Therapy

o      Who does it?

o      Why go to them?

o      What do they do

n       Approaches

n       Techniques

o      Does it work?

Evaluating Psychotherapies

         To whom do people turn for help for psychological difficulties?

Therapists and their Training

         Clinical psychologists

        Most are psychologists with a Ph.D. and expertise in research, assessment, and therapy, supplemented by a supervised internship

        About half work in agencies and institutions, half in private practice

Therapists and their Training

         Psychiatrists

        Physicians who specialize in the treatment of psychological disorders

        Not all psychiatrists have had extensive training in psychotherapy, but as M.D.s they can prescribe medications. Thus, they tend to see those with the most serious problems

        Many have a private practice

Therapists and their Training

         Clinical or Psychiatric Social Worker

        A two-year Master of Social Work graduate program plus postgraduate supervision prepares some social workers to offer psychotherapy, mostly to people with everyday personal and family problems

        About half have earned the National Association of Social Workers� designation of clinical social worker

Therapists and their Training

         Counselors

        Marriage and family counselors specialize in problems arising from family relations

        Pastoral counselors provide counseling to countless people

        Abuse counselors work with substance abusers and with spouse and child abusers and their victims

Why go to a therapist and not just a friend?

o      Objectivity

o      Experience

n       How many of you have dealt with a suicidal individual?

o      Evidence based approaches

n       Reading the research

o      Creative methodologies��

o      Privacy and Comfort

 

General Approaches to Therapy

History of Treatment

Historical methods (still used in limited cases)

         Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

         therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient

         Psychosurgery

         surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior

         lobotomy

          now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients

Therapy- Psychoanalysis

         Psychoanalysis

         Freud believed the patient�s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences � and the therapist�s interpretations of them � released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight

         use has rapidly decreased in recent years

         Resistance

         blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material

Therapy- Psychoanalysis

         Interpretation

         the analyst�s noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors in order to promote insight

Humanistic Therapy

         Client-Centered Therapy

        humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers

        therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients� growth

Humanistic Therapy

          Active Listening-empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies

Behavior Therapy

         Behavior Therapy

         therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

         Counterconditioning

         procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors

         based on classical conditioning

         includes systematic desensitization and aversive conditioning

Behavior Therapy

         Exposure Therapy

         treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or reality) to the things they fear and avoid

Behavior Therapy

         Systematic Desensitization

         type of counterconditioning

         associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

         commonly used to treat phobias

Behavior Therapy

         Systematic Desensitization

Behavior Therapy

        Token Economy

        an operant conditioning procedure that rewards desired behavior

        patient exchanges a token of some sort, earned for exhibiting the desired behavior, for various privileges or treats

Cognitive Therapy

        Cognitive Therapy

        teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting

        based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions (mind over body?)

Cognitive Therapy

         The Cognitive Revolution

Cognitive Therapy

         A cognitive perspective on psychological disorders

Group and Family Therapies

         Family Therapy

        treats the family as a system

        views an individual�s unwanted behaviors as influenced by or directed at other family members

        attempts to guide family members toward positive relationships and improved communication

Drug Therapies

         Psychopharmacology

        study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

         Lithium

        chemical that provides an effective drug therapy for the mood swings of bipolar (manic-depressive) disorders

Drug Therapies

         The emptying of U.S. mental hospitals

Depression: Excess serotonin is blocked by drug (e.g., prozac)

Drug Therapies

Most Psychologists

         Eclectic Approach

         an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client�s problems, usestechniques from various forms of therapy