Treatment Of Psychological Disorders Essay Example for Free

Treatment Of Psychological Disorders Essay Psychotherapy is a process with which the patient and the therapist work together to help the patient deal with his/her psychological difficulties in a more positive way which in turn would lessen the difficulty of psychological problem (Morris Maisto, 2003). Not all people with psychological problems seek psychotherapy but those who do out of their own volition are more likely to be successful in therapy. However, there are psychological disorders that needs more than psychotherapy and often would require hospitalization, of which treatment would be more of helping the patient regain his/her ability to function normally without the need for primary care and hospitalization, although medication and psychotherapy has to be continued as a long-term treatment. Different methods of psychotherapy have been loosely categorized into insight therapies and behavioral therapies. Insight therapies is composed of several methods wit different perspectives on psychological difficulties but share the same rationale that man would be more able to deal with his/her difficulties if he/she is more able to understand why he/she feels, thinks and behaves in such ways (Nairne, 2006). This group assumes that a person develops emotional, mental and relationship problems if he/she does not know and understand what motivate him/her in situations that are anxiety producing, conflicting and threatening. Specific approaches that belong to this group include psychoanalysis, gestalt therapy, person-centered and existential therapy. One may also argue that insight therapy is geared towards man’s need to be aware of his/her inner self, hence the so called insight to human motivation, emotion, desires, needs and thoughts. On the other hand, the behavioral therapies are made up of cognitive behavioral therapies, rational-emotive behavior therapy, and behavior therapy with the application of conditioning and modeling, and biofeedback. This other group at the opposite continuum from insight therapy says that a person can be able to deal with his/her difficulties if he/she is given the means with which to modify his/her behavior. Thus, therapy would be focused on teaching patients specific behaviors that would enable them to cope and deal with their psychological problems, this type of therapy are more concerned with treating symptoms than finding out the underlying cause of the problem. The difference between insight and behavioral therapy is that insight therapy is concerned with identifying and understanding the underlying cause of their problems while behavioral therapy contend that causes are not important but rather therapy should be concentrated on modifying behavior (Nairne, 2006). Like the nature and nurture debate, it has now been agreed that not one perspective can be accounted for the success of the therapy sessions, but rather some cases require that the underlying cause be unearthed while other cases can be resolved without the need for determining the cause of the problems. It can be assumed that the need for discovering the causes of the psychological problem lies in its usefulness to the therapeutic process.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The therapeutic process of whatever tradition or perspective always require that the therapist and client share a relationship characterized by trust, openness, honesty and the absence of bias and criticisms (Myers, 2004). It can be argued that within this form of relationship, the client is bound to share with his/her therapist his/her life story and inner most thoughts which would also lead to the therapists better understanding of the client’s predicaments and   issues. The need to find out the cause of problematic behavior depends on the clients honesty and the therapists personal philosophy, if for example a person who is suffering from clinical depression is in therapy using the psychoanalytic approach, then the objective would be to find out the previous experiences that would indicate the patients predisposition to depression and hence be able to identify the cause of the depression. To the psychoanalyst, it is always something in the past or in the childhood or traumatic events that cause the depression, a recent event may only be the trigger (Myers, 2004). To the behaviorist, therapy would be geared towards the change in behavior that would lessen the impact of depressive emotions and thoughts, like the patient is taught ways in which he/she could take off from depressing situations, to move away from the place or source of depression and to teach methods to eliminate the depression through coaching and goal setting (Myers, 2004). However, behaviorists have also discovered that merely changing the behavior is not enough to treat the patient or to effectively prevent the recurrence of depressive symptoms just because the patient knows how to express his/her emotions, thus the need for finding the cause of the depression. If the cause of depression is a recent divorce, then the therapist can use this information to guide the behavior modification strategies that he/she uses. Like specifically providing the