Download Psychological Therapies

Psychological Therapies
Ms. Reem Alowaybil
What is Therapy?
• General term for any treatment process
• In psychology and psychiatry, therapy refers to a
variety of psychological and biomedical techniques
aimed at dealing with mental disorders or coping
with problems of living.
Treatment in the Past
• Early treatments of mental disorders were often
extremely inhumane
• Trephining
– Holes were drilled in the skull to release evil
spirits
• Mentally ill people began to be confined to
institutions called asylums in the mid-1500s.
• Treatments were harsh and often damaging.
Components of Therapy
Identifying the problem
Identifying the cause of the
problem or the conditions that
maintain the problem
Deciding on and carrying out
some form of treatment
Types of Psychotherapy
Insight Therapies
• Psychotherapies in which the therapists help
patients/clients understand (gain insight into) their
problems
• Aim at revealing and changing a patient’s disturbed
mental processes through discussion and
interpretation
• Numerous approaches involve this type of therapy.
Types of Insight Therapies
1. Psychoanalysis Therapies
2. Humanistic Therapies
3. Group Therapies
First: Freud’s Psychoanalysis
• Psychoanalysis: an insight therapy based on the
theory of Freud, emphasizing the revealing of
unconscious conflicts
– dream interpretation
• Manifest content: the actual content of one’s dream
• Latent content: the symbolic or hidden meaning of
dreams
Free association:
Freudian technique in which a patient was encouraged
to talk about anything that came to mind without fear
of negative evaluations
Second: Roger’s Person-Centered
Therapy
• Non-directive insight therapy
• Based on the work of Carl Rogers
• Client talks and the therapist listens
• Four Elements:
1. Reflection
• Therapist restates client’s talk
• No explanation of statements
2. Unconditional positive regard
• Accepting atmosphere created by therapist
3. Empathy
• Therapist understands client feelings
4. Authenticity
• Genuine, open, and honest response of
therapist
Third: Group Therapies
• Psychotherapy with more than one client
• Self-Help Support Groups
• Groups that provide social support and an
opportunity for sharing ideas about dealing with
common problems; typically organized/run by
laypersons (not professional therapists)
• Couples and Family Counseling
• Intended to help clients learn about relationships
• Can be more effective than individual therapy with
one member of the relationship at a time
Behavioral Therapy and Classical
Conditioning
• Action-based rather than insight-based therapy
• Change behavior through learning new responses
– Learning created problem
– New learning corrects problem
Systematic Desensitization
• Technique in which anxiety is extinguished by
exposing the patient to an anxiety-provoking
stimulus
Exposure Therapy
• Desensitization therapy in which patient directly
confronts the anxiety-provoking stimulus (as
opposed to imagining it)
A Sample Anxiety Hierarchy
Therapies Based on Classical Conditioning
• Techniques include reinforcement, shaping, and
modeling
– Change the frequency of voluntary behavior
– Results quick and practical
Operant Conditioning Therapies
• Token Economies
Applied to groups (e.g., classrooms or mental hospital
wards)
• Involves distribution of “tokens” contingent on
desired behaviors
• Tokens can later be exchanged for privileges, food,
or other reinforcers.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT):
Action therapy in which the goal is to help clients
overcome problems by learning to think more rationally
and logically.
• Three Goals:
1) Relieve the symptoms and solve the problems.
2) Develop strategies for solving future problems.
3) Help change irrational, distorted thinking.
Success of CBT
• CBT has seemed successful in treating depression
and anxiety.
• CBT has been criticized for focusing on the
symptoms and not the causes of disordered
behavior.
Effectiveness of Psychotherapy
• Psychotherapy is more effective than no treatment
at all.
• From 75 to 90 percent of people who receive
therapy improve; the longer a person stays in
therapy, the greater the improvement; and
psychotherapy works as well alone as with drugs.
• Psychotherapy is more effective than no treatment
at all.
• From 75 to 90 percent of people who receive
therapy improve; the longer a person stays in
therapy, the greater the improvement; and
psychotherapy works as well alone as with drugs.
• Some types of psychotherapy are more effective for
certain types of problems, and no one
psychotherapy method is effective for all problems.
• Effective therapy should be matched to the
particular client and the particular problem.
Biomedical Therapies
• Drug Therapy
• Electroconvulsive Therapy
• Psychosurgery
Drug Treatments
• Biomedical therapies: therapies that directly affect
the biological functioning of the body and brain
Placebo effect
The apparent success of a treatment due to patient’s
expectations or hopes rather than the drug or treatment
itself
The placebo effect can, in fact, actually result in some
neurochemical changes.
Electroconvulsive Therapy
• A clinician attaches a pair of electrodes to a
person’s head and then passes a brief surge of
electrical current through them, causing a seizure
that releases enough GABA to decrease brain
activity
• Psychosurgery
• Treatment by using brain surgery in cases in which
obvious organic damage is absent
• More controversial than ECT
Evaluation of Biomedical Treatments
• Although drug therapies are the desired type of
therapy, it does not offer a cure.
• ECT and psychosurgery may offer relief to others
that drug therapies can’t help.
Cybertherapy
• Cybertherapy: psychotherapy that is offered on the
Internet; also called online, Internet, or Web therapy
or counseling
– offers the advantages of anonymity and therapy
for people who cannot otherwise get to a
therapist
How do the Psychological Therapies and
Biomedical Therapies Compare?
While a combination of psychological and medical
therapies is better than either alone for treating some (but
not all) mental disorders, most people who suffer from
unspecified “problems in living” are best served by
psychological treatment alone.
-The End-