Understanding Key Psychological Therapies

Psychological Therapies

Definition:

It is a working relationship between a therapist and a client to develop more satisfying ways of being in the world.

Treatment Techniques:

1. Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud

   • Concept of Pathology: Instinctual conflicts that are beyond the reach of consciousness.
   • Objectives: To reveal the meaning of the unconscious.

   • Techniques:

     1. Free Association:

        The patient informs the therapist of their thoughts and memories that come to mind, regardless of their perceived importance. This facilitates the surfacing of repressed memories and desires for conscious acceptance.

     2. Interpretation of Dreams:

        Repressed desires during wakefulness are manifested in dreams in a disguised form.

     3. Transference:

        The patient transfers to the therapist hostility, affection, or guilt they felt at other times. In this way, the patient discharges tensions, and the therapist gains understanding of feelings that may no longer be appropriate today.

2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

   I. Features:

   • Both normal and abnormal behavior is learned under the laws of learning, and there is continuity between them. Pathological behavior is an inappropriate response to a specific external situation.
   • Behavior modification involves seeking the causes of individual conflict. Behavior is analyzed as responses, which can include thoughts, emotions, and motor acts.
   • In the analysis of problem behavior, current determinants are more important than historical background (therapeutic action is centered on the "here and now").
   • Study of the psychological processes of acquisition, consolidation, and extinction of behavior and cognitive processes.
   • Techniques used include interviews, self-monitoring, questionnaires, psychophysiological records, and behavioral observation.

   II. Behavioral Techniques:

   • Modeling: This technique is useful in treating phobias and obsessions.
   • Systematic Desensitization: Used for fears (e.g., arachnophobia). The therapist introduces images of the phobia, gradually increasing exposure time, then moving to objects, and finally to real-life situations. The process progressively approximates the real stimulus.
   • Assertiveness Training: Aims to overcome anxiety in social or interpersonal situations. Before therapy sessions, the person learns new ways of thinking and behaving through role-playing, which are then applied in real social contexts.
   • Progressive Relaxation: This technique is used to develop self-awareness and personal skills, manage phobias, control negative habits, and reduce stress.

3. Family or Systemic Therapy

   This model does not consider an individual in isolation but rather in relationship with others. This therapy studies the family, observing how its members interact and examining their inhibitory or destructive patterns.

4. Humanistic Therapy

   Emphasizes the affective rather than the intellectual, and is oriented toward the self-actualization of the person.