Interpersonal Therapy in Milwaukee

When I talk about interpersonal therapy in Milwaukee, I often start with a simple truth. Most of us are social creatures. Meaningful relationships tend to be good for us. When those relationships are strained, confusing, or absent, our mood and anxiety often suffer.

Interpersonal therapy focuses on the connection between your relationships and how you feel.

What is Interpersonal Therapy?

Interpersonal therapy, often shortened to IP or IPT, is a structured, time-limited therapy that focuses on your relationships and how they affect your mood. Unlike some therapies that try to fix everything at once, “IP is unique because it does not try to fix everything in your life. It helps you identify which areas are causing you distress.”

Common focus areas in interpersonal therapy include:

  • Grief: Adjusting to the loss of a major relationship or loved one.
  • Role Disputes: Mismatched expectations between you and someone else, such as a partner or coworker.
  • Role Transitions: Life changes like becoming a parent, getting a promotion, starting or losing a job, retiring, or moving.
  • Interpersonal Deficits: Isolation, difficulty forming or maintaining relationships, or feeling like you do not have the kind of support network you want.

The goal of interpersonal therapy is not to make every relationship perfect. It is to help you understand your patterns, improve your communication, and create more relationships that feel reasonably healthy and mutually beneficial.

Interpersonal Therapy Milwaukee: How it Fits With CBT

People often ask how interpersonal therapy compares to cognitive behavioral therapy.

CBT has both an “inside out” and an “outside in” component. We work on how you think and how you behave. Behavioral activation is the “outside in” part of CBT.

Interpersonal therapy is more externally focused. It is less about your automatic thoughts in isolation and more about how you relate to other people, how you navigate conflict, and how you adjust to shifts in your roles. As I put it in the conversation, “IP is mitigating our relationships with people, whether it is a conflict or how we are taking on a role.”

Both interpersonal therapy and CBT can be:

  • Structured
  • Time limited
  • Project-driven, with clear goals and homework
  • Focused on measurable change

In many cases, they can be combined. For example, we might use CBT skills to work on your self-narrative and anxiety, and interpersonal therapy techniques to help you approach a difficult conversation with your partner or family.

Who is Interpersonal Therapy For?

Everyone’s situation is unique, but I start thinking about interpersonal therapy when someone spends a lot of time talking about what is happening with other people and how it is affecting them.

Good candidates for interpersonal therapy include people who:

  • Feel stuck in recurring conflicts in relationships
  • Have gone through a breakup, divorce, or bereavement
  • Navigating a major life transition, such as becoming a parent or changing careers
  • Feel lonely, isolated, or unsure how to build closer connections
  • Want to better understand their part in relationship patterns

Another piece is psychological mindedness. That means being willing to reflect on how you might be influencing the situation. For example, in a marriage where there are ongoing arguments about housework, we might explore both the practical issue of dividing tasks and how you communicate about it.

As I tell patients, “At the end of the day, we cannot control the other person. We can still approach it very nicely and appropriately, and the other person can still be a jerk to us. But we can optimize how we come across to other people.”

Interpersonal Therapy Techniques and Examples

Here are some common interpersonal therapy techniques and interpersonal therapy examples from my practice.

1. Interpersonal Inventory: Mapping Your Relationships

One common technique is to draw your interpersonal circle.

  • You are in the center.
  • The closest circle includes people who are very close to you, such as immediate family or long-standing friends.
  • The middle circle includes people you see regularly, such as coworkers or neighbors.
  • The outer circle includes distant contacts, such as social media contacts you barely interact with.

We then ask:

  • How do you feel about your inner circle?
  • Are you satisfied with your current support network?
  • Where are pain points or gaps?
  • What would you like to see change?

This gives us a concrete starting point to set interpersonal therapy goals.

2. Communication Skills and Conflict Resolution

Conflict is one of the most common themes in interpersonal therapy. People often feel unheard or taken for granted. They may say things in a passive-aggressive tone, make snide remarks, or shut down completely.

We work on:

  • Expressing needs clearly without attacking
  • Negotiating compromises instead of keeping score
  • Timing difficult conversations so they are more likely to be productive
  • Recognizing when a pattern is repeating itself

For example, in a relationship where there is an unequal distribution of labor at home, we might practice how to say, “Can we take turns doing the dishes,” instead of letting resentment silently build.

This kind of work often overlaps with family-focused therapy, because we are dealing with patterns in couples, families, or close relationships. Family-focused therapy and interpersonal therapy both look at roles, expectations, and communication within a family system.

3. Grief and Role Transitions

Grief is another major theme. When someone loses a parent, partner, or close friend, they often say, “Someone used to fulfill this role for me. They were supportive and nurturing, and now they are gone.”

