introduction to therapy and psychological therapies Flashcards
psychotherapy
treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.
biomedical therapy
prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person’s physiology.
psychoanalysis
(1) Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. (2) Freud’s therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the analyst’s interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.
resistance
in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.
interpretations
in psychoanalysis, the analyst’s noting of supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.
transferring
in psychoanalysis, the patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).
psychodynamic therapies
therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition; views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and seeks to enhance self-insight.
insight therapies
therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses.
person centered therapies
a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within an accepting, genuine, empathic environment to facilitate clients’ growth. (Also called client-centered therapy.)
active listening
empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and seeks clarification. A feature of Rogers’ person-centered therapy.
unconditional positive regard
a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.
behavior therapists
therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.
counterconditioning
behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; include exposure therapies and aversive conditioning.
exposure therapies
behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imaginary or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid.
systematic desensitization
a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat specific phobias.
