part of the twentieth century, it became less prominent during the 1950s. However, behavioral techniques remain a mainstay in therapy, education, and many other areas.

Biopsychology

Biopsychology is a psychological area focused on how the brain, neurons, and nervous system influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The biopsychology field draws upon many different disciplines, including basic psychology, cognitive psychology, experimental psychology, biology, physiology, and neuroscience.

Biopsychology is also sometimes referred to as physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience, or psychobiology. So, if you are interested in studying or earning a degree in this psychology branch, you may want to look for courses or programs with these names.

Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric disorders. Clinicians often work in private practices, but many also work in community centers or at universities and colleges.

You can even find clinical psychology professionals in hospital settings and mental health clinics. In these organizations, they often work as part of a collaborative team that may include physicians, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals.

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is a psychological area that focuses on internal mental states. This area has continued to grow since it emerged in the 1960s and is centered on the science of how people think, learn, and remember.

Professionals who work in this type of psychology typically study cognitive functions such as perception, motivation, emotion, language, learning, memory, attention, decision-making, and problem-solving.

Comparative Psychology

Comparative psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the study of animal behavior. This is important because the study of how animals behave can lead to a deeper and broader understanding of human psychology.

This psychology subtype has its roots in the work of researchers such as Charles Darwin and George Romanes and has grown into a highly multidisciplinary subject. In addition to psychologists contributing to this field, so do biologists, anthropologists, ecologists, geneticists, and several others.

Counseling Psychology

Counseling psychology is one of the largest areas of psychology. It is centered on treating clients in mental distress who may be experiencing a wide variety of psychological symptoms.

The Society of Counseling Psychology explains that professionals working in this type of psychology can improve their clients’ interpersonal functioning throughout life. They do this by improving the client’s social and emotional health, as well as addressing concerns about health, work, family, marriage, and more.

Cross-Cultural Psychology

Cross-cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that looks at how cultural factors influence human behavior. This may involve looking at differences between collective and individualist cultures, for instance. Cross-cultural psychologists might also look at how cultures vary in terms of emotion, personality, or child development.

The International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) was established in 1972. This type of psychology has continued to grow and develop since that time, with increasing numbers of psychologists investigating how behavior differs among cultures throughout the world.

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology focuses on how people change and grow throughout life. This area of psychology seeks to understand and explain how and why people change. Developmental psychologists study physical growth, intellectual development, emotional changes, social growth, and perceptual changes that occur throughout the lifespan.

Some professionals may specialize in infant, child, adolescent, or geriatric development, while others might primarily study the effects of developmental delays. This psychology branch covers a huge range of topics, ranging from prenatal development to Alzheimer’s disease.

Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with schools, teaching psychology, educational issues, and student concerns. Educational psychologists often study how students learn. They may also work directly with students, parents, teachers, and administrators to improve student outcomes.

Professionals in this type of psychology sometimes study how different variables influence individual students. They may also study learning disabilities, giftedness, and the instructional process.

Experimental Psychology

Experimental psychology is the psychological area that utilizes scientific methods to research the brain and behavior. Many of these techniques are also used in other psychology areas to study everything from childhood development to social issues.

Experimental psychologists work in a wide variety of settings, including colleges, universities, research centers, government, and private businesses. They utilize the scientific method to study a range of human behaviors and psychological phenomena.

Forensic Psychology

Forensic psychology deals with issues related to psychology and the law. Those who work in this branch apply psychological principles to legal issues. This may involve studying criminal behavior and treatment or working directly in the court system.

Forensic psychologists perform a wide variety of duties, including providing testimony in court cases, assessing children in suspected child abuse cases, preparing children to give testimony, and evaluating the mental competence of criminal suspects.

Health Psychology

Health psychology (also sometimes called medical psychology or behavioral medicine) focuses on how biology, psychology, behavior, and social factors influence health and illness. This area of psychology involves the promotion of health across a wide variety of domains, as well as the prevention and treatment of disease and illness.

Health psychologists often deal with health-related issues such as weight management, smoking cessation, stress management, and nutrition. They might also research how people cope with illnesses, helping patients learn more effective coping strategies.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Industrial-organizational psychology applies psychological principles to workplace issues. This psychological area, often referred to as I/O psychology, seeks to improve productivity and efficiency in the workplace while maximizing the well-being of employees. It includes areas such as human factors.

Human factors psychology focuses on human error, product design, ergonomics, human capability, and human-computer interaction. Its goal is to improve how people interact with products and machines. This might involve helping to design products intended to minimize injury or creating workplaces that promote greater accuracy and safety.

Personality Psychology

Personality psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the study of thought patterns, feelings, and behaviors that make each individual unique. Classic theories of personality include Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality and Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development.

Personality psychologists might look at how different factors (such as genetics, parenting, and social experiences) influence personality development and change. They may also be involved in the creation or administration of personality tests.

