Therapy and Treatment

Practice flashcards covering the history, major types of therapy (psychoanalysis, CBT, humanistic), biomedical treatments, and sociocultural factors in mental health treatment.

Ocean Therapy

A program at Camp Pendleton for veterans that combines learning to surf with group discussions to help recover from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Mental Illness Prevalence

Approximately $19\%$ of U.S. adults and $13\%$ of adolescents (ages $8-15$) experience mental illness in a given year.

Exorcism

A historical treatment involving incantations and prayers said over an individual's body by a priest or religious figure to treat perceived supernatural causes of mental illness.

Trephining

A historical practice where a hole was made in the skull to release spirits from the body, often leading to death.

Asylums

The first institutions created specifically to house people with psychological disorders, which historically focused on ostracizing them from society rather than treatment.

Philippe Pinel

A French physician in the late $1700$s who argued for more humane treatment of the mentally ill, suggesting they be unchained and spoken to.

Dorothea Dix

A $19$th-century social reformer who advocated for the indigent insane and was instrumental in creating the first American mental asylum.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

A treatment involving a brief application of electric stimulus to produce a generalized seizure, originally called electroshock treatment.

Deinstitutionalization

The process, accelerated by the $1975$ Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, of closing large asylums and treating people locally in their communities.

Involuntary treatment

Therapy that is not the individual's choice, such as daily counseling sessions mandated as a condition of parole.

Voluntary treatment

When a person chooses to attend therapy to obtain relief from symptoms.

Intake

An initial meeting between a therapist and client to assess clinical needs, gather information on the presenting problem, and discuss treatment goals.

Confidentiality

The legal and ethical requirement that a therapist cannot disclose communications to a third party unless mandated or permitted by law.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy

Talk therapy based on the belief that the unconscious and childhood conflicts impact an individual's behavior.

Psychoanalysis

The first form of psychotherapy, developed by Sigmund Freud, which aims to uncover repressed feelings.

Free association

A psychoanalytic technique where the patient relaxes and then says whatever comes to mind at the moment.

Transference

A psychoanalytic process where the patient transfers positive or negative emotions from other relationships onto the psychoanalyst.

Play therapy

A psychoanalytical therapy used with children where interaction with toys, such as dolls or sandbox figurines, is used instead of talk.

Counterconditioning

A behavior therapy technique where a client learns a new response to a stimulus that previously elicited an undesirable behavior.

Aversive conditioning

A form of counterconditioning that uses an unpleasant stimulus, such as a bad taste or mild electric shock, to stop an undesirable behavior.

Antabuse

A substance used in aversive conditioning to treat alcoholism by causing negative side effects like vomiting when combined with alcohol.

Exposure therapy

A behavior therapy that seeks to change the response to a conditioned stimulus by repeatedly exposing the client to the object or situation causing the problem.

Systematic desensitization

A type of exposure therapy where a calm and pleasant state is gradually associated with increasing levels of anxiety-inducing stimuli using progressive relaxation.

Token economy

An operant conditioning technique used in controlled settings where individuals are reinforced with tokens for desired behaviors that can be exchanged for privileges.

Cognitive therapy

A therapy developed by Aaron Beck focusing on how thoughts lead to feelings of distress and helping clients eliminate thinking errors like overgeneralizing.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

A present-focused therapy that works to change cognitive distortions and self-defeating behaviors using the ABC model (Action, Belief, Consequences).

Humanistic therapy

A therapy focusing on conscious thoughts and self-awareness to help individuals achieve their potential, popularized by Carl Rogers.

Unconditional positive regard

A humanistic technique where the therapist accepts the client for who they are without judgment.

Psychotropic medications

Medications used to treat symptoms of psychological disorders, such as antipsychotics, anti-depressants, and mood stabilizers.

Systems approach

A perspective in family therapy where the family is viewed as an organized system, and each member's behavior influences and is influenced by the others.

Comorbid Disorders

When an individual has two or more diagnoses, such as being addicted to drugs while also having a mood or anxiety disorder.

Cultural competence

The requirement for mental health professionals to understand and address issues of race, culture, and ethnicity in treatment.