Psychological Therapies487-492

Psychotherapy• An interaction between a trained therapist and

someone suffering from psychological

difficulties or adjustment issues.

Eclectic Approach• The most popular form of

therapy- it is basically a smorgasbord where the therapist combines techniques from different schools of psychology.

Psychoanalysis• Freud's therapy.

•Freud used free association, hypnosis and dream interpretation to gain insight into the client’s unconscious.

Psychoanalytic Methods

• Goal = identify “unconscious conflicts” and therefore the root of the problem

• Client helps therapist interpret his/her thoughts

• Psychotherapists use their techniques to overcome resistance by the client.– Client will subconsciously block the process

of revealing repressed memories

Transference = an important step in Psychoanalysis

• In psychoanalysis, the patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships.

Humanistic Therapy

• Focuses of people’s potential for self-fulfillment (self-actualization).

• Focus on the present and future (not the past).

• Focus on conscious thoughts (not unconscious ones).

• Take responsibility for you actions- instead of blaming childhood anxieties.

Client (Person) Centered Therapy• Developed by Carl Rogers

Most widely used Humanistic technique is:

•Therapist should use genuineness, acceptance and empathy to show unconditional positive regard towards their clients.

Active Listening• Central to Roger’s client-

centered therapy•Empathetic listening where the listener echoes, restates and clarifies.

Other forms of Humanistic Therapy

• Gestalt – (Fritz Perls) Holistic approach. Goal is to integrate “self” into a harmonious whole.

• Existential – help client’s achieve a meaningful perception of their lives and where they’re going

Gestalt therapy

Behaviorial Therapies 492-500

• Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

• The behaviors are the problems- so we must change the behaviors.

Classical Conditioning Techniques

Counterconditioning: • A behavioral therapy that

conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors.– Mary Cover Jones helped extinguish

“little Peter’s” fear of rabbits. How did she do this?

Two Types of Counterconditioning:

1. Systematic Desensitization

• A type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli.

How would I use systematic desensitization to reduce my Tryphanophobia (blood/needle)phobia?

Systematic Desensitization – techniques developed by

Joseph Wolpe

Progressive Relaxation – help client to use relaxation techniques

Exposure Therapy

Flooding – client presented with most anxiety

provoking situation first

Virtual Technology Exposure Therapy

2. Aversive Conditioning• A type of counterconditioning that

associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior.

How would putting poop on the fingernails of a nail biter effect their behavior?

Aversive Conditioning

Aversive Conditioning

What are some ways you can change the behaviors of your friends with aversive conditioning?

Operant ConditioningToken Economy: an operant

conditioning procedure that rewards a desired behavior.

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

Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive Therapies• Goal: challenge distorted

thinking and unrealistic beliefs– Client will assume new patterns of

thinking

– Pessimistic and external locus of control → optimistic and internal locus of control

Cognitive Therapy

• Cognitive Therapists try to teach people new, more constructive ways of thinking. Is .300 a good or

bad batting average?

Cognitive Therapy

Aaron Beck and his view of Depression

• Noticed that depressed people were similar in the way they viewed the world.

• Used cognitive therapy get people to take off the “dark sunglasses” in which they view their surroundings

Cognitive Therapy- Does It Work?

Group and Family Therapies

Group Therapy

• Therapists work with several people simultaneously.– Used with almost any perspective– Treatment programs – Alcoholics Anonymous, Eating

Disorders groups, Children of Divorce groups, etc.

Family Therapy

• Focus on family dynamics or system rather than individual.– One person is not the “client.”– Maybe used in conjunction with individual

therapy.