Psychological Therapies

Psychotherapy An interaction between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

Eclectic Approach Form of therapy where the therapist combines techniques from different forms of therapy. Kind of like a smorgasbord.

Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud's therapeutic technique. Uses free association, hypnosis and dream interpretation to gain insight into the client’s unconscious.

Psychoanalytic Methods Psychotherapists use their techniques to overcome resistance (the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material). The psychoanalyst’s goal is for you to become aware of the resistance and together interpret it’s underlying meaning to gain self-insight.

Transference In psychoanalysis, the patient transfers to the analyst emotions linked with other relationships.

Alternative Therapies Seasonal Affective Disorder is depression experienced during the winter months. Based not on temperature, but on amount of sunlight. Treated with light therapy.

Humanistic Therapy Focuses of people’s potential for self- fulfillment (self- actualization). Focuses on the present and future. Focuses on conscious thoughts (not unconscious ones). Take responsibility for you actions.

Client (Person) Centered Therapy Developed by Carl Rogers. Therapist should use genuineness, acceptance and empathy to show unconditional positive regard towards their clients. Most widely used Humanistic technique.

Active Listening Central to Roger’s client-centered therapy. Empathetic listening where the therapist echoes, restates and clarifies the clients thoughts and feelings.

Behavior Therapies The goal of this type of therapy is to apply 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. Two Types: Exposure Therapies & Aversive ConditioningExposure Therapies Aversive Conditioning

1. Exposure Therapies Systematic desensitization - type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing, anxiety-triggering stimuli. (i.e. phobias) How would I use systematic desensitization to reduce my fear of old women?

Systematic Desensitization uses… progressive relaxation versus Flooding which… exposes you to an anxiety-provoking situation at the highest level of fear all at once.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Scientific American Frontiers – “Virtual Fear”

2. Aversive Conditioning A type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (nausea) with an unwanted behavior (alcoholism). Example – putting peppers on a nail biters fingernails.

Aversive Conditioning

Operant Conditioning Token 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 therapists try to teach people new, more constructive ways of thinking. Is.300 a good or bad batting average?

Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Integrative therapy that combines changing self- defeating thinking with changing inappropriate behaviors.

Cognitive Therapy - Does It Work?

Group & Family Therapies (i.e. Alcoholics Anonymous, etc.)

Group Therapy Advantages – help more people in less time; less expensive; and you can discover that others have problems similar to yours.

Family Therapy Views and in individual’s unwanted behaviors as influenced by or directed at other family members. Attempts to guide the family toward positive relationships.

Biomedical Therapies Therapies aimed at changing the brain’s functioning with prescribed drugs, electroconvulsive therapy, or surgery.

Psychopharmacology The study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior.

Drugs and Hospitalization

Emptying of Mental Hospitals

Testing New Drugs When a new drug is released there is always too much enthusiasm. Must use a double-blind procedure to combat placebo and experimental effects. Types of drugs include:

Antipsychotic Drugs Medicines used to treat psychosis - typically in schizophrenia and bipolar patients. Thorazine - although effective often has powerful side effects (blocks the activity of dopamine). Tardive dyskinesia – neurotoxic effect involving involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs.

Antianxiety Drugs Includes drugs like Valium, Librium and Xanax. Used to treat people undergoing significant stress or anxiety disorders. Most widely abused prescription drugs.

Antidepressant Drugs Lift you up out of depression. Most increase the availability of norepinephrine or serotonin. Prozac, Paxil & Zoloft are known as SSRI’s (selective- serotonin-reuptake-inhibitors) and block serotonin reuptake. Lithium is an effective mood stabilizer used by those with bipolar disorder.

Prozac, Paxil & Zoloft

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Therapy for major depression in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of a patient causing a mild seizure. Usually produces temporary memory loss. But has been very effective of temporarily ridding people of suicidal thoughts.

Alternative to ECT Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Application of magnetic energy to the brain. Doesn’t produce seizures or memory loss. Still waiting for conclusive data.

Psychosurgery Egas Moniz developed the lobotomy in the 1930’s and it became very popular in the 40’s and 50’s. Surgery that removes or destroys frontal lobe brain tissue in an effort to change behavior. Ice pick like instrument through the eye sockets cutting the links between the frontal lobes and the emotional control centers.

Lobotomy