Psychotherapy
A psychological intervention designed to help people resolve emotional, behavioural, and interpersonal problems and improve the quality of their lives.
Who offers psychological services?
Clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers and others.
Unlicensed and untrained individuals
Insight Therapies
Psychotherapies, including psychodynamic, humanistic and group approaches with the goal of expanding awareness or insight.
Types of insight therapies
Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic, humanistic therapies, group therapies.
Core Perspectives of Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Therapy
Traumatic or adverse _____________ _________________ lead to psychological problems
Therapists analyze distressing thoughts, ________, life patterns and significant past events.
Insight into previously unconscious material will improve symptoms.
Conflicts in the unconscious mind cause problems, including maladaptive
thoughts and abnormal behaviours.
childhood experiences
wishes
Psychoanalysis
__________ ________ created one of the earliest organized approaches to therapy
Highly focused on the unconscious: ‘________________________’
Sigmund Freud
‘Make the unconscious conscious’
Therapeutic Process includes:
Free Association:
Interpretation:
Dream Analysis:
Resistance:
Transference:
Working Through:
FA: clients express themselves without censorship of any sort
I: therapist produces hypotheses about the relationship between unconscious information and present problems
DA: therapist uncovers latent content by interpreting manifest content
R: attempts to avoid confrontation and anxiety associated with uncovering previously repressed thoughts, emotions, and impulses
T: clients project intense, unrealistic feelings and expectations from their past onto the therapist
WT: continue the process of psychoanalysis as new life events emerge and old patterns resurface
Psychodynamic Tradition (Neo-Freudians)
Builds on, but ________ from Freud’s psychoanalysis
Share core perspectives and aspects of the therapeutic process
Less focus on the unconscious - __________ plays a more significant role (give an E.g.)
Deemphasize biological instincts (sex and aggression), and include more emphasis on social environment
Therapeutic plan end to be _________ than traditional Freudian therapy
deviates
conscious (E.g.: Jung’s individuation)
shorter
Criticisms of Psychodynamic Approaches:
Insight is ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Some concepts are _________________
Other explanations are not considered (give e.g.)
Lack of ___________ ________________ in Freudian foundations
Not effective for some disorders
Poor evidence for “repressed memories”
not necessary for relieving psychological symptoms or changing behaviour
unfalsifiable
(e.g.: , placebo effects)
systematic evaluation
Humanistic Therapies: _______________________
Problems originate from undue ________ and _______________
Assumption of _________________ for decisions is critical for living fully
Therapies that emphasize the development of human potential and the belief that human nature is basically positive.
burdens and expectations
responsibility
Carl Rogers: Person Centered Therapy
Therapy centering on the client’s goals and ways of solving problems; therapist provides a non-judgmental and comfortable environment in which the client is helped to grow
Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
________’ ideas about the therapeutic relationship were on the right track
Relationship is often an important predictor of ___________ ______________
Rogers’
positive outcomes
Criticisms
Core ideas like “self-actualization” and “authenticity” are difficult to _____________ ______.
Overly positive view of human nature
Humanistic therapies may be insufficient for _________ _________ ________ (but possibly helpful in recovery)
empirically test
severe mental illness
Behavioural Therapies: _______________________
Based on classical, operant, and observational learning principles
Emphasis is on current behaviours, not trauma or traits
Behavioural assessments: specific to comprehensive
(Observation, scales, interviews, and physiological measures)
Precise tracking is enabled by technology: __________ ____________ ________________
Focus on specific problem behaviours and on current variables that maintain problematic thoughts, feelings, and behaviour
ecological momentary assessment
Exposure Therapy:
Therapy that confronts patients with what they fear with the goal of reducing the fear.
Examples of Exposure Therapy:
Systematic Desensitization: _______________________
Flooding:
_______________________
SD: patients are taught to relax as they are gradually exposed to what they fear in a stepwise manner
F: client is exposed to source of fear directly and all at once
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies: _______________________
Treatments that attempt to replace maladaptive or irrational cognitions and behaviours with more adaptive rational cognitions and behaviours.
Core Principles:
Psychological problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of __________.
Psychological problems are based, in part, on ___________ patterns of unhelpful behavior.
People suffering from psychological problems can learn better ways of coping with them, thereby relieving their ____________ and becoming more effective in their lives.
thinking
learned
symptoms
CBT works by:
____________________
Identifying and changing cognitions (e.g., a distorted pattern of thought about a relationship) and teaching problem-solving skills for challenging situations
Psychopharmacotherapy:
________________________
Work by influencing the levels of ______________ or the sensitivity of neurons to them
The use of medications to treat psychological problems
neurotransmitters
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT):
____________________
Side effects are usually brief: memory and concentration issues
Patients receive brief electrical pulses to the brain that produce a seizure to treat serious psychological problems
Psychosurgery:
____________________
Radical; last-resort option
Brain surgery to treat psychological disorders
