Intro to Treatments - Lecture 1

Ch. 16

Psychotherapy

• Insight: understanding the source of one’s problems

• Symptoms & Skill Development: analyzing current symptoms and development of behavior skills to improve situation

• Directive: therapist has an active role

• Non-directive: therapist facilitates the client’s own development/understanding)

Evidence-based practice

decisions about treatment are made based on 3 criteria

• the best available research

• the therapist’s clinical judgement

• client characteristics, culture, and preference

The treatment process

• therapist→experience and expertise

• client→motivation and participation

• therapist-client relationship→trust, respect, cooperation

Psychodynamic therapy

• Goal: reduce unconscious conflict

• Technique: psychoanalysis

  • free association→clients are given a prompt in order to reduce filtering of unconscious responses

  • dream analysis→unconscious desires/fears are revealed in dreams

    • manifest content→what actually happens

    • latent content→the deeper meaning

• Relationship: transference

  • allows clients to reproduce interactions with therapist that resemble their actual interpersonal dynamics

*insight-based

Humanistic therapy

• Goal: self-understanding and personal growth

• Technique: client-centered therapy

  • reflective speech→as a client talks about their experience, the therapist mirrors their sentences for clarification

  • motivational interviews→ask clients about personal values/motivations, point out discrepancies between current behaviors and desired motivations

• Relationship:

  • unconditional positive regard

  • empathy

  • genuineness

*insight-based

Behavioral therapy

• Goal: reduce maladaptive behavior

• Technique: classical conditioning

  • exposure therapy→repeatedly expose client to target of fear/anxiety to reduce association with that fear

  • systematic desensitization→create hierarchy of fear-inducing scenarios, teach client relaxation techniques, place client in first scenario (just above baseline level of comfort) and practice relaxation

  • aversion therapy→associating CR (i.e. nausea) with CS (i.e. alcohol) over time

• Technique: operant conditioning

  • positive reinforcement

*skill-based

Cognitive therapy

• Goal: change thoughts and feelings

• Technique: cognitive restructuring

  • bring automatic thought patterns into awareness to identify logical errors to thereby change maladaptive patterns

Cognitive-Behavioral therapy

• Goal: change thoughts, feelings, behaviors via intervention at:

  • activating event

  • beliefs

  • consequences

• Technique: homework and self-efficacy

Group therapy

• less expensive

• built-in social support

• learn from others

Family therapy

• systems approach→issues take place in a context

• expressed emotion predicts relapse rates for patients with schizophrenia→decreased responses lead to decrease in psychotic relapse rates