School Psychology

School psychology is a type of psychology that involves working in schools to help kids deal with academic, emotional, and social issues. School psychologists also collaborate with teachers, students, and parents to help create a healthy learning environment.

Most school psychologists work in elementary and secondary schools, but others can be found in private clinics, hospitals, state agencies, and universities. Some go into private practice and serve as consultants—especially those with a doctoral degree in school psychology.

Social Psychology

Social psychology seeks to understand and explain social behavior. It looks at diverse topics including group behavior, social interactions and perceptions, leadership, nonverbal communication, and social influences on decision-making.

Social influences on behavior are a major interest in social psychology, but these types of psychologists are also focused on how people perceive and interact with others. This branch of psychology also includes topics such as conformity, aggression, and prejudice.

Sports Psychology

Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise, and physical activity. Individuals may work with a sports psychologist to improve their focus, develop mental toughness, increase motivation, or reduce sports-related anxiety.

Some sports psychologists work with professional athletes such as pro sports players and top Olympians. Others utilize exercise and sports to enhance the health and well-being of non-athletes throughout their lifespan.

Brainspotting therapy is a type of alternative therapy that uses spots in a person’s visual field to help them process trauma. It accesses trauma trapped in the subcortical brain, the area of the brain responsible for motion, consciousness, emotions, and learning. 

This type of therapy was discovered in 2003 by David Grand, PhD, as an advancement of his work in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Grand had observed a client getting “stuck” in one spot. While staying in this one spot, Grand observed her going deeper than ever before and Brainspotting was born.

One of the purported benefits of Brainspotting therapy over EMDR is that one does not need to “relive” the trauma in order to facilitate its release from the body.

How Brainspotting Therapy Works

Brainspotting works on the theory that feelings from trauma can become stuck in the body, leading to both physical and mental ailments. It is believed that the brain’s memory of a particular trauma or incident is “reset” in the body and brain through Brainspotting.

Grand described this “stuckness” as “frozen maladaptive homeostasis.” Our bodies are generally meant to be in a state of homeostasis, attempting to maintain a stable environment, but this particular kind of homeostasis is not helpful. Brainspotting accesses this and attempts to integrate this interrupted processing of the trauma.

It is one of a few types of emerging therapies focusing on the brain-body connection, including Somatic Experiencing and EMDR. Traditional talk therapy is known as a “top-down” therapy. That is, traditional therapy tries to solve problems with the conscious mind.

These brain-body therapies are known as “bottom up” therapy, which aims to release the physical stress in the body, thereby leading to release the emotional stress in the body as well.

Brainspotting therapy works on the midbrain, which controls parts of the central nervous system that are responsible for processes such as vision, hearing, sleep, and motor control. When trauma occurs, this part of the brain typically goes into freeze mode to conserve resources for the body to be in defense mode.

This is necessary if you’re, say, fighting a tiger, but is less helpful for psychological trauma—but our bodies can’t distinguish between the two.

Techniques 

Although Brainspotting therapy is a bit more fluid and doesn’t have a set standard protocol, most sessions follow at least a general blueprint. Here’s how you might expect a session to go.

At the end of the session, you will again rate your level of distress—typically it will be lower than it was when you started. Some people report feeling a sense of release either mentally or even physically, through a mild tingling sensation or mild shaking as though you have the chills.

Following the session, you may feel exhausted or more emotional than usual. Additionally, more difficult feelings may continue to surface. This is all part of the process, but if the feelings become too much to handle, reach out to your therapist or a crisis hotline if necessary.

What Brainspotting Therapy Can Help With

Though Brainspotting therapy is primarily focused on discovering and alleviating trauma, it can help many different types of issues, especially since trauma’s effects are so far-reaching.

• Anxiety
• Attachment issues 
• Substance use
• Posttraumatic stress disorder 
• Chronic pain
• Major depressive disorder 

Benefits of Brainspotting Therapy 

In one small study, participants experienced a reduction in PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms within a few sessions. Other benefits:

• Reduction in pain
• Memories become less painful
• Negative thought patterns are reduced
• Better sleep
• Increased energy

Effectiveness

Although research remains scant on this modality, one study found Brainspotting to be more effective than either EMDR or CBT—and patients even continued to get better following their treatment being over. All other modalities showed patients’ symptoms returning at the 6-month follow-up. 

Things to Consider

As Brainspotting is still somewhat new and considered somewhat of an alternative treatment, there is still little research on it and any possible long-term effects.

How to Get Started

Because Brainspotting is a type of therapy requiring specialized training, it is best to find a therapist who is certified in Brainspotting therapy. Brainspotting has a directory of therapists who are certified (which includes completing two courses and at least 50 hours of practicing Brainspotting on clients). Alternatively, you can search online directories of therapists to find ones who specialize in Brainspotting.

Typically, Brainspotting treatment lasts for about six sessions, as opposed to EMDR, which may take up to eight or 10 sessions.