Mental Health & Psychiatry Glossary

Navigating the world of mental health care can feel overwhelming at times, but we’re here to help. This glossary explains key terms, conditions, and types of care you may come across in therapy or psychiatry, so you can feel informed and confident in your care.

Clinically reviewed by

Kara Birch, DNP, PMHNP-BC, FNP-BC

Director of Psychiatric Nursing Excellence at Lavender

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people to develop psychological flexibility by learning to accept difficult thoughts and feelings while taking actions aligned with their values. It is often used to support anxiety, depression, stress, and avoidance-based behaviors.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects attention, planning, and impulse control. Common symptoms include difficulty concentrating, restlessness, forgetfulness, and difficulty following through with tasks. It is a common mental health condition in both children and adults.

Lavender insight: We’ll help you find simple ways to stay on track and manage emotions. Learn more

Anxiety: Anxiety is a natural response to stress, uncertainty or significant life changes, often experienced as feelings of worry, fear, or unease. It can also show up physically, with symptoms like racing heart, shortness of breath, nausea, or difficulty sleeping. While anxiety is a normal part of being human, it can become overwhelming or persistent over time, and may develop into an anxiety disorder.

Lavender insight: Understand where your anxiety is coming from and find ways to ease your mind and body. Learn more

Attachment Styles: Attachment styles describe patterns in how people relate to others, particularly in close relationships. These are shaped by early experiences, and can influence how someone seeks connection, responds to conflict, and experiences trust or closeness. Common attachment styles include secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized, and these patterns can evolve over time.

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Behavior Modification: Behavior modification is a therapeutic approach that focuses on changing specific behaviors through motivational techniques. It uses strategies such as positive reinforcement, routine, and conditioning to encourage helpful behaviors while reducing those that may be causing difficulty.

Binge Eating: Binge eating is a pattern of eating large amounts of food in a short period of time, often accompanied by a feeling of loss of control. It may happen even in the absence of physical hunger, and it is often associated with feelings of guilt, shame, and emotional discomfort.

Bipolar Disorder: Bipolar Disorder is a mental health condition that causes alternating periods of highs (manic/hypomanic episodes) lasting days to weeks and lows (depressive episodes) which may last longer. During manic episodes, people experience distinct periods of higher than normal levels of energy, euphoria, irritability or impulsivity. During depressive episodes, they may have low mood, decreased energy levels or feelings of hopelessness.

Lavender insight: Recognize patterns in your mood and find coping strategies that’ll work for you. Learn more

Brief Dynamic Therapy: Brief Dynamic Therapy is a time-limited form of psychodynamic therapy that focuses on resolving specific emotional issues and goals. It uses time management, defined goals, therapist intervention, and awareness of unconscious patterns to help support change.

Burnout: Burnout is a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by an ongoing or overwhelming state of stress, often related to work, caregiving, or prolonged responsibility. It can show up as fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating, or reduced motivation. Over time, it can affect overall wellbeing and make it difficult to cope with everyday demands.

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Client-Centered Therapy: Client-Centred Therapy, also known as Person-Centered Therapy, is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes the individual’s inherent capacity for growth. It treats clients as experts in their own lives, and creates a safe, non-judgemental environment for healing.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a structured, goal-oriented form of therapy that focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It helps people to identify and challenge unhelpful thinking patterns and develop practical coping skills. CBT is commonly used to treat conditions such as anxiety and depression, and often involves learning skills that can be used in everyday life.

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Depression: Depression is a mood disorder that involves persistent feelings of sadness, low mood, or a loss of interest in activities that once felt enjoyable. It can also affect energy, sleep, appetite, concentration, and how someone sees themselves or the future. While everyone experiences low mood from time to time, depression tends to last longer and can begin to interfere with everyday life.

Lavender insight: Learn how to find the silver lining in situations and bring back a sense of progress and possibility. Learn more

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a type of therapy that helps people to manage and regulate strong emotions through mindfulness, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness skills. It is often used to support people who experience intense emotions, relationship challenges, impulsive behaviors, or difficulty coping with stress.