patient with statistics and studies of how depression after a divorce is very common and how other people have come out of that depression. To the psychoanalyst, depression brought about by the divorce could come from a deeper personal traumatic experience like being left by a parent or having to lose someone tragically. Thus, the cause is actually the difficulty of the patient to respond to the sense of loss that one feels after a divorce. If the objective of the therapy was to remove the patient from a state of depression, then behavior therapy has no need for the underlying cause, but if the therapy is to enable the patient to recognize his/her emotional wounds and to be aware means that one is more able to positively deal with it, then the cause of the depression is very important. References Morris, C. Maisto, A. (2003). Understanding Psychology, 6th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Myers, D. (2004).   Psychology 7th ed.    New York: Worth Publishers. Nairne, J. (2006). Psychology: The Adaptive Mind. California: Wadsworth/Thompson. Discussion Topic 2: Client-centered therapy developed in the late 1940’s by Carl Rogers is based on the assumption that the individual is the best expert on himself or herself and that people are capable of working out solutions to their own problems (Corey, 2005). The task of the therapist is to facilitate this progress not to ask probing questions, to make interpretations or to suggest courses of actions. In fact, Rogers (1980) preferred the term facilitator to therapist and he called the people he worked with as clients not as patients because he did not view emotional difficulties as an indication of an illness to be cured. The therapist facilitates the client’s progress towards self-insight by restating to the client what the therapist hears the client saying about his needs and emotions in order to help the client clarify his/her feelings. Rogers believed that the most important qualities for a therapist are empathy, warmth and genuineness. Empathy refers to the ability to understand the feelings the client is trying to express and the ability to communicate this understanding to the client. The therapist must adopt the client’s frame of reference and must strive to see the problems as the client sees them. By warmth, Rogers (1980) meant a deep acceptance of the individual as he or she is, including the conviction that this person has the capacity to deal constructively with his/her problems. A therapist who is genuine is open and honest and does not play a role or operate behind a professional faà §ade (Sue Sue, 2003). People are reluctant to reveal themselves to those they perceive as phony. Rogers believed that a therapist who possesses this attributes will facilitate the client’s growth and self-exploration. Rogers was the first to make tape recordings of therapy sessions and to permit them to be studied and analyzed. He and his colleagues have contributed much to the field of psychotherapy research. Client centered therapy has some limitations, like psychoanalysis it appears to be successful with individuals who are fairly verbal and who are motivated to discuss their problems. For people who do not voluntarily seek help or who are seriously disturbed and are unable to discuss their feelings more directive methods are usually necessary. In addition, by using the client’s self-reports as the only measure pf psychotherapeutic effectiveness, the client-centered therapist ignores behavior outside of the therapy session. Individuals who feel insecure and ineffective in their interpersonal relationships often need more structured help in modifying their behavior. Since Freud’s time, numerous forms of psychotherapy based on Freudian concepts have developed. They share in common the premise that mental disorders stem from unconscious conflicts and fears but they differ from classical psychoanalysis in a number of ways and are usually called psychoanalytic therapies (Corey, 2005). Ego analysts placed greater emphasis on the role of the rational, problem soling ego in directing behavior and correspondingly less emphasis on the role of the unconscious sexual and aggressive drives. They sought to strengthen the functions of the ego in particular self-esteem and feelings of competency so that the individual could deal more constructively with current anxieties and interpersonal relationships. Their general strategy was to give the client insight into how the past continues to influence the present and to develop the client’s awareness of what he/she can do in the present to correct the harmful effects of the past. The technique of psychoanalytic therapy is also different from the classical free association and dream analysis. The therapy sessions are usually briefer, more flexible and less intense (Sue Sue, 2003). Sessions are scheduled once a week, there is less emphasis on the complete reconstruction of childhood experiences and more attention to problems arising from the way the individual is currently interacting with others. Free association is often replaced with a direct discussion of critical issues and the psychoanalytic therapist may be more direct, raising pertinent topics when it seems appropriate