Therapies

Dr. Irene Karayianni

Psychotherapy

A form of therapy in which a trained professional uses methods based on

psychological theories to help a person with psychological problems.

Does not include medical treatment.

Unique relationship, highly personal information.

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Ethical standards

• The therapist must not use intense relationship to exploit the client in

any way.

• Goals of treatment must be of the best interest of the client and

society, and must be fully understood by the client.

• Therapists must only treat problems that they are qualified to treat.

Else, refer client to someone else.

• Carefully consider alternative treatment methods.

• Evaluate effectiveness of treatment. Find meaningful measures.

• Confidentiality (except court matters, or if clients are in immediate

danger to harm themselves or others)

• Therapists must respect differences in gender, ethnicity etc, and not

sway clients to their own values.

Psychoanalysis

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Psychoanalysis

• Developed by Freud

• Based on his belief that the root of all psychological problems is

unconscious conflicts among the id, the ego and the superego.

• Conflicts that get out of hand

• Conflicts must be brought to the conscious if they are to be resolved.

• Not easy (the id is completely unconscious)

• Use special therapy methods, to relax the ego guard

• The id is revealed in disguise

• Psychoanalyst must

– Create conditions to relax censorship of ego

– Interpret disguised symbolic revelations of unconscious mind to patient

Technique: free association

• Developed by Freud

• Talk about whatever comes to mind, allowing contents of unconscious

to slip past the censorship of the ego.

• No thought or feeling is withheld

• Easier for patient to lie on couch, facing the ceiling

• Psychoanalyst out of sight

• As if patients are talking to themselves

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Technique: dream interpretation

• Developed by Freud

• The symbols in the obvious content of dreams that are recalled, are

interpreted to reveal the hidden content (manifest / latent)

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Technique: interpretation of resistance

• Developed by Freud

• He placed emphasis on resistance in therapy

• Resistance = any form of opposition to the process of psychoanalysis

• Resistance means a conflict is discovered and the patient doesn’t want

to think about it

• Can occur in two ways

– Vague – missing appointments, question value of psychoanalysis

– Specific – resistance to the interpretations of the therapist

Technique: interpretation of transference

• Patients feel and act towards therapists in ways that resemble how they

feel and act toward other significant adults (e.g. parent, eployer)

• Another source of valuable information: relationship between therapist

and client

• Intense relationship

• E.g. argue for fees, asking for reassurance

Catharsis

• In addition to symbolic revelations, Psychoanalysis allows release of

emotions

• Release of emotional energy related to unconscious conflicts

Interpersonal psychotherapy for depression

• Interpersonal psychotherapy is based on neo-Freudian theories of

Sullivan

• Focuses on accurate definition and communication of feelings and the

improvement of current social relationships

• Focuses on the “here and now”

• Usually completed in 12-16 weeks

• Originally developed to treat depression. 4 kinds of problems that cause

depression

– Grief over the loss of a relationship (death, divorce)

– Conflicts with people that are significant to us

– Stressful life events, or events threatening self esteem

– Lack of social skills for establishing healthy relationships

Interpersonal psychotherapy for depression

• IPT therapists try to reach 7 goals to treat depression

• Therapist understands my feelings and considers them important

• Understand how my feelings are related to what’s going on in my life,

to my current relationships (emotional baggage)

• Learn to express my feelings in constructive ways

• Identify unhealthy relationships that can’t be fixed, end them, move on

to healthier ones

• Master new roles created in life

• Improve my skills for creating and maintaining healthy relationships

• Develop optimistic focus on current opportunities for change, instead of

the past

Humanistic psychotherapy

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