Therapy Psychological and Biomedical Psychotherapy Psychotherapy an emotionally

Therapy Psychological and Biomedical

Psychotherapy • Psychotherapy – an emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained therapist and someone who suffers from psychological difficulties • Psychotherapy integration - Most psychotherapists generally believe that disorders are an interplay of bio-psycho-social influences psychotherapists use a blend of therapies or an eclectic approach.

Psychoanalytic Approach • Psychoanalysis – patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences – and therapists interpretation of them – released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self insight – Use has declined in recent years • Resistance – blocking from consciousness of anxiety laden material • Transference – exposed longrepressed feelings

Psychoanalysis

Humanist Therapy • Person-Centered (nondirective therapy) – Carl Rogers – Active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathetic environment to facilitate clients’ growth – Increase self acceptance • Active Listening – Empathetic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies

Behavior Therapy • Applies learning principles to eliminate unwanted behaviors • Counter-conditioning – Procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors – Based on classical conditioning – Systematic desensitization and aversive conditioning

Behavior Therapy • Systematic Desensitization – Type of counter-conditioning or exposure therapy – Associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli – Commonly used to treat phobias

Systematic desensitization is taken in small steps.

Behavior Therapy • Flooding is one form of aggressive exposure therapy that forces the confrontation with the feared stimuli

Behavior Therapy • Aversive Conditioning – Type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior – Nausea - alcohol

Behavior Therapy • Token Economy – Operant conditioning procedure that rewards desired behavior – Patient exchanges a token of some sort, earned for exhibiting the desired behavior, for various privileges or treats.

Behavioral Therapy • Virtual Reality technology can be used to help people overcome their fears.

Cognitive Therapy • Teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting. • Based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy • Alter the selfdefeating thinking with efforts to modify behavior • Make people aware of irrational thinking patterns.

Eclectic Approach

Family Therapy • Therapists hope to open up communication with in the family and discover new ways of preventing and resolving conflicts. • Saves time and $

The more specific the problem, the more hope there is.

How much do genes influence our behavior?

Biomedical Therapies • Psychopharmacology – Study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior • Lithium – Chemical that provides an effective drug therapy for the mood swings of bipolar (manicdepressive) disorders

Antidepressant Drugs • Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil) • Most widely prescribed psychiatric drugs

Therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient

Biomedical Therapies • Psychosurgery – Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior • Lobotomy – now rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontollably emotional or violent patients •