Techniques Flashcards
The key techniques are interpretation, dream analysis, analysis of resistance, analysis of transference, and countertransference.
Psychoanalytic
Attention is paid to the subjective experiences of clients than to using techniques. Some techniques include gathering life-history data, sharing interpretations with clients, offering encouragement, and assisting clients in searching for new possibilities.
Adlerian
Stresses understanding first and technique second. The therapist can borrow techniques from other approaches and incorporate them into the framework. Diagnosis, testing, and external measurements are not deemed important. Issues addressed are freedom and responsibility, isolation and relationships, meaning and meaninglessness, living and dying.
Existential
This approach uses few techniques but stresses the attitudes of the therapist and a “way of being”. Therapists strive for active listening, reflection of feelings, clarification, “being there” for the client, and focusing on the moment-to-moment experiencing of the client. This model does not include diagnostic testing, interpretation, taking a case history, or questioning or probing for information.
Person-Centered
A wide range of experiences are designed to intensify experiencing and to integrate conflicting feelings. Experiments are co-created by therapist and client through an I/Thou dialogue. Therapists have latitude to creatively invent their own experiments. Formal diagnosis and testing are not a required part of therapy.
Gestalt
The main techniques are reinforcement, shaping, modeling, systematic desensitization, relaxation methods, flooding, eye movement and desensitization reprocessing, cognitive restructuring, social skills training, self-management programs, mindfulness and acceptance methods, behavioral rehearsal, and coaching. Diagnosis or assessment is done at the outset to determine a treatment plan. Questions concentrate on “what”, “how”, and “when” (but not “why”). Contracts and homework assignments are also typically used.
Behavior
Diverse methods and techniques are tailored to suit individual clients. This is an active, directive, time-limited, present-centered, psychoeducational, structured therapy. Some techniques include engaging in Socratic dialogue, collaborative empiricism, debating irrational beliefs, carrying out homework assignments, gathering data on assumptions one has made, keeping a record of activities, forming alternative interpretations, learning new coping skills, changing one’s language and thinking patterns, role playing, imagery, confronting faulty beliefs, self-instructional training, and stress inoculation training.
Cognitive Behavior
This is an active, directive, and didactic therapy. Skillful questioning is a central technique used for the duration of the therapy process. Various techniques may be used to get clients to evaluate what they are presently doing to see if they are willing to change. If clients decided that their present behavior is not effective, they develop a specific plan for change and make a commitment to follow through.
Choice Therapy/Reality Theory
Gender-role analysis and intervention, power analysis and intervention, demystifying therapy, bibliotherapy, journal writing, therapist self-disclosure, assertiveness training, reframing and relabeling, cognitive restructuring, identifying and challenging untested beliefs, role playing, psychodramatic methods, group work, and social action.
Feminist
The main technique involves change-talk, with emphasis on times in a client’s life when the problem was not a problem. Other techniques include creative use of questioning, the miracle question, and scaling questions, which assist clients in developing alternative stories.
Postmodern Approaches
A variety of techniques may be used, depending on the particular theoretical orientation of the therapist. Some techniques include genograms, teaching, asking questions, joining the family, tracking sequences, family mapping, reframing, restructuring, enactments, and setting boundaries. Most are designed to bring about change in a short time.
Family Systems
