Therapies

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Therapies

• What ?
• Interventions when you experience difficulties.
• E.g., when you are depressed.
• But, therapies are not a substitute for friends.
• Too many people are doing that.

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• If you are experiencing a problem, you must
  select which type of therapies are for you.

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Psychoanalysis

• Oldest psychotherapy
• developed by Sigmund Freud.
• Assumption
• Problems are based on unconscious conflicts.
• Conflicts are inevitable, but they become
  problems if they get out of hand.

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So, what to do?

• First you must find out what kind of unconscious
  conflict you are experiencing.
• Then, ego can properly handle the problem.
• Difficult.
• Unconscious mind is well protected.
• Therapists must interpret various evidence.

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Techniques

• 1. Free association
• Talk loosely and undirected way.
• Dont withhold anything no matter how silly,
  trivial, unpleasant, or illogical.
• Soon or later, you might relax ego enough to
  reveal unconscious conflict
• E.g., afraid of horse - indicate unresolved
  Oedipus complex

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• 2. Dream interpretation
• Ask clients to keep notes of dream.
• window to unconscious because during sleep, ego
  loosens its grip on unconscious mind.
• 3. Interpretation of resistance
• Resistance - unconscious avoidance of sensitive
  topic

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• Two types
• Vague form - e.g., missing appointments
• Specific form - e.g., object to the
  interpretation of the therapist
• Have to be very careful - may be misleading
• e.g., I dont want to talk about my mother. I
  came here to talk about my problem with my wife.

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• 4. Interpretation of transference
• Your relationship with your therapist.
• May reveal the nature of your problem.
• E.g., You are treating your therapist like your
  Dad.
• 5. Catharsis
• Releasing emotional tension

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Problems with traditional psychoanalysis

• Took forever. Not uncommon to go through 20
  years of therapy.
• Not everyone benefited. Benefit YAVIS
• Y - young
• A - attractive
• V - verbal
• I - intelligent
• S - successful

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Modern Psychoanalysis

• Short less frequent.
• More focused.

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Humanistic therapy

• Originally developed by Carl Rogers.
• Client-centered therapy.
• Assumption
• We deny our feelings and information.
• Denied feelings and information cause anxiety and
  other problems.
• To solve the problems - need to bring hidden
  feelings and information into awareness.

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But...

• Its not the job of therapist to bring them into
  awareness.
• It is the clients who have to do that.
• So, what do therapists do?
• They will create an environment of
  self-exploration.
• Have to be safe environment.

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To do so.

• Therapists must possess three characteristics.
• Unconditional positive regard
• You dont judge the client.
• No matter what, they are basically good.
• Empathetic understanding
• You dont sympathize. You empathize.
• You must feel what clients feel.

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• Genuineness
• You must be genuine.
• You cannot fake.
• If you are angry, express it. But, maintain the
  safe environment.

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Technique

• Reflection
• clarify what clients are saying.
• Non-directive.
• Often, rephrasing what clients said.

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Gestalt therapy

• Another humanistic therapy.
• Different from Carl Rogers.
• Developed by Friz Perls
• Assumption
• Need to challenge clients.
• Put them into mini-crises.
• safe-emergency.

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Behavioral therapies

• Application of learning theories.
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Focus on behavior rather than inner feelings.
• Assumption
• Problems occur when you learn maladaptive
  behavior.

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• E.g., Fear
• Learning of maladaptive association.
• Focus
• Changing the behavior.

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Fear Reduction techniques

• Systematic desensitization
• Create a hierarchy of fear provoking situations.
• Then, under relaxed state, you go through graded
  exposure.
• From the least to the most fear provoking
  situation.
• Important - maintain relaxation by progressive
  relaxation technique.

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• Flooding
• Flood clients with a high level of fear.
• You do this until fear response is extinguished.
• Often last 2 to 8 hours.
• E.g., treatment for post traumatic stress
  disorder.
• E.g., speech anxiety

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Social Skill Training

• Some experience difficulty dealing with social
  situation.
• Maybe what they need is better social skills.
• Use operant conditioning to shape social skills.
• Often use role playing.
• Another type - Assertiveness training.

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Aversive conditioning

• Focus - elimination of bad habits
• e.g., smoking
• Treatment - create an aversive situation.
• Smoke 100 cigarettes in 20 min.
• Develop sickness.
• May quit smoking.

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Cognitive therapy

• Aaron Beck Albert Ellis
• Assumption
• Problems are based on faulty thinking.
• Change your thinking - may solve your problem.

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E.g., You failed a test.

• Why?
• You are a loser.
• You are stupid.
• The test was too hard.
• You didnt study hard enough.
• The instructor is a jerk.
• Some thinking are healthier than the other.

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Faulty thinking

• Selective abstraction
• Take things out of context and create faulty
  inferences.
• Overgeneralization
• Draw a conclusion from a few specific bits of
  evidence.
• Magnification/Minimization
• blow it out of proportion
• minimize positives

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• Personalization
• make it personal.
• Absolute thinking
• All or none thinking

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Correcting faulty thinking

• Identify which faulty thinking style you are
  using - Write it down so you can see it.
• Examine evidence objectively
• Double-standard method - treat yourself like you
  treat others
• Experimental technique - examined the validity of
  your assumption

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• Thinking in shade of gray
• Survey method - ask around
• Define terms - What do you mean by being a
  loser?
• Semantic method - use less emotionally loaded
  term - avoid should
• Re-attribution
• Cost - benefit analysis - think about cost and
  benefit of being negative