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Emotional Regulation: Emotional regulation is the ability to understand, manage, and respond to emotions in a way that feels balanced and supportive. It involves recognizing feelings, tolerating difficult emotions, and finding ways to respond appropriately. These skills can be learned and strengthened over time.

Evidence-Based Practice: Evidence-based practice is care that is grounded in research that has been tested and shown to work. Your provider combines the best available clinical evidence with their own expertise and your individual needs and preferences to guide treatment decisions. It helps ensure that treatment decisions are informed, effective, and tailored to each person.

Exposure Therapy: Exposure Therapy is a form of therapy used to help people gradually face feared situations, thoughts, or sensations in a safe and controlled environment in order to reduce anxiety and avoidance over time. It is commonly used to treat anxiety disorders, phobias, OCD, and PTSD.

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Fertility and Reproductive Mental Health Support: Fertility and reproductive support refers to specialized mental health care designed to help individuals navigate the emotional challenges of infertility, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), and other reproductive health journeys. It can provide support for stress, grief, anxiety, relationship strain, and the emotional uncertainty that can accompany family-building experiences.

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Gender Expression: Gender Expression refers to the external ways in which a person presents or expresses their gender, such as through clothing, hairstyle, behavior, or mannerisms, regardless of their assigned sex at birth.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a condition characterized by excessive, uncontrollable worry about various things—often without a specific trigger—that interferes with a person’s everyday life.

Related: Anxiety treatment

Grief and Loss: Grief and loss are the emotional and physical responses that can arise from losing someone or something meaningful, such as a loved one, a relationship, or an important life circumstance. Grief can show up in many ways, including sadness, numbness, anger, or changes in sleep and energy, and may shift or evolve over time.

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Insomnia: Insomnia is a disorder that disrupts healthy sleep patterns. It can make it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or get high-quality, restful sleep. Insomnia can cause low energy, impaired focus, and mood disruptions.

Lavender insight: Uncover possible contributing factors and discover a variety of relaxation techniques. Learn more

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT): Interpersonal Psychotherapy is a structured, time-limited form of therapy that aims to relieve distress by improving interpersonal abilities. It is based on the idea that psychological difficulties can be understood as a response to challenges in everyday relationships, and is used to treat depression, grief, relationship challenges, and life transitions.

Intrusive Thoughts: Intrusive thoughts are unwanted, involuntary, and distressing thoughts or images that can be difficult to manage. These thoughts can be about anything—sex, religion, violence, health, the meaning of life—and often feel out of character or at odds with a person’s values. While many people experience intrusive thoughts and can let them pass, they can be more persistent and distressing for those with conditions like Anxiety or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

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Life Coaching: Life Coaching is a collaborative process that helps individuals identify personal or professional goals and develop actionable strategies to achieve them.

Life Transitions: Life transitions are periods of change that shift the structure or direction of your life, such as starting a new job, becoming a parent, moving, or ending a relationship. These moments can bring a mix of emotions and often require time, support and adjustment to move through.

Related: Treatment for life transitions

Lavender insight: Honor the full range of emotions that come with change while building confidence to move forward. Learn more

Light Therapy: Light therapy is a treatment for seasonal affective disorder, depression and certain sleep disorders that involves exposure to an artificial light source that mimics natural sunlight.

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Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Major Depressive Disorder is a mood disorder characterized by persistent sadness and low mood that impact daily functioning. Symptoms can include loss of interest in activities, trouble sleeping, fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. Major Depressive Disorder can last for weeks to months or even years, and significantly affects important cognitive, social and occupational functions.

Mania/Manic Episode: Mania, or a manic episode, is a period of unusually elevated energy or mood that is out of character and is noticeable by others. Symptoms of a manic episode may include feeling invincible, reduced need for sleep, racing thoughts and ideas, rapid speaking, or false beliefs or perceptions. Mania is a condition often associated with bipolar disorder.

