L8 - Psychological therapies Flashcards
What are psychological therapies (PT) and what does it try to achieve?
PT - treat emotional/ behavioural problems using psychological rather than biomedical means.
Uses methods like talking, role-play, dance etc with individuals, couples, families and groups who share similar problems.
Goal - increase a sense of well-being and reduce stress
What are the different approaches of Psychotherapy and what are the 2 examples of the duration of this therapy?
Different approaches:
Changing current behaviour patterns
Promoting different ways of thinking
Emphasise understanding past issues
Duration
CBT - approx 10 sessions
Psychoanalysis - Many sessions over years
Who provides psychotherapy?
Psychiatrist
Psychologist
Social workers
Nurse practitioner
Trained psychological wellbeing practitioners
However, there’s no current legal restrictions on the title of psychotherapist, psychoanalyst and counsellor –> under qualified or ppl that aren’t qualified may attempt to give insufficient treatment.
Psychologists, registered psychotherapists and accredited psychological wellbeing practitioners are legally protected
What are the origins of psychotherapy?
Renaissance period:
Debate of whether MI was a physical, mental or spiritual condition, which led to patients enduring horrific conditions like beatings, starvation, ice baths etc.
18th Century:
Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) reformed mental hospitals - removed restraints, treated mentally ill more humanely resulting in some being able to leave the hospitals.
Stressed “moral” understanding + developed individualised therapies based on diagnosis and life history and states that drugs are a last resort.
Psychoanalysis first introduces by Freud.
was the starting point for ‘talking therapy’ and believed all psychological problems begin in the unconscious and developed strategies to bring the unconscious to the conscious
What is the aim of psychoanalysis/ psychodynamic therapy?
Help the individual acquire a reasonable balance between the id, ego and superego.
What are the 3 principles of Freud’s psychodynamic therapy?
Id - (pleasure principle) the innate instinctual aspects of personality, present from birth and concerned with securing food, comfort and pleasure
Ego - (rational aspect) the realistic awareness of self + the world, which develops through contact with the external world and attempts to control impulses of the id through defence mechanisms
Superego - (morality principle) Develops around age 3-5 + represents our attempts to integrate values gained from the external world (parents, society etc) concerned with conscience and moral judgement
What are examples of defence mechanisms?
Denial - refusal to acknowledge reality when it doesn’t fit preferences
Projection - “its nor me its you”
Displacement - child bullied at home, bullies others at school
Rationalisation - false reasons justify behaviour
Sublimation - T]take out aggression in other ways (e.g., sport)
Repression - push feelings away
Conversion - repressed feelings result in physical complaints
Regression - retreat to childlike state where things were safe
Splitting - perceiving others in black-and-white categories
What is the key assumption, main goal and strategy in modern psychoanalysis
Key assumption - lack of awareness of unconscious feelings is the potential cause of problems in everyday life
Ultimate goal - make unconscious conscious by uncovering past experiences that are driving current problems
Strategy - help clients look more closely at the past to uncover repressed memories that may explain unconscious feelings
What do psychotherapists do in modern psychoanalysis?
Act as an interpreter for the client –> listening and playing attention to body language, discomfort, hesitation etc.
How do psychotherapists bring the unconscious to the conscious?
Free association - allow the client to speak freely about all and any aspects of their experiences
Transference - recreates early traumas to help clients process their emotions
What are the limitations of modern psychoanalysis?
Takes a long time to build relationship with patient + is a very undirected process.
Evidence base is weaker than other therapies
Isn’t equally effective as research has shown that it’s more helpful to patients with milder disorders.
What does CBT focus on and how does it achieve it’s goal?
Gaining psychological and practical skills to overcome the problem
Identifies cognitive distortions, tests automatic thoughts and identifies maladaptive assumptions
What is cognitive restructuring and how does it work?
Breaks up Ellis’ ABC model (1962) Activating event –> beliefs about event –> emotional consequences.
Focuses on identifying challenging thoughts through finding negative schemas e.g., over sensitive to criticism
Works by:
Identifying unhelpful thoughts
Client records these thoughts in a diary
Therapist collects these as homework and reviews
Identify a ‘hot’ thought to work on
Support patient skills in looking for evidence for and against
Develop a balanced alternative thought
Encourage patient to challenge a new thought or put alternative thought into practice
Stick with it
What are the limitations of CBT?
doesn’t address what causes these dysfunctional thoughts
It’s cost effective but it arguably doesn’t resolve key issues whilst requiring a lot of work from clients outside of therapy
Isn’t equally effective for all psychological problems.
What is acceptance and commitment therapy?
Acknowledges that cognitive networks are the reflection of historical learning processes and so can’t be altered
Goal: focuses on changing the function of and clients relationship with psychological events, rather than changing events directly.
Therapist encourages clients to be psychologically present and flexible
