I doubt if many people ask. I think everyone should. Psychoanalytical therapy isn't practiced often now. It delves into your past and takes a long time because the therapist mainly will sit and listen, looking for threads and unconcious motivations. Behavioral therapy focuses on changing behavior patterns. Cognitive therapy works on changing thought patterns. Many or most therapists now use a forum of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy). It works on specific problems and has the belief that many problems are caused by irrational or dysfunctional thinking or faulty coping mechanisms. The therapist will give the client techniques to change their thinking patterns. A branch of that is DBT (dialectical behav. therapy), which combines CBT with mindfulness techniques. It is especially helpful for border personality disorders. Interpersonal therapy works with relationship problems. Exposure therapy is for OCD, phobias and extreme anxiety issues where exposure to the "feared" object or experience helps the person learn to cope.
My therapist uses CBT. She is a Buddhist and therefore also teaches mindfulness techniques. I really like her approach. I hear some people saying that they don't get anything out of therapy because they don't believe that trying to think positively does anything for them. I would send them to someone practicing DBT (even though I disagree with their statement). I've never had a therapist tell me I just needed to think positively. Also, therapy really isn't going to be very effective if the client isn't willing to try the techniques suggested.
Iowa