Psychological and Psychosocial Interventions Flashcards
1
Q
What is psychological therapy?
A
- ‘Talking therapy’
- Collaborative process
- Explores impact of psychological difficulties
- Can help people with past traumas or current problems with thoughts and/or behaviours
- Numerous different models and approaches exist
2
Q
What are common factors in ALL psychotherapies?
A
- Explanation of the therapy beforehand
- Positive expectations; therapeutic optimism
- Structure and boundaries (time, venue, number of sessions, etc)
- Active role of the patient; cannot be unilateral
- Collaborative therapeutic relationship
- Effective communication skills
3
Q
How to improve the chances of therapy success?
A
- Choose from evidence-based models of psychotherapy, informed by the patient’s specific difficulties, presentation and preferences
- Select the right therapy for the right patient
- Ensure the therapy is available(!)
- Offer a timescale – many NHS services have long waiting lists for most psychological therapies
- Prepare the patient for therapy beforehand
4
Q
What psychological models or therapeutic approaches do you know?
A
- Counselling and supportive psychotherapy
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- Cognitive Analytical Therapy
- Interpersonal Therapy
- Dialectical Behavioural Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
- When trauma → talking about the situation as brain captured event and stored and didn’t do anything with it, this therapy deals with this
- Compassion Focussed Therapy
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Family Therapy
- Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST)
- Art Therapy
- Group Therapy
- Milieu therapy (uses a bit of everything)
- Others; Clinical Hypnotherapy (hypnotised e.g. used in surgery instead of GA), Superhero Therapy
- Integrative: use of more than one model
5
Q
Explain counselling and supportive psychotherapy
A
- Usually brief in duration
- Often select one issue, for example bereavement
- Enables patients to use own strengths
- Counsellor is empathic and reflective
- Counsellor may offer info and advice
- Person-centred; ‘client knows best’
- Problem-solving; ‘directive counselling
6
Q
Explain psychodynamic psychotherapy
A
- Sigmund Freud introduced psychoanalytic theory in late 19th century
- Unconscious thoughts, feelings and fantasies cause distressing symptoms
- These are thought to develop in childhood
- Aim is to make symptom-causing, unconscious processes conscious
- Analyst interprets repressed processes in context of safe, professional relationship
7
Q
Explain cognitive behavioural therapy
A
- Aaron T Beck: what we think affects how we feel and behave, and these 3 things are inter-related
- Time-limited, effective for numerous conditions
- Elicit automatic thoughts and dysfunctional assumptions, then test their validity
- Focus on present problems and homework between sessions
8
Q
Explain dialectical behavioural therapy
A
- Pioneered by Marsha Linehan
- Useful for people struggling with emotional dysregulation
- Structured, skills-based therapy consisting of both group and individual sessions
- Divided into 4 modules to target problem areas and improve coping skills
Mindfulness → maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens
Distress tolerance → involve thoughts in emotions
Emotional regulation → correct emotions to a stimulus (positive and negative)
Interpersonal effectiveness → how to ask for what they need, get a good relationship
9
Q
Explain interpersonal therapy
A
- Enable patients to evaluate their social interactions and improve their social skills
- Time limited with focus on current problem(s)
- All social roles considered: family / partners / friends / community / work
- Explores: role disputes, role transitions, interpersonal deficits, and grief
10
Q
Explain family therapy
A
- Treat the ‘family’; usually parents and siblings but can be any family unit
- Aims to improve family communication and deal with conflict in healthier ways
- Aim to improve the ‘symptomatic patient’ but often everyone benefits
- Can use different models – psychodynamic, structural and systemic approaches
- Frequently used in CAMHS services
11
Q
Explain art therapy
A
- Type of therapy in which art media is main mode of expression and communication
- Creative expression can promote healthy processing of emotions
- Effective way to explore psychodynamic processes non-verbally; helpful for children and traumatised patients
12
Q
Explain group therapy
A
- Group therapy incorporates many of the different models described
- Groups usually meet weekly, for 1-2 hours, with 1-2 facilitators and up to 10 members
- Groups can run for months (CBT) or years
- Enables patients to observe and reflect on their responses to others in ‘safe’ social setting
- Not alone -> ‘universality’ is therapeutic
13
Q
Explain Milieu therapy
A
- Therapeutic communities
- About 30 residents/patients
- Duration of stay: 9-18 months
- Encourage to take responsibility for themselves and others
- A form of resocialisation for those with severe interpersonal difficulties
- Now a rare resource
14
Q
What are psychosocial interventions?
A
- Important for most conditions
- Psychoeducation
- Role of Occupational Therapist and Social Worker
- Carer assessment, education and support
- Social prescribing
- The third sector
15
Q
Explain psychoeducation
A
- Educating your patient about their diagnosis and its management is important
- In mental health, referred to as ‘psychoeducation’
- Includes explanations re symptoms, treatment (and side effects), prognosis, relapse, heritability, and anything else they want to know
