Modalities of Therapy: Choose What to Train In

Modality	Treats best	Evidence strength
CBT	Depression; adult GAD and panic	NICE NG222 CBT; CG113 CBT
ACT	Flexibility across mixed problems	Empirical per ACBS; no therapist certification
DBT	Women with BPD, recurrent self-harm	NICE CG78 rec 1.3.4.5
EMDR	Adult PTSD more than 3 months after non-combat trauma	NICE NG116 1.6.19; VA/DoD 2023
IFS	Parts work after you hold a first-line option	Not on VA/DoD 2023 CPT/PE/EMDR list
Schema therapy	Chronic personality patterns, BPD modes	Giesen-Bloo 2006 RCT; ISST credential
Gestalt	Contact and experiment in the room	Not on VA/DoD 2023 CPT/PE/EMDR list

Read the same seven rows for hours and the name you would print.

Modality	Training route	Credential
CBT	Beck Institute Phase 1, then Phase 2 work sample	Beck Institute CBT Certified Clinician (BICBT-CC)
ACT	Workshops with ACBS peer-reviewed trainers	None. ACBS does not certify ACT therapists
DBT	40 didactic hours plus team, cases, exam, videos	DBT-LBC Certified Clinician
EMDR	Weekends 1 and 2, 80% quizzes, 10 consult hours in 1 year	Institute Certificate of Completion of Basic Training
IFS	IFS Institute Level 1, about 90 hours	IFS Trained. Certified is a later Institute process
Schema therapy	ISST-approved program, 25 didactic hours in the curriculum	ISST Standard or Advanced certification
Gestalt	Institute program such as GIC Gestalt Training Program	Named institute program (for example GIC GTP)

You have two flyers on the desk. One says IFS. One says EMDR. The waiting list is PTSD and shame. You do not need another orientation sentence. You need to know which of these modalities of therapy to buy training in.

Use the tables as the decision. Counseling theories belong on a bio. Modalities of therapy belong on a receipt.

Educational content for licensed mental-health clinicians. It is not clinical advice, not a substitute for any training body’s application, and not permission to run a method you have not been trained to deliver. Confirm hours, fees, and labels on the training page you are about to pay.

How to choose the next training

Start with the caseload you will still have in twelve months, not the weekend that looks interesting. Modalities of therapy compete for that year. Only one of them should win it.

If adult PTSD after three months is the work, NICE NG116 recommendation 1.6.19 offers EMDR to adults with PTSD or clinically important PTSD symptoms after non-combat trauma, and 1.6.20 says it should be manual-based, typically 8 to 12 sessions, delivered by trained practitioners with ongoing supervision. The 2023 VA/DoD PTSD guideline Strong-for list in Recommendation 8 is individual, manualized trauma-focused psychotherapy: CPT, EMDR, or PE.

If the work is women with borderline personality disorder and reducing recurrent self-harm is the priority, NICE CG78 recommendation 1.3.4.5 says consider a comprehensive dialectical behavior therapy program. Forty didactic hours is the DBT-LBC education floor, not the whole credential.

If unipolar depression is the work, stay with CBT. NICE NG222 lists individual CBT and structured CBT materials among treatments for adult depression. For adult GAD, NICE CG113 offers CBT as a high-intensity psychological intervention; the same guideline covers panic disorder in adults. Beck Institute’s clinician credential is BICBT-CC after both phases, including a work sample scored on the CTRS-R.

If the hour is contact, experiment, or parts, you can still train. You cannot tell a trauma client that Gestalt or IFS occupies the same VA/DoD Strong-for shelf as CPT, PE, or EMDR. Two modalities of therapy can both be honest. Only one of them should be this year’s receipt.

When you only need the orientation sentence for a bio or a supervisor, use the counseling theories cards. Come back here when the question is which intensive to pay for.

CBT

• Treats best: Adult depression on NICE NG222. Adult GAD and panic on NICE CG113.

• Evidence strength: NICE NG222 includes individual CBT and structured CBT materials for adult depression. NICE CG113 offers CBT as a high-intensity option for GAD and covers panic disorder in adults.

