How to Learn Therapeutic Approaches in Mental Health: 38 Flashcards from CBT to the Dodo Bird Verdict

Therapy vocabulary is hard to learn for one reason: a dozen approaches sound alike. CBT, DBT, ACT, mindfulness-based therapy and exposure therapy all "change how you relate to thoughts". The Flip It deck PR7443 – Mental Health: Therapeutic Approaches (38 cards) gives you the definitions. This guide shows you how to tell them apart so you can recall the right one.

What the 38 cards cover

The deck mixes three kinds of cards, and it helps to sort them before your first review:

• Therapies (15 cards): psychotherapy, CBT, psychoanalysis, group therapy, family therapy, exposure therapy, DBT, humanistic (client-centered) therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, EMDR, motivational interviewing, ACT, solution-focused brief therapy, narrative therapy, telepsychotherapy.
• The care system (12 cards): psychologist vs psychiatrist, the six main professions, DSM-5, ICD-11, psychopharmacology, trauma-informed care, cultural competence, confidentiality, barriers to treatment, the 988 crisis line, the mental hygiene movement, deinstitutionalization.
• Core concepts (11 cards): the WHO definition of mental health, therapeutic alliance, the biopsychosocial model, the dodo bird verdict, resilience, self-actualization, burnout, positive psychology, therapy vs counseling.

Sample cards

Tip 1: Build a one-line contrast table for the CBT family

Five cards describe the CBT family, and their backs use the same words (mindfulness, behavior, acceptance). Write one distinguishing trait for each:

• CBT: challenge the thought.
• Exposure: approach the feared thing, step by step.
• DBT: skills training, built for borderline personality disorder.
• ACT: accept the thought, then act on your values.
• Mindfulness-based: meditation and present-moment awareness.

Then quiz yourself backward: "which therapy accepts thoughts instead of disputing them?" Answering that question proves you can tell them apart. Reciting a definition doesn't.

Tip 2: Fix three cards before you review

• Card 8 says anxiety and depression affect "~970 million people". That figure is the WHO 2019 count for all mental disorders combined. Anxiety disorders were about 301 million and depression about 280 million. Rewrite the back with the three numbers.
• Card 17: the current US manual is the DSM-5-TR (2022). ICD-11 came into effect the same year.
• Card 37: 988 is a US-only number. Add your own country's crisis line to the hint.

The deck also uses two terms it never defines: Maslow's hierarchy (card 31 only gives its top level) and psychodynamic therapy, the modern descendant of psychoanalysis. Add one card for each.

Keep going in this category

This deck covers the therapy side of the field. For diagnosis, study our DSM-5 disorders overview. For medication, see the psychotropic medications guide.

To study the cards, open Flip It and search the library for PR7443.