Psychological Therapies

Psychotherapy Psychotherapy – an emotionally

charged, confiding interaction between a trained therapist and someone who suffers from psychological difficulties.

At least 250 types of psychotherapies exist

Most influential – Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, Behavioral, Somatic and Cognitive

Many therapists today use an eclectic approach – using techniques from various therapies

Types of Therapists Psychiatrists – medical doctors, can

prescribe medication, oftentimes favor the biomedical model

Clinical psychologists – doctoral degrees in psychology

Counseling psychologists – graduate degrees in psychology

Psychoanalysts – people trained in Freudian methods (may or may not hold medical degrees)

Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud’s therapeutic

technique. Cause of psychological disorders -

Repressed conflicts (in the unconscious)

Focus – Identify the underlying cause of the problem Must find the underlying cause, otherwise

you are simply treating symptoms of the disorder and not the disorder itself.

To release repressed feelings and thus allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

Psychoanalysis

Techniques – Free Association – saying whatever comes to mind

(thought, feeling or image) Resistance – blocks in the flow of a free association

(evidence of anxiety and repression), could also refer to a patient’s tendency to disagree with the therapist’s interpretation

Psychoanalysts will oftentimes use interpretation to analyze a resistance.

Transference may occur – patient redirects emotion from their troubled relationships to their therapist (love or aggression)

Analysis of a dream’s latent content Psychodynamic Therapy – Search for repressed

childhood experiences that explain current symptoms. (Practiced by Neo-Freudians)

Humanistic Therapy

Cause of psychological disorders – failure to strive towards one’s potential. (Patient has the opportunity to change due to free-will)

Focus – Goal is to encourage self-fulfillment by the therapist helping the patient grow in self-awareness and self-acceptance

Humanistic Therapy Techniques –

Client-centered therapy (Carl Rogers) Focus on client’s conscious self-perceptions

rather than therapist’s interpretations Therapist is empathetic, genuine and offers

unconditional positive regard Use active listening – repeating what you’ve

heard Gestalt therapy

Developed by Fritz Perls Get in touch with your whole self - Encourage

their client to integrate all of their actions, feelings and thoughts into a harmonious whole.

Humanistic Therapy Existential therapy – helping clients achieve a

subjectively meaningful perception of their lives. Believes client’s problems are due to loss of purpose Therapist helps client form a worthwhile vision

Group Therapy – people meet regularly to interact and help one another achieve insight into feelings and behaviors. Ex. Family Therapy Ex. Couple Therapy Ex. Self-help groups – AA

Behavior Therapy

Cause of psychological disorder – due to the environment and can be changed with a change in one’s surroundings

Focus – apply learning principles to eliminate unwanted behavior, replace maladaptive symptoms with constructive behavior

Behavior Therapy Techniques

Counter conditioning - reversing the present conditioned response. (Classical Conditioning) Systematic Desensitization – conditioning a patient

to replace anxious feelings with relaxed feelings. (used to treat phobias) Anxiety hierarchy – ranking fear of a particular

object/experience from least to most fear provoking Exposure Therapy – treating anxiety through exposure to

that which you normally avoid (in imagination or actuality) Ex. – virtual reality ET

Implosive Therapy – exposure to the most frightening scenario first. Client should eventually realize that their behavior is irrational.

Aversive Conditioning - An unpleasant state is associated with an unwanted behavior. (Ex. Shocking bed wetters, pill causing nausea in an alcoholic's drink, terrible tasting nail polish for nail biting)

Behavior Therapy

Techniques Modeling – observe appropriate

behavior and then reenact that behavior. Token Economy - Rewarding desired

behavior (operant conditioning) Ex. Reward a child with ADHD when they takes notes and participate in class. Reward could be candy, points, etc.)

Cognitive Therapy

Causes of psychological disorders – irrational or dysfunctional ways of thinking. The mind processes has caused the disorder

Focus – teaching clients new and rational ways of thinking

Cognitive Therapy Techniques –

Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy – seek to reverse client’s beliefs about themselves, their situations and their futures. Read dialogue on page 670 Changing negative thoughts to more positive thinking.

Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) – therapist points out dysfunctional thinking. Many patients in therapy have an irrational set of beliefs that include “musts? and “shoulds” (Ex. I should be competent at everything. I must be liked by everyone.) Therapists challenge this thinking. Ellis’s RET is more confrontational than Beck’s CT

Biomedical (Biological / Somatic Therapy)

Causes of psychological disorders – genetic predisposition to the disorder, biochemical (neurotransmitter) imbalance

Focus – advocate somatic therapies that produce bodily change.

Biomedical (Biological / Somatic Therapy) Techniques –

Prefrontal lobotomy - cutting the nerves connecting the frontal lobes with the inner brain’s thalamus. Rarely used today – but in the 1940s and 1950s –

thousands of lobotomies were administered Used on patients with extreme schizophrenia, high

anxiety or uncontrollably violent patients. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) – brief electric

current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized person. Used for severe depression How ECT improves symptoms of depression is not entirely understood.

Biomedical (Biological / Somatic Therapy)

Psychopharmacology (Drug Therapy) – the study of the effects of drugs on the mind and behavior (p. 686 – review double-blind technique) Antianxiety drugs – Xanax, Valium

(barbiturates) – depress the central nervous system

Antidepressant drugs – Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil (all three are SSRIs – increase the amount of serotonin) MAO inhibitors (inhibits the breakdown of serotonin)

Antipsychotic drugs – Thorazine (Chlorpromazine), Haldol (Haloperidol)– block receptor sites for dopamine – Antagonist drugs

Mood Stabilizers – Lithium (used to treat bipolar disorder)