• Training route: Beck Institute Phase 1 covers theoretical foundations of CBT. Phase 2 is the clinician credential path. Eligibility for BICBT-CC includes a terminal degree in a health or mental health field, independent licensure where required, and 2,000 supervised clinical hours.

• Credential: Beck Institute CBT Certified Clinician (BICBT-CC). Phase 2 requires a work sample. Each recording must score at least 22 on the CTRS-R.

Confirm the current path on Beck Institute’s CBT Certified Clinician page before you pay.

ACT

• Treats best: Psychological flexibility across mixed problems, not one named first-line PTSD protocol.

• Evidence strength: ACBS describes ACT as an empirically based psychological intervention. That is not the same sentence as NICE NG116’s EMDR offer or VA/DoD Recommendation 8.

• Training route: ACBS points you to peer-reviewed ACT trainers, the events calendar, books, consultation groups, and academic training.

• Credential: None from ACBS. The ACT Certification page states there is no ACT certification process and there is no such thing as an officially certified ACT therapist.

Read that from ACBS, not from a workshop brochure: ACT Certification and ACT Training.

DBT

• Treats best: Women with borderline personality disorder when reducing recurrent self-harm is a priority, inside a comprehensive program.

• Evidence strength: NICE CG78 recommendation 1.3.4.5 names that comprehensive DBT program for that group.

• Training route: Forty didactic hours specific to DBT, from any training organization, are one DBT-LBC eligibility item, not the whole route. The same eligibility page also requires three Stage 1 cases, weekly DBT consultation-team participation for 12 consecutive months, a knowledge exam, and three consecutive video recordings with work-sample materials.

• Credential: DBT-LBC Certified Clinician. You must be a licensed, independent mental health practitioner with an unrestricted license. Conditional licenses that require supervision are not acceptable on the eligibility page. Hours alone do not issue the credential.

Start with the DBT-LBC eligibility requirements. Behavioral Tech Institute is one training house. It is not the certifying board.

EMDR

• Treats best: Adult PTSD, or clinically important PTSD symptoms, more than three months after a non-combat-related trauma. NICE also lets you consider it between one and three months if the adult prefers EMDR.

• Evidence strength: NICE NG116 recommendations 1.6.18 to 1.6.20. Adult EMDR should follow a validated manual, typically 8 to 12 sessions, more if clinically indicated, delivered by trained practitioners with ongoing supervision. VA/DoD 2023 Recommendation 8 strongly recommends individual, manualized EMDR, CPT, or PE for PTSD.

• Training route: EMDR Institute Basic Training is two weekends. Each weekend lists 20 CE credits (40 total) after the post-training quiz. Consultation is 10 hours with an Institute-approved facilitator or consultant: 5 hours before Weekend 2, 5 hours after. Weekend fees on the Institute page are listed per weekend and do not include consultation.

• Credential: EMDR Institute Certificate of Completion of Basic Training requires Weekends 1 and 2, 80% or higher on each post-training quiz, and 10 consultation hours within one year of Weekend 1. The fees page distinguishes that certificate from the CE certificate. That completion is not a state license.

Read EMDR Basic Training: Fees and Requirements before you register. If the clinical question is the wider trauma-method menu, use types of trauma therapy.

IFS

• Treats best: Parts work, Self-to-part relationship, and the caseload that is already asking for that map.

• Evidence strength: Not among the three individual, manualized trauma-focused psychotherapies VA/DoD 2023 Recommendation 8 strongly recommends for PTSD (CPT, EMDR, PE). You can still train. You cannot borrow EMDR’s guideline sentence.

• Training route: IFS Institute Level 1 is the minimum for the IFS Trained label. The Institute help center describes Level 1 as approximately 90 hours. Full clinical use of the model is taught there, not in an Informed workshop.

• Credential: IFS Trained after Level 1. IFS Certified is a separate Institute process. The certification policy effective May 1, 2023 requires Level 1 plus Level 2, or Level 1 plus a Level 1 completed as a Program Assistant, then later practice hours, consultation, and a session review.

Use the IFS training for therapists checklist before you treat a flyer as the credential. Institute pages: IFS Training Programs and IFS Certification Policy.