We do not pretend that there is a perfect replacement. Instead, we look at how you might:

  • Honor the loss
  • Identify what that person provided for you emotionally
  • Explore other ways to meet some of those needs
  • Gradually build a new version of your support network

Role transitions work in a similar way. If you got a promotion, became a parent, or started a new job, we explore questions like:

  • What did the old role mean to you?
  • What is hard about the new role?
  • What skills do you need to feel more confident?
  • How can you adjust expectations for yourself and others?

4. Interpersonal Therapy Examples in Everyday Life

Some everyday interpersonal therapy examples include:

  • A person with social anxiety who wants to have a few acquaintances for trivia night instead of avoiding all social contact.
  • Someone with post-traumatic stress who wants to slowly re-engage with safe people after being harmed in a relationship.
  • A person who wants to become a “familiar, healthy face” at a new job rather than staying invisible.
  • A couple is working on how to talk about finances or housework without escalating into the same old argument.

These are all situations where interpersonal therapy techniques can be very helpful.

Interpersonal Therapy and Specific Disorders

Interpersonal therapy was originally designed as a treatment for major depressive disorder. There is strong evidence for its usefulness in depression, and it is also “a leading non-drug treatment for postpartum depression.”

In addition, interpersonal therapy can be used for:

  • Other depressive disorders
  • Borderline personality disorder, which is often characterized by what we call “interpersonal chaos”
  • Certain eating disorders, particularly bulimia nervosa and binge eating
  • Social anxiety disorder, where relationships and social situations are a core concern
  • Some cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, especially when interpersonal trust and safety are central issues

When someone is depressed, they may withdraw and isolate. When that happens, their social skills can deteriorate simply from lack of practice. Interpersonal therapy helps people re-engage and rebuild those skills.

A Typical Interpersonal Therapy Session

A typical session might include:

  • Reviewing what has been happening in your relationships since the last visit
  • Looking at one or two specific situations that were particularly stressful
  • Exploring what you were thinking, feeling, and doing in those moments
  • Identifying communication patterns that helped or hurt
  • Practicing alternative ways of responding
  • Setting small, concrete interpersonal goals before the next session

For example, a goal might be to send a text to a friend you have not talked to in months, to ask your partner directly for help with a task, or to attend one social gathering rather than canceling.

How Long Does Interpersonal Therapy Take?

Interpersonal therapy is often described as a 16-week model when it is delivered in a very focused, structured way. In real life, things are more variable.

“Therapy in general, they are recommending 6 to 12 months of consistent work, attendance, and also application outside the session. I think that is a much more realistic anticipation.”

Many people attend sessions every 2 to 3 weeks rather than weekly, because life is busy. I usually encourage people not to judge themselves by how fast they are going, but by whether they are moving at all. The key is regularity and making sure something from therapy is applied between visits.

Deciding Between CBT and Interpersonal Therapy

People sometimes ask, “Which is better, CBT or interpersonal therapy?” My honest answer is that it depends on what is driving your distress.

  • If a lot of what you are struggling with involves other people, conflict, grief, or transitions, I lean toward interpersonal therapy.
  • If much of the distress is internal, such as physical symptoms, self-criticism, or panic that happens even when you are alone, I may lean more toward CBT.

This really shows how unique every patient is. There are no cookie-cutter solutions because everybody’s life is different.

In practice, we often blend these approaches and bring in elements of behavioral activation, interpersonal therapy techniques, and family-focused therapy, depending on what you need.

Family-Focused Therapy

Family-focused therapy looks at the patterns, roles, and communication within a family system, helping everyone involved understand how they influence one another. It often overlaps with interpersonal therapy, especially when addressing conflicts, expectations, or transitions within families or couples. By exploring these dynamics, family-focused therapy aims to improve communication, reduce tension, and strengthen relationships so that the family can function more supportively and effectively together.

Interpersonal Therapy Near You

If you are in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and wondering whether interpersonal therapy, interpersonal therapy techniques, or a more family-focused therapy approach might fit you, the first step is simply to sit down and talk about what is happening in your relationships. From there, we can decide together what kind of plan makes the most sense.

Our team at New Frontiers is here to provide support every step of the way. Contact us today to schedule a session and start exploring the approach that best fits your needs. We look forward to working with you to improve your relationships and overall well-being.

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Don’t live with the misery of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, psychotic spectrum disorders, or another mental health issue. Schedule an appointment with a female psychiatrist by calling 414-763-6910 or by Requesting an Appointment online.

We welcome patients from the Milwaukee area, including New Berlin, Waukesha, Wauwatosa, West Allis, and nearby communities.