If you've ever searched for a therapist, you've probably run into alphabet soup: CBT, DBT, EMDR, IFS, ACT. Each abbreviation points to a distinct theory about why people struggle and what helps them. Psychotherapy isn't one thing. Over roughly the last 150 years, clinicians and researchers have developed dozens of theories and methods, and therapists draw on them in very different ways. At the time of writing this article, Psychology Today's therapist directory offers 66 "Typ