Psychological Therapy Flashcards
Psychoanalysis:
Psychodynamic form of psychotherapy developed by Freud that attempts to recover unconscious conflicts, motives, and defense mechanisms.
Client-centred Therapy:
Humanist-Existentialist form of psychotherapy in which the client determines the pace and direction of therapy, and the therapist provides a supportive climate.
Cognitive Therapy:
A form of psychotherapy that helps individuals recognize and change negative thoughts and maladaptive beliefs.
Behavioural Therapy:
A form of psychotherapy that utilizes the principles of classical and operational conditioning.
Biomedical Therapy:
Interventions into an individual’s biological functioning, which can include drugs, psychosurgery, or electroconvulsive shock.
to manage the anxiety
we rely on various defence mechanisms such as repression, projection, and displacement
As unresolved conflicts accumulate in the unconscious over time
they begin to manifest anxiety, and because anxiety is unpleasant
This is the goal of Freud’s psychoanalysis.
However, because defence mechanisms do not address the source of anxiety, they are insufficient for reducing one’s tendency to experience anxiety. To do that, one would need to identify the unresolved conflicts hiding in the unconscious in order to bring them into the conscious part of the mind where they can be addressed.
Dream Analysis
bring unconsious to consious
Recall the wish-fulfillment theory of dreams presented in Module 5? Freud believed that dreams have two types of content. The Manifest content is the literal representation of your dream that you are aware of, whereas the Latent content is the symbolic representation of your dream that expresses unconscious desires. If you want to know what’s in the unconscious, Freud thought, just look at the Latent content in your dreams. Freud famously described dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious”. This process requires training the patient to remember and record their dreams for the psychoanalyst to review.
Free Association
Another way to probe the unconscious is to engage in Free Association, whereby the patient expresses their thoughts and feelings spontaneously and without censorship. They simply verbalize whatever pops into their head, no matter how interesting, how silly, or how trivial they might consider it. To facilitate this process, Freud would invite patients to relax on his couch in a reclined position, resulting in one of the most pervasive and ubiquitous memes in psychology.
For their part, the job of the psychoanalyst is to provide
Interpretation. That is, the therapist explains the inner significance of thoughts, feelings, memories, and behaviour by analyzing the patient’s free associations and dreams.
But how does the therapist know if the interpretation is accurate? A key indication that progress is being made occurs
s when the patient begins to demonstrate Resistance.
Transference
Another indication of successful therapy, according to Freud, is Transference. This occurs when the patient unconsciously relates to the therapist in ways that simulate critical relationships in their life. For instance, the patient may begin to interact with the therapist as if he or she was a former spouse or a rejecting parent. The patient transfers their thoughts and feelings about these relationships to the therapist.
Like the Freudians, Rogers was interested in helping
individuals suffering from anxiety originating from their personality development.
If incongruence and anxiety result from Conditional Regard, Rogers reasoned
then the solution is to change the client’s belief about affection to reflect Unconditional Regard instead. This should reduce incongruence in the self-concept, which should foster personal acceptance and alleviate anxiety.
How does Rogers accomplish the treatment
By fostering a Therapeutic Climate that is warm, supportive and accepting of the client.
First, the therapist gives the client Unconditional Positive Regard (client is welcomed no mater what)
The second characteristic of the therapeutic climate is Genuineness. The therapist must be willing to share their feelings with the client, and be able to talk about their own mistakes, failures, and shortcomings. Moreover, they should do so as honestly and as spontaneously as possible. This helps to build trust in the relationship and also models positive communication to the client.
The final characteristic of the therapeutic climate is Empathy. The therapist must try to understand the client’s experiences from the client’s point of view. The therapist must then express this understanding to the client. In Rogers own words, “empathy is in itself a healing agent.”
Cognitive Therapy locates
Cognitive Therapy locates the problem in people’s habitual thought patterns.
the time horizon for cognitive therapy
Because the goal here is to reorganize automated thought patterns instead of personality, the time horizon is much shorter for cognitive therapy, typically requiring 4 to 20 sessions over weeks or months instead of years.
n, the principles of cognitive therapy have been combined with
Although Beck’s approach specifically targets depression, the principles of cognitive therapy have been combined with behavioural therapies (described next) to treat a wide range of maladaptive behaviour. When cognitive therapies are combined with behavioural therapies, it is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
Just how effective are insight therapies?
Nevertheless, thousands of studies have been conducted to examine the effectiveness of different insight therapies used with different populations to address a variety of psychological conditions. The consensus is that insight therapies are superior to receiving no treatment and are at least as effective as drug therapies (Lambert, 2013), although combining drug and insight therapies together leads to the best results.
Psychodynamic, Treatment for…, Method, Therapist provides, Goal, Reorganize, Duration
Neuroses
Free Association
Dream Analysis
Resistance
Transference
Interpretation
Resolve unconscious intrapsychic conflicts
Personality
3 to 5 years
Humanist-Existentialist, Treatment for…, Method, Therapist provides, Goal, Reorganize, Duration
Neuroses
Unconditional Positive Regard
Genuineness
Empathy
Clarification
Reduce incongruence
Personality
3 to 5 years
Cognitive, Treatment for…, Method, Therapist provides, Goal, Reorganize, Duration
Depression
Recognize maladaptive thought patterns
Promote realistic evaluations
Cognitive Training
Reappraise overly negative thoughts
Thought
4 to 20 sessions
Given that insight therapies are effective, why is that the case? What is it about the therapeutic relationship that leads to improvement? A number of common factors have been identified, but this does not preclude the possibility that factors specific to different approaches are also relevant (Lambert & Ogles, 2014). Common Factors include:
A therapeutic alliance with a mental health professional.
Emotional support and empathy.
An expectation by the client to get better.
A rationalization for, and a strategy to address the individual’s problems.
A forum in which clients can express themselves without judgment.
