Psychotherapy:
Informed, intentional, and planned form of treatment of emotional nature that involves a trained/ qualified therapist that deliberately establishes a professional relationship with a patient and applies clinical method derived from psychological principles.
Purpose is to remove, modify or retard existing symptoms, mediade disturbed patterns of behaviour, promote growth… be remedial for the patient and make their life potentially better
- This excludes other aid relationships (friends, family…), psychological or medical counselling and clinical management
Psychological treatment:
any process in which a trained healthcare provider offers assistance based on their expertise to a person that has problems living, conditions with discrete symptoms and problems of interpersonal adjustment.
Consists of correcting, changing or ameloriating these conditions or problems
Psychological treatment vs psychotherapy
Psychological treatment: components common to all psychotherapies but are specifically tailored to the pathological process that is causing the impairment or disease. Are evidence-based.
Psychotherapy is more generic and can include personal growth and more general interventions.
Therapist
Relational variables
Empathy, attachment style, unconditional positive regard, respect, warmth and genuineness
Therapist
Professional variables
Theoretical orientation, training level, experience, neutrality, overall caseload and superiority status
Therapist
Diversity variables
Age, gender, race, ethnicity, values and client-therapist similarities
Therapist
Personality variables
Personality traits, attitudes, flexibility, kindness, trustworthiness and adjustment capacity
Therapist
Developmental and personal variables
Personal development, functioning level, self-efficacy, self-directed hostility and interpersonal problems
Therapist
Motivations
Functional: interest/curiosity about others, ability to listen and converse, empathy, understanding, emotional discernment, introspection, tolerance, affection, privacy and humor
Dysfunctional: emotional distress, vicarious management, loneliness, desire for power, disrespect, need of love and vicarious rebellion
Therapist
Personal characteristics of effective psychotherapy
- Vicarious learners
- Sensitivity and value to human complexity
- Emotionally receptive, self-aware, open to feedback…
- Strong relationship skills
- Strong working alliance
- Able to use accumulated life and professional experience as a major resource in their work.
Therapist
Profession risks
- Compassion or empathy fatigue: diminished ability to be empathetic to the suffering of patients
- Burn-out: state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion accused by exposure to an emotionally demanding situation for a long time
- Vicarious trauma: being victim of traumatic stress reactions when helping a person with trauma
Who is the patient?
Person that has some difficulty, discomfort or disorder important enough in his life to cause conscious desire to change.
Aspects to consider about the patient
- They have to admit they can’t solve the problem by themselves
- The therapeutic process is aimed at increasing the feeling of personal competence
Types of patient
- Those who see current difficulties as deriving from early childhood difficulties evaluate therapy in terms of the extent to which it enables them to overcome these early events.
- Those who have a temporary inability to cope with certain stressful events and evaluate therapy in terms of the degree to which they have acquired coping skills.
- Those who understand their distress as arising from lack of meaning in their lives and evaluate the results in relation to what they have learned about cultivating sources of meaning
Therapeutic relationship
At least 12% of outcome is due to the therapeutic relationship
- Radical behavioural therapy exists for mere practical reasons
- Cognitive therapies are a precondition necessary for the therapy to proceed
- Person-centred therapy is an essential process that produces change