Schema therapy

• Treats best: Chronic personality patterns and mode work when CBT skills were not enough.

• Evidence strength: Giesen-Bloo and colleagues (2006) reported a randomized trial of schema-focused therapy versus transference-focused psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder. ISST is the credentialing society, not that trial.

• Training route: An ISST-approved certification program. The training curriculum page sets 25 required didactic training hours, with a listed content curriculum for those hours.

• Credential: ISST Standard or Advanced certification, with tape-rating rules that differ by level. Standard certification requires a tape of a patient appropriate for schema mode work because of complication, chronicity, failure to respond, or relapse.

Confirm the current file on the ISST Training Curriculum Requirements page. Fees live on the program you apply to, not on a generic society homepage.

Gestalt

• Treats best: Contact, awareness, and experiment in the present hour.

• Evidence strength: Not among the three individual, manualized trauma-focused psychotherapies VA/DoD 2023 Recommendation 8 strongly recommends for PTSD (CPT, EMDR, PE). Train because the method matches how you work, not because it substitutes for EMDR.

• Training route: A named institute program. The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland publishes a Gestalt Training Program (GTP) as its flagship experiential training.

• Credential: The named institute program you finish, such as GIC GTP. Print that program name. Do not list BICBT-CC or DBT-LBC for Gestalt hours.

Read the Gestalt Training Program page for the cohort in front of you. If the next hour needs contact and experiment more than a training receipt, use gestalt therapy techniques.

Copy those eight lines into a note you will see before you pay. If the credential cell is empty, you are buying hours, not a title. If two modalities of therapy still look even, keep the one whose evidence sentence you can say in consent this week.

Download the worksheet selection pack to match a practical handout to the modality and client goal you are already working with.

When the year is EMDR or TF-CBT, keep the trauma menu next to the receipt. When the year is IFS, keep the Institute labels honest. When the year is Gestalt, keep the experiment in the room and the training on the institute’s letterhead.

Review the training decision before you enroll

Put the decision on one page before you open the registration link. Start with the clinical problem that occupies enough of your caseload to justify a year of training. Then write the guideline or evidence sentence you would use in informed consent, the exact training body, and the label it actually issues. If any of those fields is blank, you have a question to resolve before you pay.

Separate the method from the marketing around it. A weekend can be useful education without being a credential pathway. A certificate of attendance can be real without making you certified in the modality. A named institute program can be a sound fit without becoming a substitute for first-line trauma treatment. The distinction is not pedantic when it changes what you tell clients, referral sources, or a supervisor.

Check the practical constraints as carefully as the modality name. Count consultation requirements, case material, team participation, recordings, exams, and the time limit for finishing them. Ask whether the program’s hours fit the population you currently serve and whether you will have appropriate supervision while you learn. If the route asks for cases you cannot ethically obtain in your setting, another training choice may be more honest this year.

Set one review date before enrollment. At that date, compare the caseload you expected with the work that actually arrived, and verify the training body’s current requirements again. Do not convert an early interest into a public claim before the stated route is complete. The useful outcome is not a longer list of approaches. It is a method you can describe accurately, use within training and scope, and revisit with evidence when the next training decision comes around.

References

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2022). NICE NG222 recs.
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2011). NICE CG113 recs.
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2018). NICE NG116 recs.
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2009). NICE CG78 recs.
• Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense. (2023). VA/DoD PTSD CPG.
• Beck Institute. CBT Certified Clinician.
• Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. ACT Certification.
• Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. ACT Training.
• DBT-Linehan Board of Certification. Eligibility requirements.
• EMDR Institute. Fees and Requirements.
• IFS Institute. IFS Training Programs.
• IFS Institute. (2023). IFS Certification Policy (effective May 1, 2023).
• International Society of Schema Therapy. Training Curriculum Requirements.
• Giesen-Bloo, J., van Dyck, R., Spinhoven, P., van Tilburg, W., Dirksen, C., van Asselt, T., Kremers, I., Nadort, M., & Arntz, A. (2006). Outpatient psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder: Randomized trial of schema-focused therapy vs transference-focused psychotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(6), 649–658. PubMed
• Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. Gestalt Training Program.