Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a type of psychotherapy that aims to relieve symptoms by improving our relationships. IPT views our current issues as a response to difficulties in our everyday relationships and interactions with other people.

What is the focus of treatment in interpersonal psychotherapy?

The central idea of IPT is that by resolving our relationship issues, our mood symptoms will improve too. In turn, this will strengthen our relationships and overall our support network.

In the beginning, therapists will tend to focus on identifying our issues and reviewing the quality of our most significant relationships. This process will include identifying our sources of social support, attachment style, communication style and specific interpersonal challenges.

What are the 4 areas of IPT?

The goal of IPT is to improve the quality of social functioning by identifying and solving problems in one of these 4 key areas:

1. Grief and loss: IPT can help those experiencing difficulty moving forward from the distress of losing a loved one
2. Life transitions: Transitions such as divorce, a new professional role, relationship status or retirement can be challenging to adjust to. IPT helps us manage these transitions and cope with change.
3. Challenges in developing or maintaining relationships: Some people have a history of relationship difficulties (for example, non-reciprocal, frequent short-term or unsatisfactory relationships). IPT targets the pattern of interpersonal issues and specific problem areas with effective management strategies.
4. Current conflicts in relationships that increase distress: IPT can also assist in navigating disputes in current relationships, where there may be a clash of expectations, communication struggles and more. 

IPT allows us to work with therapists to improve our communication and decision-making when resolving conflict in relationships. The different aspects of communication that can be worked on include our tone, timing, emotional charge and non-verbal language. Our wants and needs in relationships are discussed, as well as the ideal ways for resolving relational issues.

IPT is commonly used to treat individuals experiencing: 

• Depressive disorder
• Anxiety (e.g. social anxiety)
• Postpartum depression
• Bipolar Disorder
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• And many other psychological challenges