rather than waiting for the client to bring them up. While transference is still considered an important part of the therapeutic process, the therapist may limit the intensity of the transference feelings. Still central however is the psychoanalytic therapist’s conviction that unconscious motives and fears are at the core of the most emotional problems and that insight and the working through process are essential to a cure. Almost everyone gets depressed at times. Most of us have periods when we feel sad, lethargic and not interested in any activities-even pleasurable ones. Depression is a normal response to many of life’s stresses. Among the situations that most often precipitate depression are failure at school, or at work, the loss of a loved one and the realization that illness or aging is depleting one’s resources. Depression is considered abnormal only when it is out of proportion to the event and continues past the point at which most people begin to recover. Although depression is characterized as a mood disorder, there are actually four sets of symptoms; there are emotional cognitive, motivational and physical symptoms (Myers, 2004). An individual need not have all of these symptoms to be diagnosed as depressed but the more symptoms the patient has or the more intense they are the more certain we can be that the individual is suffering from depression. Sadness and dejection are the most salient emotional symptoms in depression. The individual feels hopeless and unhappy, often has crying spells and may contemplate suicide. The cognitive symptoms consist primarily of negative thoughts; depressed individuals tend to have low self-esteem, feel inadequate and blame themselves for their failures. Motivation is at low ebb in depression, the depressed person tends to be passive and has difficulty initiating activities. The physical symptoms include changes in appetite, sleep disturbances, fatigue and loss of energy. The client-centered therapist in the treatment of depression would be limited to communicating to the client that he/she is accepted for whatever thoughts, emotions, lack of motivation and physical state he/she is at the moment as a person worthy to be heard and assured of unconditional positive regard. The client-centered therapist involves the client in a sharing of his/her thoughts without the prodding and the leading but through the use of paraphrasing. With this method, the client is able to recognize what are the emotional, mental, motivational and physical symptoms he/she is experiencing. This would enable the client to become aware and recognize that his/her emotional reactions may be too intense, his/her self-esteem may be too low for his/her good, and that his/her body may be suffering from his/her own slavery to depression. The sessions would be geared towards the client’s discovery of his/her symptoms and in the process also realize how futile his/her actions are and that the therapist’s empathy, warmth and genuiness tells the client that here is someone who will accept me for what I am and that he/she should strive to come out of depression because someone do sincerely care for them. This example is what Roger’s believed to be the facilitation of healing and self-awareness in the part of the client. The psychoanalytic therapist interprets depression as a reaction to loss, whatever the nature of the loss maybe. The depressed person reacts to the loss intensely because it brings back all the fears of an earlier loss at childhood. Moreover, the reaction to loss is complicated by the person’s anger at the deserting person which comes out as self-blame and feelings of worthlessness. The psychoanalytic therapist also believes that the depressed person has very low self-esteem and self-worth. Thus, the therapist engages the client in a discussion of his/her current emotions, thoughts and internal conflicts. This can be done through the use of probing and leading questions which ask the client to describe or talk about his/her feelings at the moment. From then on, the therapist would observe and take note of the emotions and thoughts of the patient and have the client look back at his/her past experiences that had evoked the same feeling and thoughts he/she is having at present. The client is also asked to identify what triggered that emotion and then have the client realize that he/she is exhibiting behaviors that are similar to that of a depressed person. Sometimes people who are depressed do not admit that they are depressed, and this is where the therapist must focus on for it is necessary for the success of the therapy. When the previous experience has been identified, the therapist then proceeds to help the client accept what occurred in the past and that the client can now face the present with a deeper understanding of his/her own emotions. References Corey, G. (2005).   Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy 7th   ed.   California: Thomson Learning (Brooks/Cole). Myers, D. (2004).   Psychology 7th ed.    New York: Worth Publishers. Rogers, C. (1980). A Way of Being.   Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Sue, D. W. Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice 4th ed. New York: Wiley.