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PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychotherapy is an emotional, confidential interaction between a psychotherapist and a person suffering from a
psychological difficulty. Some of the different approaches to psychotherapy include:
Psychoanalysis:
Through the process of free association, the analyst and patient attempt to find the unconscious root of
seemingly illogical patterns of thought and behavior. Inevitably, the flow of free association will halt due to a
feeling that the mind is blank or a feeling that a thought that has come to mind is embarrassing, unacceptable,
inappropriate, irrelevant, etc.
Any censoring of thoughts is considered to be resistance, which involves blocking anxiety-laden material from
consciousness. The means of resistance (due to patient attempting to defend his or her self-image from anxietyprovoking material in the unconscious mind) will eventually be interpreted by the analyst.
This process is assisted by the phenomenon of of transference—the projection of repressed feelings for
important people in one’s life onto the analyst and then believing that those feelings are feelings toward the analyst.
Even though the patient may think these feelings are genuine, they are not, they are the result of transference.
The ultimate foal of psychoanalysis is to help the patient gain insight into his or her repressed conflicts and effect
change through increased understanding and self-awareness.
Humanistic Psychotherapy:
This therapy also emphasize that increased self-awareness can bring about change. In contrast to psychoanalytic
therapy, client-centered therapy only focuses on becoming aware of present feelings and conscious thoughts.
Therapists will engage in active listening, will be genuine, accepting and empathetic. Active listening shows the
client that the therapist is listening and can help the therapist make sure that he or she is accurately perceiving what
the client is saying. The ultimate goal is to provide a safe environment where the client’s natural tendency towards
healthy personal growth can flourish.
Behavioral Psychotherapy:
This therapeutic orientation uses learning principles to eliminate unwanted behaviors and responses. Behaviorists
do not believe that searching for unconscious determinants or becoming more self-aware are the keys to change.
Their goal is to eliminate unwanted and problematic behaviors and responses by use of counter-conditioning.
Systematic Desensitization is often used to treat specific phobias. This technique involves the subject learning
to associate a state of relaxation with a situation that presently provokes anxiety. The idea is that one cannot be
anxious and relaxed at the same time. If successful this process will result in the extinction of the previously
learned response (anxiety) and replace it with a new, more adaptive, relaxation response.
Aversive Conditioning is a process which associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior. That means
that whenever you do something you’re not supposed to do there is a resulting negative consequence for that
behavior. An example could be a drug treatment which causes sickness whenever an alcoholic takes a drink of
alcohol.
Token Economies are a form of operant condition that involves reinforcing desired behaviors. Subjects earn
tokens for exhibiting desired behaviors. The tokens can be exchanged for something the patient likes. Such
behavior modification techniques work best with in-patients in institutional settings.
Cognitive Psychotherapy:
Cognitive therapy attempts to alter the thought processes that precede behaviors. For example, if a patient is
depressed, the therapist would use various techniques to try to change the thought patterns from self-defeating to
self-helping.
One example is called Rational-Emotive Therapy, in which the therapist vigorously confronts and challenges a
person’s illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions. The therapist will identify the patients’ illogical beliefs,
challenge them and suggest more rational lines of thought.
Sress-Innoculation techniques attempt to help an individual better cope with stressors by engaging in a more
positive pattern of self-talk.
Group Psychotherapy
Group therapies administer psychotherapies (except psychoanalysis) to groups of two or more people. The group
setting allows the patients to learn from each other and to benefit from a supportive environment. Often, a patient’s
condition can improve greatly just through the knowledge that others experience the same types of problems.
Family Psychotherapy
Family Therapy involves treating the family as a system in which individual members contribute to the desirable
and undesirable behaviors of the other members. The ultimate goal of family therapy is to increase communication
between family members.
BIOMEDICAL THERAPY
Biomedical therapies most often take the form drug treatments. Other examples include ECT and psychosurgery.
Although drugs are widely used to treat the symptoms of many disorders, they often have unwanted side effects,
fail to address the underlying causes of the disorder or are not taken as directed. Drug treatments are believed to be
most effective when used in conjunction with psychotherapy.