--- title: "Counselling Approaches Explained | Westpeak" description: "What CBT, ACT, IFS, somatic work, DBT skills and mindfulness-based programmes actually involve, including where each one works poorly." url: https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches lang: en-CA section: "Approaches" date_modified: 2026-09-06 publisher: "Westpeak Wellness" publisher_type: "Registered Clinical Counsellor practice, British Columbia, Canada" delivery: "secure video only; no in-person office" not: "not a crisis service; not a medical practice; not covered by MSP" contact: info@westpeakwellness.com source_html: https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches index_of_site: https://www.westpeakwellness.com/llms.txt license: "Content © Westpeak Wellness. Quote with attribution and a link." --- # The methods, and when each one fits. The service pages are organised by what you are bringing. These are organised by how the work is done, because people arrive having been recommended a specific method, or having tried one that did not suit them, and that is a different question. The therapeutic approaches used at Westpeak Wellness, explained one per page: cognitive behavioural therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, EMDR, internal family systems, somatic therapy, DBT-informed skills and mindfulness-based approaches. Each page says what the method does, who it tends to suit, what the evidence supports, and how it is delivered over video. Updated September 6, 2026 [Book a free consultation](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/book) [See services instead](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/services) [![Four stacked bands matching a type of difficulty to the approach usually suited to it: current maintaining patterns to cognitive behavioural work, live memories to EMDR, a nervous system pattern to somatic work, and understanding without change to acceptance and commitment therapy.](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/img/approach-selector.svg) (full size, opens in a new tab)](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/img/approach-selector.svg) A rough map. The consultation is where it gets specific. [Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)The most researched talk therapy there is, and the one most often delivered badly, because the structure is what makes it work.7 min read →](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/cognitive-behavioural-therapy) [Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)For people who have already understood their patterns in detail and are still exactly where they were.7 min read →](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy) [Internal Family Systems and parts workFor the experience of genuinely wanting two opposite things and being unable to reconcile them.7 min read →](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/internal-family-systems) [Somatic and body-based approachesBecause you can know with complete certainty that you are safe and still have a body that has not received the update.7 min read →](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/somatic-therapy) [DBT-informed skills, and what full DBT actually isA great many practices advertise DBT. Very few deliver it, and the distinction is not a technicality.7 min read →](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/dbt-informed-skills) [Mindfulness-based approaches, and what an app is notThe evidence is real, and it is for structured programmes rather than for ten minutes on a phone.6 min read →](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/mindfulness-based-approaches) Not sure which of these applies to you? Working that out is part of the job rather than a prerequisite, [ask in a free 15-minute consultation](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/book). ## Two approaches with their own pages [EMDR](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/services/emdr-therapy) and [the Gottman Method](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/guides/how-the-gottman-method-works) are covered in full elsewhere rather than duplicated here, EMDR because it is one of the practice’s main offerings, and Gottman because it belongs with [couples therapy](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/services/couples-therapy) rather than in a general list of methods. ## How the choice is actually made Being trained in several methods is only useful if the choice between them can be explained. Broadly: where something specific and current is maintaining a difficulty: avoidance, a thinking pattern, a habit, [CBT](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/cognitive-behavioural-therapy) tends to move fastest and has the largest evidence base. Where a memory is still firing in the present regardless of what you understand, [EMDR](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/services/emdr-therapy) is the more direct route. Where the nervous system holds a pattern that talking has not reached, [somatic work](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/somatic-therapy) addresses what insight does not. Where you already understand the pattern completely and remain stuck, [ACT](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy) targets the struggle rather than the symptom. Where the experience is of being genuinely divided against yourself, [parts work](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/internal-family-systems) fits that experience better than models that assume a single voice. Where emotion arrives faster than thought, [DBT-informed skills](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/dbt-informed-skills) are the most immediately practical, with an honest account of what full DBT involves and when you need it instead. And where the goal is preventing a depressive episode from recurring rather than treating one, [mindfulness-based programmes](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/approaches/mindfulness-based-approaches) have specific evidence for exactly that, which is a narrower and stronger claim than the general enthusiasm around the word suggests. ## Why every one of these pages says where it works poorly A method page that lists only strengths is an advertisement. Each of these states the situations in which the approach is the wrong choice, because that is the information that actually helps you choose, and because a practitioner who cannot say when their method does not apply is someone to be careful of. The same principle governs the rest of the site; see [how these pages are written](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/editorial-policy). ## Not sure which method you need? That is an entirely normal position, and working it out is part of the consultation rather than something to settle beforehand. [Book Free Consultation](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/book) Not ready to book? [Send a line about what is going on](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/contact). A reply comes within one business day, or read [the guides](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/guides) first and come back when you want to. Looking on behalf of someone else? [What to send them, and what not to](https://www.westpeakwellness.com/refer), including the funded routes most people do not know they qualify for.