psychological treatment Flashcards
what are the three treatment options for psychological disorders
medication, psychotherapy or both
what is cognitivie behaviour therapy
a short term psychological treatment for mental disorder that focuses on the links between peoples thoughts, emotions and behaviour and the way in which those links give rise to,or maintain the disorder
whats the CBT triangle
emotions impact how we think and behave
thoughts impact how we feel and behave
behaviour impacts how we feel and think
where does CBT focus
has a present focus, cant change what happened in the past. we can focus on the feelings, thoughts and behaviours generated as a result and structure care around those
what are the four techniques of CBT
exposure therapy, evidence for and against, response prevention, behavioural experiments
describe exposure therapy
directly targetting the avoidance that is maintaining the fear.
using steps on a graded scale we chose a step they can do and expose the person to that, until the step no longer provokes anxiety. exposing them to each step so they can learn their over reactive thoughts arent true and they dont need to feel as strongly about the thing.
also target behaviours around the thing exposed to, learning that certain behaviours around it arent needed.
used for stuff like specific phobia.
targets our anxious and fearful feelings
what is exposure and response prevention
exposing them to a feared situation without allowing them to engage in a typical safety behaviour. works for stuff like OCD. removing the ability to do the compulsive behaviour after a situation. showing that the compulsive behaviour is not needed to prevent specific outcomes, and that such fear of a certain outcome is not needed.
what is behavioural experiment
an experiment which aims to test the irrational beliegs or predictions of reality. we get the patient to rate how strongly they believe things to happen if they are exposed to a situation, then devise and experiment to see if these are true. then afterwards patient writes down what happened and wether or not it was what they predicted.
two types of behavioural experiment
observational experiment or active
whats an observational experiment
when thoughts around or actions of some people are the fear, so we get them to expose themselve to the situation and watch how other people react to it or are involved in it
whats an active experiment
get them to be exposed to their situation and see if what they fear will happen actually does
how do we set up behavioural experiment
grade the challenges, set time and place, get them to write their predicted outcomes and scale how strongly they believe them, anticipate problems that may arise and how one will cope, then check if outcome is what they have predicted.
whats evidence for/ evidence against
identify unhelpful thought/belief and get them to write down why they think its true and then get them to write down why they may think it to be untrue. get them to assess the thoughts for and against
why do we get them to write thoughts for first
When asking for the for and against, start with FOR every time. As asking for against immeadiately may feel as if you are invalidating their thoughts of why it is so. So they mught feel like you think they are crazy as its like “ tell me why its wrong first of all.” whereas we want to say why, then why not, and then can you see how its not quite the case
