Psychotherapy Flashcards
What must be done before psychotherapy can begin?
Pt must be motivated
What is the effect of increased comorbidities, chronicity, and severity, on mental illness prognosis with psychotherapy?
Worse
Which is more important: patient expectations of success, or the credibility of treatment
Patient expectations
What is the role of psychotherapy compared to pharmacotherapy in the treatment of mental illness?
Changes brain wiring
What are the strengths of psychodynamic therapy? (3)
- Emphasizes self-understanding
- Seeks characterological and structural change
- Effect with PDs, MDD, and anxiety
What is the theory of psychodynamic therapy? (2)
- Early life experiences influences psychosocial development and current functioning
- Focus on unconscious motivating factors
What are the weaknesses of psychodynamic psychotherapy? (2)
- Can be very long term
- Difficult to research in its traditional form
Why do psychotherapists not express emotions?
See how patient forms ideas about you is telling about their framework
What is the focus of behavioral therapy?
- Focuses on overt behaviors and environmental influences that support them
- Focuses attention on issues related to conditioning and reinforcement
What are the strengths of behavior therapy? (2) What does it work well for?
- Symptom focused
- Researchable
-Works well with anxiety, phobias, and behavior disorders
What are the weaknesses of behavior therapy? (2) What is its role in treating depression?
- No opportunity for client to discuss feelings
- Less effective without a cognitive component being present
- Not as effective as other forms therapy for depression
Anxiety and phobias are very treatable with what sort of therapy?
Behavior therapy
What is the basic principle behind cognitive therapy?
- We base our world on schema. Psychopathology results from faulty thinking.
- If we change what people are saying inside their heads, it will change how they feel
What is the all-or-nothing cognitive distortion?
I’m either great or worthless
What is the overgeneralization cognitive distortion?
Single event is seen as a never ending pattern
What is the mental filter cognitive distortion?
Picking out a single negative detail and focusing on it
What is the jumping to conclusions cognitive distortion?
Drawing a negative conclusion without supporting facts
What is the catastrophizing or minimizing cognitive distortion?
Exaggerating or minimizing the importance of something that happens
What is the Emotional reasoning cognitive distortion?
If I feel it, it must be so
What is the should statement cognitive distortion?
Punishing self leads to guilt
Directing to others leads to resentment
What is the labeling and misleading cognitive distortion?
I’m a loser or he’s a louse
What is the personalization cognitive distortion?
Seeing self as the cause of an event for which you have no responsibility
What are the strengths of cognitive therapy? (3)
- Short duration
- Excellent research support
- Can be used for most all psych disorders
What are the weaknesses of cognitive therapy? (2)
- Less powerful framework for dealing with problems that arise in therapy
- Requires patient commitment to complete homework
What are the ideas behind acceptance and commitment therapy?
- human suffering is inevitable
- Coming up with explanations for our feelings is counterproductive
- Avoiding internal experiences is counterproductive
What are the goals of acceptance and commitment therapy? (4)
- Accepting thoughts, even when uncomfortable
- Identify values
- Not applying judgement on thoughts
- Being in the moment (future = anxiety, past = depression)
What are the strengths of ACT? (3)
- Can be used with wide range of problems
- Short duration
- Good research support
What are the weakness of ACT? (2)
- Requires an excellent therapist
- Underlying theory can be complex and difficult to explain
What are the basic principles of interpersonal therapy (IPT)? 23)
- Focus on current interpersonal problems and relationships, since these are the major causes of issues
- Focus on present social context
What are the strengths of IPT? (3)
- Effective with depression, anxiety,
- Easily understood by pts
- Short
What are the weaknesses of IPT?
Not preferred if there are no interpersonal issues
What is play therapy?
- Emotional difficulties can be worked through, w/o the use of words
- Play activities and games that allow the pt to express problem
What is the focus of couple therapy?
- Contributions of each part to the difficulties
- Communication/ attachment styles
What is the basic principles of family therapy?
-Symptomatic pts are manifestations of underlying family issue
What are the focuses of family therapy? (2)
- Alter the interactions among family members
- Alter communication styles, boundaries, hierarchies
What are the strengths of group psychotherapy? (4)
- effective for social skills
- Emphasizes receiving and utilizing immediate feedback
- Decreases isolation
- Therapist can see both sides of story
What are the weaknesses of group psychotherapy? (3)
- Group members can be hurtful
- Members may lack a common history or context
- Need to select good group members
What are social workers?
Training in Macrolevel social policy and psychotherapy
What are mental health counselors?
Master’s degree in counseling
What are marriage and family therapists trained in?
Counseling
True or false: substance abuse counseling is a different credential among therapists
True
What are the four major characteristics of competent psychotherapists?
- Professionalism
- Cultural sensitivity
- Interpersonal and communication
- Grounded in theory
True or false: charismatic leaders tend to make good psychotherapist
False
How do you refer appropriately?
- Know who you are referring to
- State the issue you’re assessing for
- Sign releases
Who does psychological testing?
Clinical psychologists
What is the use of psychological testing?
To confirm or disconfirm other data
What are the common pitfalls with psychological testing?
- very time and context sensitive
- May not predict well
True or false: a patient who comes for therapy needs to have a conscious issue
false–Can be unconscious, but manifested in some way
What is the most important factor in determining the outcome of therapy?
Quality of the relationship with the therapist–not actually what they do
True or false: patients with a higher level of attachment usually have better outcomes with therapy
True
What is the “top down” approach to treating depression?
Psychotherapy
What is the “bottom up” approach to treating depression?
Pharmacology
What are the general uses of neuropsych testing?
- Neuropsychological functioning
- Deisability eval
