What is Multimodal Therapy?

It is a type of holistic approach to psychotherapy which involves several therapeutic techniques or approaches at once. The focus tends to treat the whole person rather than focusing on narrow or specific symptoms. It is also known as “eclectic therapy” or “integrative psychotherapy”. This model was prepared by Arnold Lazarus when he noticed that the client will benefit from using more than one therapy at a time. 

The word ‘modality’ means method of treatment. This refers to different types of therapeutic approaches which focus on different aspects of a client's life. 

There are a variety of Multimodal Therapy

• Cognitive therapy: this focuses on the patient’s thoughts and beliefs by being central to their psychological symptoms rather than focusing on their childhood experiences or current situations.
  
  
• Behavior therapy: this focuses on the observable behavior rather than the internal thoughts or feelings which can be difficult to be directly observed. It is a well researched treatment with a long history of being effective when combined with cognitive therapy. 
  
  
• Psychoanalysis: this is the depth psychology which tends to understand the unconscious mind and how memory and experiences can influence behavior, thoughts and emotions. It has been used as a form of talk therapy for many years. 
  
  
• DBT: the goal of this therapy is to make the client develop better emotional regulation and distress tolerance skills. This therapy was developed specially to treat borderline personality disorders although it can be used to treat order disorders as well.
  
  
• Social Skill Training: this focuses on social interaction through the use of role playing exercises, social stories, feedback and reinforcement. 

Multimodal therapy can be helpful in treating emotional and psychological problems including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia etc. It addresses a number of physical conditions that have a psychological component or cause like pain, fatigue and insomnia. 

Multimodal therapy can be beneficial in many ways:

• It can address a wide range of conditions
  
  
• Clients might respond quickly to treatments that use several techniques at once.
  
  
• This therapy is more cost-effective than other treatment options especially when it comes to clients having more mental or physical conditions that can be addressed through various techniques. 

A WORD FROM SOCIALLY SOULED

The effectiveness of the therapy depends upon how it is implemented however multimodal therapy is used for treating many conditions like depression and anxiety. The success of the treatment depends upon how well the therapist is able to combine the techniques in a way that makes sense to the client and their needs.