15.1 Introduction to Therapy and the Psychological Therapies

If you want to improve communication in your own relationships, these three Rogers-inspired hints may help.

paraphrase, invite clarification, and reflect feelings

biomedical therapy:

prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology.

"I think my problem is an overactive superego!" This kind of proclamation is likely to come from someone who has received:

psychoanalysis.

Jolie tells her friend, "I think my problem is an overactive superego!" Jolie's proclamation indicates that she has received _____ therapy.

psychoanalytic

_____ therapy is based on the premise that people unconsciously avoid issues that are painful.

psychodynamic

For a person recovering from alcohol use disorder, Alcoholics Anonymous may be beneficial because the group meetings:

reduce isolation.

More than 100 million Americans belong to small _____ groups that meet regularly.

religious, interest, and self-help

In psychoanalysis, _____ is the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.

resistance

psychoanalysis:

(1) Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. (2) Freud's therapeutic technique used in treating psychological disorders. Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the therapist's interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

Which cognitive therapist sought to reverse clients' negativity about themselves through gentle questioning?

Aaron Beck

therapeutic alliance:

a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client's problem.

unconditional positive regard:

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Rogers believed would help clients develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

client-centered therapy: (Also called person-centered therapy.)

a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth.

cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT):

a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)

aversive conditioning:

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).

systematic desensitization:

a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.

insight therapies:

a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person's awareness of underlying motives and defenses

virtual reality exposure therapy:

an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to electronic simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking.

eclectic approach:

an approach to psychotherapy that uses techniques from various forms of therapy.

Stefanie meets with her therapist once a week to talk about her marriage and her relationship with her parents. In addition to helping Stefanie gain insight into these relationships, Stefanie's therapist prescribes medication. This is an example of:

an eclectic approach.

token economy:

an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange their tokens for various privileges or treats.

counterconditioning:

behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; include exposure therapies and aversive conditioning

exposure therapies:

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid.

Chelsea's therapist uses active listening within an empathic environment. Her therapist is MOST likely practicing:

client-centered therapy.

evidence-based practice:

clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

Patrick suffers from depression. To address Patrick's depression, his therapist is attempting to teach him more adaptive ways of thinking. The therapist's approach is most representative of

cognitive

_____ are therapists who specialize in problems arising from family relations.

counselors

The CEO of a large corporation is considering the benefits her firm will offer employees. If she offers employees effective treatment for psychological problems, chances are good that medical costs will:

decrease.

active listening:

empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy.

A therapist helps Rebecca overcome her fear of water by getting her to swim in the family's backyard pool three times a day for two consecutive weeks. The therapist's approach to helping Rebecca BEST illustrates:

exposure therapy.

Marjorie is experiencing frequent and intense conflict with her teenage daughter. Marjorie should arrange for them to participate in _____ therapy.

family

This therapy assumes that no person is an island, and that people live and grow in relation to others, especially their families.

family therapy

During a psychoanalytic therapy session, Max focuses on several intrusive thoughts that have been bothering him. The therapist tells Max to report any ideas or memories stimulated by these thoughts. Max's therapist is using a technique known as _____.

free association

Humanistic therapies differ from psychodynamic therapies in many ways, including that they:

help clients to grow in self-awareness.

Marya's therapist is nondirective and refers to her as a client. Marya's therapist is operating from a _____ perspective.

humanistic

interpretation:

in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.

resistance:

in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material

transference:

in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

Family therapists view the family as a:

system.

_____is a behavior therapy commonly used to treat phobias.

systematic desensitization

To help Tom reduce his fear of flying, a therapist first encourages him to physically relax and then simply imagine that he is taking off in an airplane. The therapist's technique BEST illustrates:

systematic desensitization.

Because she mistakenly believes the lucky charm she bought will help her lose weight, Mrs. Redding is feeling a considerable reduction in her appetite. This BEST illustrates:

the placebo effect.

Shania sees a cognitive therapist for depression. Shania's therapist has explained to her that cognitive therapy is very effective for depression because it addresses:

the relationship between thoughts and feelings.

group therapy:

therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interaction

psychodynamic therapy:

therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition; views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and seeks to enhance self-insight.

behavior therapy:

therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

cognitive therapy:

therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

family therapy:

therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members.

At her weekly therapy session, Nia became agitated at her therapist, saying that he was controlling and domineering, just like her father. Nia's behavior illustrates _____.

transference

When patients in psychoanalysis begin to have feelings toward their therapist such as love or hatred, and those feelings are linked to other relationships they have had or have, they are experiencing:

transference.

psychotherapy:

treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

While _____ focused on revealing the absurdity of people's self-defeating ideas through a more confrontational approach, _____ sought to reverse people's catastrophizing beliefs about themselves through the use of gentle questioning.

Albert Ellis; Aaron Beck

_____ is the process of prescribing medication or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology.

Biomedical therapy