1. Psychological Treatment
Chalalai taesilapasathit
Faculty of liberal arts, Thammasat university

2. Introduction
Psychotherapy: Treatment in which a trained professional, called a therapist, uses psychological techniques to help a person overcome psychological difficulties and disorders, resolve problems in living, or bring about personal growth
Biomedical therapy: Therapy that relies on drugs and other medical procedures to improve psychological functioning

3. Psychodynamic, Behavioral, and Cognitive Approaches to Treatment
What are the goals of psychologically based and biologically based treatment approaches?
What are the psychodynamic, behavioral, and cognitive approaches to treatment?

4. Psychodynamic Approaches to Therapy
Seeks to bring unresolved past conflicts and unacceptable impulses from the unconscious into the conscious
Based on Freud’s psychoanalytic approach to personality
Defense mechanisms
Psychosexual stages of development

5. Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Therapy
Goal is to release hidden unconscious thoughts and feelings in order to reduce their power in controlling behavior
Free association
Dream interpretation
Manifest content - The surface description of a dream
Latent content - Underlying meaning

6. Contemporary Psychodynamic Approaches
Less emphasis on a patient’s past history, concentrating instead on current relationships and specific complaints
Shorter duration
3 months or 20 sessions

7. Evaluating Psychodynamic Therapy
Criticisms:
Time consuming and expensive
Less articulate patients may not do as well as more articulate ones
Difficulty in determining effectiveness of the therapy
Bias
Subjective interpretation

8. Behavioral Approaches to Therapy
Approaches that make use of the basic processes of learning, such as reinforcement and extinction, to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behavior
Based on the fundamental assumption that both abnormal behavior and normal behavior are learned
Goal is to change people’s behavior to allow them to function more effectively

9. Classical Conditioning Treatments
Aversive conditioning:
Reduces the frequency of undesired behavior by pairing with an aversive stimulus

10. Operant Conditioning Techniques
Rewards a person for desired behavior with a token
Token system
Agreement is drawn stating the behavioral goals the client hopes to achieve
Contingency contracting
Behavior of other people is modeled, to systematically teach people new skills
Observational learning

11. Evaluating Behavior Therapy
Benefits:
Eliminates anxiety disorders
Treats phobias and compulsions
Establishes control over impulses
Helps in learning complex social skills to replace maladaptive behavior
Criticisms:
Insight into thoughts and expectations cannot be gained due to the changing external behavior

12. Cognitive Approaches to Therapy
Cognitive treatment approaches: Teach people to think in more adaptive ways by changing their dysfunctional cognitions about the world and themselves

13. Cognitive Approaches to Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral approach: Incorporates basic principles of learning to change the way people think
Therapists attempt to change the way people think as well as their behavior
Therapy is highly structured and focuses on concrete problems

14. Cognitive Approaches to Therapy
Cognitive behavior therapy:
Aaron Beck
Aims to change people’s illogical thoughts about themselves and the world
Cognitive appraisal - Evaluation of situations, in terms of one’s memories, values, beliefs, thoughts, and expectations

15. Evaluating Cognitive Approaches to Therapy
Benefits:
Deals with a broad range of disorders
Willingness of cognitive therapists to incorporate additional treatment approaches
Criticisms:
Changing one’s assumptions to make them more reasonable and logical may not always be helpful

16. Humanistic, Person-centered, and Group Approaches to Treatment
What are the humanistic approaches to treatment?
What is interpersonal therapy?
How does group therapy differ from individual types of therapy?
How effective is psychotherapy, and which kind of psychotherapy works best in a given situation?

17. Humanistic Therapy
Therapy in which the underlying rationale is that people have control of their behavior, can make choices about their lives, and are essentially responsible for solving their own problems
Self-actualization - State of self fulfillment in which people realize their highest potentials in their own unique way

18. Person-Centered Therapy
Goal is to reach one’s potential for self- actualization
Also referred as client-centered therapy
Unconditional positive regard
Expressing acceptance and understanding, regardless of the feelings and attitudes the client expresses
Understanding client’s emotional experiences

19. Evaluating Humanistic Approaches to Therapy
Benefits:
The idea that psychological disorders result from restricted growth potential is compelling to many people
Supportive environment
Criticisms:
Treatments lack specificity
Least scientifically and theoretically developed
Works only for highly verbal client who profits most from psychoanalytic treatment

20. Group Therapies

21. Group Therapies
Therapy in which people meet in a group with a therapist to discuss problems
Centers on a common difficulty
Example - Alcoholism
Economical means of therapy compared to individual therapy
Criticism - Shy and withdrawn individuals may not receive required attention

22. Group Therapies Family therapy: Focuses on the family and its dynamics
Involves two or more family members, one (or more) of whose problems led to treatment
Self-help therapy:
Does not involve a professional therapist
People with similar problems get together to discuss their shared feelings and experiences
Bereavement support group
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

23. Effectiveness of Psychotherapy
For most people it is effective
Psychotherapy does not work for everyone
No single form of therapy works best for every problem
Specific types of treatment are better for specific types of problems
Most therapies share several basic similar elements
Development of positive relationship between client and therapist
Explanation or interpretation of a client’s symptoms
Confrontation of negative emotions

24. Estimates of the Effectiveness of Different Types of Treatment

25. Community Psychology: Focus on Prevention
Prevent or minimize the incidence of psychological disorders
Deinstitutionalization: Transfer of former mental patients out of institutions and into the community

26. Choosing the Right Therapist
You should feel comfortable with your therapist
Therapists should have appropriate training and credentials
You should feel that you are making progress after therapy has begun, despite occasional setbacks