Medication Management: Medication management is the ongoing process of working with a medical professional to find, monitor and adjust psychiatric medication so it is safe and effective. It involves regular check-ins to track how medication is working, manage side effects, and make changes as needed over time.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) combines cognitive behavioral techniques with mindfulness practices to help people become more aware of their thoughts and emotions. It’s commonly used to reduce stress, anxiety, and prevent relapse in depression.

Mood Disorders: Mood disorders are a category of mental health conditions that primarily affect a person’s emotional state, such as depression and bipolar disorder. They often involve ongoing changes in mood, including periods of low or unusually elevated emotional states. These changes can influence energy, motivation, and overall wellbeing.

Motivational Interviewing: Motivational interviewing is a collaborative, goal-oriented form of counseling designed to explore a person’s own motivation for making changes. Rather than telling you what to do, your provider listens closely, asks open questions, and helps you connect with your own motivations and values. The goal is to strengthen your confidence in your ability to change.

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a condition that causes unwanted intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that a person tries to minimize by engaging in a physical or mental action (compulsions). These thoughts can be about anything—sex, religion, violence, health and the meaning of life—and are often at odds with a person’s values.

Lavender insight: Understand what’s behind your thoughts and use calming techniques to help soothe your nervous system. Learn more

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Panic Attack: A panic attack is a sudden, intense surge of fear or discomfort that can come on quickly and feel overwhelming. It often includes physical symptoms such as racing heart, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, chest pain, or a feeling of losing control. Panic attacks can feel similar to a medical emergency, even when there is no immediate danger.

Panic Disorder: Panic disorder is a condition involving recurrent, ongoing panic attacks and a persistent fear of future episodes. A person dealing with panic disorder may go to great lengths to avoid triggering an episode, which can impact day-to-day functioning.

Perinatal Mental Health: Perinatal mental health is care focusing on the period from the start of pregnancy through the first year after giving birth. It can include experiences such as anxiety, depression, or mood changes, as well as adjustments that come with becoming a mother or parent.

Related: Stories about perinatal health

Perimenopausal Mental Health: Perimenopausal mental health is support for the emotional and physiological challenges that can arise during the transition leading up to menopause. This may include help managing symptoms like mood swings, anxiety, irritability, sleep disruption, and changes in emotional wellbeing related to hormonal shifts.

Positive Psychotherapy: Positive Psychotherapy is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes a person’s strengths and promotes well-being, joy, and resilience rather than focusing solely on symptoms. Through techniques like journaling, acts of kindness, and reflecting on character strengths, it aims to increase resilience and treat underlying emotional difficulties.

Psychiatric Evaluation & Medication Management: A comprehensive assessment by a medical professional to diagnose mental health conditions and create a plan for prescribing and monitoring medication.

Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Board-Certified (PMHNP-BC): An advanced practice nurse certified to provide comprehensive mental health care, including diagnosis, treatment and medication management. PMHNPs can work in hospitals, clinics, and private practices. At Lavender, all of our practitioners are Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses, meaning you can access quality therapeutic care and medication management with one professional.

Psychiatry: Psychiatry is the branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental health conditions. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who can assess both mental and physical aspects of wellbeing and may prescribe medication as part of care. While therapy focuses on exploring thoughts, emotions and experiences, psychiatry often involves medical evaluation and treatment, including medication when appropriate.

Psychoanalysis: Psychoanalysis is an exploratory form of therapy that looks at how early life experiences shape the way you think, feel, and behave today. This method uses specific techniques to bring subconscious patterns into awareness to help with emotional distress and interpersonal challenges.

Psychodynamic Therapy/Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Psychodynamic therapy is an approach focused on the psychological roots of emotional suffering, including past experiences. It helps people to explore thoughts and build awareness of feelings and sensations that may be contributing to their difficulties.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing an upsetting or traumatizing event, often resulting in flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety. Symptoms of PTSD fall into four broad categories: intrusive thoughts related to the event, avoidance, negative thoughts and feelings, and arousal and reactivity (fear, anger, startle, hypervigilance, agitation).

