Therapy Theories Flashcards
Change through insight and understanding of early, unresolved issues
• Insight oriented therapy
• A belief that psychopathology develops especially from early childhood
experiences
• Understanding the influence of the past on current behavior
• Explore client’s transference
• Identify defense mechanisms
• Non-directive, open-ended sessions based on free association
• Good for high functioning people capable of insight, relationship problems
psychodynamic therapy
Change of behavior through reinforcements and punishment.
Identify the problem, monitor behavior, reinforce desired behavior
behavioral therapy
A model for understanding how attachment to early caregivers affects our long term functioning
• How a caregiver responds to an infant/toddler’s cues shapes that child’s view of the world.
• Used to assess the bond between mother and child. Observing how child responds when caregiver leaves and returns to room.
• Poor attachment leads to indiscriminate attachment and lack of trust.
attachment therapy
Change through learning to modify dysfunctional thought patterns
• Clients explore patterns of thinking and beliefs that lead to self-destructive
behaviors.
• Once an individual understands the relationship between thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors, the individual is able to modify or change existing patterns of
thinking to cope with stressors in a more positive manner.
• Focus on automatic thoughts, schemas, assumptions, beliefs
• Good for Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar Disorder
Cognitive therapy
Change through accessing client’s strengths and resources
• Brief, goal-directed therapy focused on client’s strengths and resources
• Focuses on what the client wants to achieve instead of focusing on the
problems
• Focuses on the client’s strengths and resources in order to create a more
effective future
• Miracle Question
• Good for short-term problems
Solution focused therapy
Change through increased awareness of here-and-now experience
• Focuses on the process, what is actually happening, and the content, what is
being talked about
• Emphasizes what is going on in the present moment within both the client
and the therapist rather than what has happened
• Empty Chair technique example of bringing issue into present moment
Gestalt therapy
Change through remodeling the family’s organization
Many family problems arise as a result of maladaptive boundaries and
subsystems within the family system.
• A systems approach that address relationship dynamics of whole family
The therapist helps the family understand how family structure (relationships and hierarchies) can be changed, the impact of rituals and rules, and how new patterns of interaction can be integrated into the family.
• Enmeshed families known for incest
• Disengaged families known for substance abuse
• Good for families that are having problems with in-laws
Structural Family Therapy
Change through understanding multigenerational dynamics
• Individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another but rather as
a part of their family.
• Family members are driven to achieve a balance of internal and external
differentiation, which causes anxiety, triangulation, and emotional cutoff.
• This can be changed by understanding multigenerational or current family
dynamics and patterns.
Bowen family therapy
Change through finding meaning in life
• Founded upon the belief that it is the striving to find a meaning in one’s life
that is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force.
• Understanding purpose
Logotherapy
Change through recognizing disempowering social forces and empowering client
• The therapist helps the client recognize disempowering forces or influences,
a process which can ultimately empower the client.
• The therapist recognizes that with every symptom there is a strength, and
also shows the client that she is her own rescuer and equal to the therapist.
• Good for eating disorders
Feminist therapy
Change through supporting clients to take actions to address the problems in their lives; Short term
task center/problem solving therapy
Aims to change behavioral, emotional, and thinking patterns associated with dysfunction
• Developed to treat intense emotional swings, impulsiveness, confusion regarding the self (identity), and suicidal behavior
• Teaches mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and self-management.
• Good for Borderline Personality Disorder
DBT
Change occurs by externalizing problem and creating a new narrative or story, which emphasizes the client’s competencies and strengths.
• Problems are viewed as separate entities from the client
• Therapist “externalizes” problem, separates it from client
• Highlights “unique outcomes” when the client could resist the problem
• Therapist “maps the influence” of the problem
Narrative therapy
This includes having an understanding of not only the psychological impacts of trauma, but the neurological, biological, and interpersonal effects of trauma.
• A trauma-based approach includes the view of the client having been hurt by someone or something.
• Emotional/psychological and physical safety are crucial. Trauma treatments do not begin while the trauma is still actively occurring; safety must be established first.
• Treatment focuses on the client’s gaining back control and empowerment in their lives.
trauma informed therapy
evidence based treatment for children and adolescents used to treat the effects of trauma.
• involves the child’s parents/caregivers, with individual sessions for both the child and the parents, as well as parent-child joint sessions).
• It helps reduce emotional and behavioral trauma symptoms and is a relatively short term treatment (generally 8-25 sessions).
TFCBT
