Psychotherapy is the interaction between a qualified and licensed clinician, and someone believed to suffer from a psychological problem to provide treatment and support to the affected individual. There exist numerous forms of treatment that a clinician can use, however, they can be divided into two main broad categories, i.e., psychological treatment where the person interacts with a clinician and uses the environment to change their brain and behavior or biological treatment which involves the adoption of drugs to achieve similar results to the former. Stein & Knaevelsrud (2018) acknowledge the use of both broad forms to result in better treatment outcomes, as that means the patient utilizes the benefits of each. The paper will discuss the conventional psychotherapeutic techniques that are employed by clinicians.
For starters, psychoanalysis form of treatment is based on the assumption that all people are born with aggression and sexual urges that are repressed during childhood development through the use of defense mechanisms. Clinicians using this technique encourage their patients not to repress these urges and instead bring them into consciousness and understand them to alleviate their unwanted influences. The successful treatment of this technique takes time, with some taking even six years. Interpersonal psychotherapy is the most used technique in psychoanalysis. It involves a focus on helping clients improve relationships. It is based on the assumption that as interpersonal relationships improve, so will the symptoms.
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When it comes to person-centered therapy, the assumption is that all individuals have a tendency towards growth, which can be facilitated by the acceptance and genuine reactions from the therapist. Gestalt therapy formulated by Fredrick Perls is a common person-centered therapeutic approach that has the goal of helping the patient become aware of thoughts, behaviors, experiences, and feelings and to take responsibility for them. The empty chair technique is a common phenomenon in Gestalt therapy where the client alternates roles to try to get a different perspective of their situation.
Unlike psychoanalysis, behavioral therapy rejects theories based on the unseen mental properties that are difficult to test and impossible to observe. Therefore, this therapy is based on the idea that bad behavior is learned, and treatment involves changing bad behavior into a more constructive one. A common technique in this therapy is the token economy whereby clients are given tokens for undertaking a set desired behavior, which can later be traded for rewards.
While behavioral therapy focusses on changing behavior, cognitive therapy is based on helping the client identify and correct negative thinking about self, others, or the world. Cognitive restructuring is a common technique that aims at achieving this. The restructuring approach teaches clients to question the automatic assumptions, beliefs, and predictions that often lead to negative emotions and to then replace the negative thoughts with a more realistic and positive belief.
In group treatment, multiple participants, usually who do not know each other, work on their problems in a group atmosphere. In such a setting, the therapist serves more of a discussion leader rather than a personal clinician. In this therapy, the client is assured that it is not only themselves who are undergoing a given issue. Support groups happen to be widely acceptable and used technique in group treatment, which is often run by peers who have undergone similar issues and persevered. Alcoholics Anonymous is the most famous support group that is geared towards people having a drug problem.
In the last discussion, biological treatments involve the use of medical procedures and drugs to physically alter the brain and lead to the desired behavior change. In rare cases, surgery can even be performed on an individual as the last resort after all other treatments have failed. Drugs are the commonly used technique in this therapy. Depending on the state of the client, various classes of drugs can be adapted to aid in treatment. For instance, antipsychotics are used in the treatment of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.
Of all the therapies discussed above, cognitive behavioral therapy, the combination of both behavioral and cognitive approaches, happens to be the most effective form of treatment. Villabo et al. (2018) note that out of 165 children who were subjected to this form of treatment, about 65% of them demonstrated a reduction in their psychological disorder up to two years after the treatment was stopped.
References
Stein, J., & Knaevelsrud, C. (2018). New Technologies in the Treatment of Psychological Disorders–Overview, Potentials and Barriers for Conflict-Affected Populations. In Mental Health of Refugee and Conflict-Affected Populations (pp. 373-391). Springer, Cham.
Villabø, M. A., Narayanan, M., Compton, S. N., Kendall, P. C., & Neumer, S. P. (2018). Cognitive–behavioral therapy for youth anxiety: An effectiveness evaluation in community practice. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 86 (9), 751.
