1. The Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Behavioral, and Cognitive Approaches
Psychotherapy
The Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Behavioral, and Cognitive Approaches

2. What are Psychoanalytic methods?
Dream Analysis – Manifest content (actual content) AND Latent content (hidden)
Transference – strong emotional outburst/connection with therapist
Hypnosis
Free association – talk about whatever and Dr. analyzes it
All rely on exposing unconscious thoughts and interpreting them.

4. Psychoanalytic methods of therapy
Free Association – patient reports anything that comes to his/her mind. The psychoanalyst takes whatever you say and treats it like a window into your unconscious mind.
The Dr. listens for when you pause, or edit something you are saying…this pause reveals RESISTANCE (suggests something is going on in your unconscious)

5. Transference Feelings of love or other emotions (hatred)
are expressed toward the therapist.
These feelings are actually unconsciously felt
toward others; the patient is projecting these
feelings onto the therapist.
This provides clues about the client’s feelings
about these other people.

6. Hypnosis Hypnosis is a psychoanalytic therapeutic technique.
Some people are more susceptible to hypnosis than others – can’t by hypnotized against your will.
Whatever you think, patients report benefits from hypnosis.

7. Psychodynamic Therapy
Branches off of Freud’s techniques
Works to understand current symptoms through an analysis of relationships, including childhood relationships (similar to psychoanalysis)
But there are differences…
Discussion style
Timing and commitment to therapy

8. Psychodynamic techniques
Interpersonal therapy
Therapist doesn’t focus as much on the past and focuses more on current symptoms and getting to the foundation of the problems that the patient is experiencing. The therapist helps the patient improve upon their relationship skills

9. Humanistic Perspective of Psychology

10. Humanistic Therapy
Humanists are really touchy-feely, but without them we are just rats in a cage.
Rogers and Maslow put the “human” element back into psychology and therapy.
Their philosophy: We are all humans striving to maximize our potential. A therapist’s job is to remove obstacles to self-actualization.
If therapists simply listen to the patients, and if people receive the attention that they need, they can have the confidence to “cure themselves.”
Humanistic therapy includes: client-centered therapy, which includes active listening

11. Humanistic therapy?
Remember Carl Rogers? Carl Rogers was the founder of person-centered therapy, reflective listening, unconditional positive regard, empathy.
The patient/client has all the answers and the means to treat themselves. In person-centered therapy, the therapist acts as a sounding board for the patient, sometimes rephrasing what the patient says (reflective listening). Empathy is important!
The responsibility of the therapist is to exemplify unconditional positive regard

12. Active listening: paraphrase, invite clarification, and reflect feelings
Patient to Rogerian therapist: I feel like I have no self worth.
Therapist: You feel that way now? That you are no good and worthless? Those are really lousy feelings. Hmm.
Patient: Yeah, that’s what my friend told me.
Therapist: So, your friend told you that you were no good? Did I get that right?
Patient: yup..
T: So, I guess that this person means a lot to you, and this person has told you that you are no good. I am sure that hurts pretty badly.
P: Whatever, I don’t care
T: You tell yourself that you don’t care, but it sounds like some part of you really cares, and that makes you upset.

13. Person-Centered Therapy (Client-centered or Rogerian)
Show the client unconditional positive regard: accepting and valuing self (and people) regardless of their behavior Allow the client to take responsibility for his life Mirror the clients emotions and thoughts so that he/she can decide their path in life Be congruent (honest, genuine, vulnerable) Show empathy

15. Behavioral causes of disorders?
Behaviorists believe that mental problems are caused by classical conditioning (for example, phobias), operant conditioning (addictions, depression), and observational learning (we watch our parents and friends suffer so we copy them).
Treatment: they change maladaptive behavior.

16. What are classical conditioning techniques?
Counterconditioning: Associating the stimulus (the negative trigger, like something you fear) with a new response– like relaxation.
2 types of counterconditioning techniques: exposure therapy and aversive conditioning

17. Exposure therapies
Focus is to expose people to things that they would normally avoid
Systematic desensitization (gradual exposure) to your phobia or germs (for OCD and phobias). This is the counterconditioning strategy that would introduce relaxation techniques with the feared stimulus, but it would introduce the feared stimulus gradually
Flooding – overexposure to what bugs you

18. Aversive conditioning
Opposite of systematic desensitization
Goal is to create a negative reaction to something that used to cause a positive reaction
Good example: making alcohol taste bad to alcoholics

19. Operant conditioning treatment
Focuses on behavior modification (reinforcing desired behaviors; punishing bad behaviors)
Token economy – (operant conditioning) Therapists will reward desirable behaviors with a reward system. This is usually applied to groups like hospital mental wards or classrooms or workplaces.
If everyone passes, we’ll have a pizza party.

20. Cognitive perspective
We are depressed because we are irrational. Our expectations are too high and misplaced. We want everyone to love us and accept us. We want every thing to go our way. We stay angry about stuff that happened a looong time ago.
WE MUST CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK TO BE HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL.

21. Who are famous cognitive therapists?
Aaron Beck – cognitive therapy
Albert Ellis – rational emotive therapy

22. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Assumes that how we THINK, how we FEEL, and how we ACT (behave) all influence each other – thoughts determine feelings and behaviors
Goal is to make people aware of their thoughts and how they are reinforced by behaviors that confirm those thoughts
2 types: rational emotive therapy and cognitive therapy

23. Rational Emotion
People hold a basic set of irrational assumptions (called basic irrational assumptions). Examples:
We should be competent at everything
It is disastrous if things are not the way we want them to be
We are in control of our happiness
There are perfect solutions
The past influences the present
Therapy technique: ABC approach
A = activating the event
B = beliefs during the trigger event
C = consequence – feelings that resulted from the behavior
Negative thoughts connect an event to undesirable feelings

24. Example
Gina is upset because she got a low mark on a math test. The Activating event, A, is that she failed her test. The Belief, B, is that she must have good grades or she is worthless. The Consequence, C, is that Gina feels depressed. After irrational beliefs have been identified, the therapist will often work with the client in challenging the negative thoughts on the basis of evidence from the client's experience by reframing it, meaning to re-interpret it in a more realistic light. This helps the client to develop more rational beliefs and healthy coping strategies. A therapist would help Gina realize that there is no evidence that she must have good grades to be worthwhile, or that getting bad grades is awful. She desires good grades, and it would be good to have them, but it hardly makes her worthless. If she realizes that getting bad grades is disappointing, but not awful, and that it means she is currently bad at math or at studying, but not as a person, she will feel sad or frustrated, but not depressed. The sadness and frustration are likely healthy negative emotions and may lead her to study harder from then on.

25. Aaron Beck? Cognitive therapy
People’s reaction to events influence abnormal behavior
Distorted thinking has a negative effect on our behavior no matter what type of disorder (Aaron Beck, 1997).
Reveal the reactionary thoughts and remove that type of thinking from your life
Used most commonly with depression

26. Differences?
Albert Ellis views the therapist as a teacher and does not think that a warm personal relationship with a client is essential. In contrast, Beck stresses the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
REBT is often highly directive, persuasive and confrontive. Beck places more emphasis on the client discovering misconceptions for themselves.
REBT uses different methods depending on the personality of the client, in Beck’s cognitive therapy, the method is based upon the particular disorder.
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