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Relational Therapy: Relational therapy focuses on how our relationships—both past and present—shape how we see ourselves and how we connect with others. It helps to explore patterns in how you relate to people in your life, including what feels easy, what feels more challenging, and where those patterns may have come from.

Responsible Prescribing: Responsible prescribing is a clinical commitment to using medication only when necessary, at the lowest effective dose, and with careful ongoing monitoring of safety and efficacy.

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Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Seasonal Affective Disorder is a mood disorder related to changes in seasons, typically beginning and ending at the same time each year. It occurs most often during fall and winter due to reduced sunlight, and causes symptoms similar to depression: low mood, fatigue, irritability and more.

Self-Care: Self-care refers to the actions we take to support our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. While it is often associated with rest or relaxation, self-care can also include setting boundaries, asking for help, or taking care of responsibilities that support long-term wellbeing. It is not only about what feels good in the moment, but what helps you feel better over time.

Self-Compassion: Self-compassion is the practice of treating yourself with kindness, understanding, and patience, especially during moments of difficulty or perceived failure. It includes offering yourself the same kindness you might extend to a friend, while acknowledging that imperfection and struggle are part of what makes us human.

Self-Esteem: Self-Esteem refers to the way a person feels about their own worth and value. It shapes how someone sees their own abilities, handles challenges, and responds to success and criticism.

Sleep Disorder: Sleep disorders are a group of conditions that affect the ability to sleep well on a regular basis, which can impact overall health and well-being. These include insomnia, hypersomnia, narcolepsy, and restless leg syndrome.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is a future-oriented, goal-directed therapy approach that focuses on finding solutions in the present rather than exploring past problems.

Strength-Based Therapy: Strengths-based therapy is a type of psychotherapy that builds on a person’s internal strengths and resourcefulness to help improve their life and reduce symptoms.

Stress: Stress is the body’s natural response to pressure, challenge, or change. It can affect both the mind and body, showing up as worry, tension, irritability, or physical symptoms like headaches, muscle tightness, or trouble sleeping. While some stress can be helpful in small amounts, ongoing or chronic stress can begin to impact mental and physical health over time.

Supportive Psychotherapy: Supportive psychotherapy is an approach that uses the therapeutic relationship to help build self-esteem and confidence. This form of therapy is widely used, often in collaboration with other techniques, and is rooted in techniques like active listening, emotional support and validation.

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Talk therapy: Talk therapy is a form of mental health care that involves speaking with a mental health professional about your thoughts, feelings and experiences. Through guided conversation, people can gain clarity and learn new ways of coping with stress, anxiety or life challenges. There are many different approaches to talk therapy, all of which rely primarily on dialogue between practitioner and client, including cognitive behavioral, person-centred, and psychodynamic therapies.

Telehealth: Telehealth refers to the delivery of healthcare services, including therapy and psychiatry, through digital communication technologies like telephones or video calling software.

Trauma: Trauma is an emotional, physical and psychological response to a distressing or overwhelming experience. It is less defined by the event itself, and more by how it is experienced and how it continues to affect how someone feels, thinks and relates to others. It can show up in different ways, such as heightened stress, emotional overwhelm, difficulty feeling safe, or changes in mood and relationships. Trauma can impact an individual’s daily functioning and ability to cope, and in some cases, lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Lavender insight: Make space for your emotions and restructure negative thoughts or false beliefs. Learn more

Trauma-Focused Therapy: Trauma-focused therapy is a specific therapeutic approach designed to help people process and heal from the impact of traumatic experiences. It may involve building coping skills, working through difficult memories in a safe and controlled way, and restoring feelings of safety and control.

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Women’s Health: Women’s health is an overarching term referring to mental wellness that addresses the biological, hormonal, and social factors that are unique to women. This includes specialized care for pregnancy-related mental health, postpartum support, and the emotional transitions associated with perimenopause and menopause.

Related: Stories about perinatal health

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