Psychotherapy
(Click to See Brainwave Entrainment)
I have developed a Tool which records the client's feelings at the start of therapy, the higher the score the greater negativity and time spent in that modality. This enables me to measure the effectiveness of my therapeutic programme in a dynamic and powerful way throughout the process. This is hard evidence that my programme of healing and change really works in a short time frame of 6 weeks. All it takes is full participation in the programme.
The following table is an extract of data from clients with initial issues of stress, anxiety, depression, various addictions including weight issues, IBS, relationship and bereavement issues, as well as work related, lack of confidence and self-esteem, and academic related issues, who completed my 6 week therapy programme between February 2008 and June 2009. The table shows significant improvements in 8 key areas.
Average score at start of therapy. |
Average score after 4/6 weeks of therapy |
% improvement |
|
| Trying to please other people. | 68 |
29 |
57% |
| Thinking about the past. | 66 |
25 |
62% |
| Thinking about the future. | 65 |
55 |
16% |
| Thinking about revenge. | 22 |
10 |
55% |
| Thinking negative about self. | 71 |
25 |
64% |
| Thinking about regrets & failure. | 59 |
20 |
66% |
| Worrying. | 77 |
34 |
56% |
| Trying to control other people. | 39 |
18 |
53% |
The small improvement in 'Thinking about the future' is infact a mixed result, in that many clients report that their thoughts about their future after the 6 week therapy programme is brighter and more positive; whereas the score at the start of therapy was from a negative view point.
Please read this short narrative to understand what psychotherapy is, and gain an understanding of how I work with clients.
Mind For Life Therapeutic Protocol
I do not work within a single protocol listed below, I work across boundaries. The programme that I have developed has no named modality at this moment; it has been borne out of my own personal experience and research. It encompasses Existential, Person Centred Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with elements of Gestalt.
The initial programme has a strong foundation of education, which identifies and explains the best guess or understanding that science and philosophy have at this moment, relating to how the human mind works, in relation to health and well-being. It teaches, among many other things, meditation, how to move negative thoughts, how to set intentions of what you desire in your life, and how to use alternative ancient tapping techniques to maintain a healthy and motivated belief system.
It is a challenging therapeutic experience that requires full participation and involvement of the client.
My theraputic techniques relate to the very lastest techniques involved with Thought Field Therapy and Information as Therapy Medicine. The programme offers an opportunity to change your Mind For Life.
Psychotherapy is an intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living. This usually includes increasing individual sense of well-being and reducing subjective discomforting experience. Psychotherapists employ a range of techniques based on experiential relationship building, that are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships.
Most forms of psychotherapy use the spoken word. Some also use various other forms of communication such as the written word, artwork, drama, narrative, story-telling, music, or therapeutic touch.
Most psychotherapists will see themselves as a conduit for the client to make positive changes in their life. They will see themselves as guides in that the psychotherapist will facilitate, through alternative choices and challenging existing belief system, the views held by the client.
Psychoanalysis: It encourages the verbalization of all the patient's thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst formulates the nature of the unconscious conflicts which are causing the patient's symptoms and character problems.
Cognitive Behavioural: This generally seeks to identify and transcend negative and destructive thoughts, beliefs and reactions with the aim of influencing destructive negative emotions and problematic dysfunctional behaviours.
Psychodynamic: This is a form of depth psychology, the primary focus of which is to reveal the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension. Although it has its roots in psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy tends to be briefer and less intensive than traditional psychoanalysis.
Existential: This is based on the belief that each person is responsible for their own lives. The therapy does not encourage transference of client’s feelings onto the therapist. The foundation of the protocol, lies in the belief that people attract into their lives what they think about most. It is based around self determination and self responsibility.
Humanistic: The approached emerged in reaction to both behaviourism and psychoanalysis and is therefore known as the Third Force in the development of psychology. It is explicitly concerned with the human context of the development of the individual with an emphasis on subjective meaning, a rejection of determinism, and a concern for positive growth rather than pathology. It posits an inherent human capacity to maximise potential, 'the self-actualisation tendency'. The task of Humanistic therapy is to create a relational environment where this tendency might flourish.
Behaviour Therapy: This focuses on modifying overt behaviour and helping clients to achieve goals. This approach is built on the principles of learning theory including operant and respondent conditioning, which makes up the area of applied behaviour analysis or behaviour modification. This approach includes ‘Acceptance and Commitment Therapy’, ‘Functional Analytic Psychotherapy’, and ‘Dialectical behaviour therapy’. Sometimes it is integrated with cognitive therapy to make Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
Gestalt Therapy: This is a major overhaul of psychoanalysis. In its early development it was called "concentration therapy" by its founders, Frederick and Laura Perls in the 1940’s. However, its mix of theoretical influences became most organized around the work of the gestalt psychologists; thus, by the time Gestalt Therapy, Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality (Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman) was written, the approach became known as "Gestalt Therapy."
Gestalt Therapy stands on top of essentially four load bearing theoretical walls: phenomenological method, dialogical relationship, field-theoretical strategies, and experimental freedom. Some have considered it an existential phenomenology while others have described it as a phenomenological behaviourism. Gestalt therapy is a humanistic, holistic, and experiential approach that does not rely on talking alone, but facilitates awareness in the various contexts of life by moving from talking about situations relatively remote to action and direct, current experience.
Brief Therapy: This is an umbrella term for a variety of approaches to psychotherapy. It differs from other schools of therapy in that it emphasizes (1) a focus on a specific problem and (2) direct intervention. It is solution-based rather than problem-oriented. It is less concerned with how a problem arose than with the current factors sustaining it and preventing change.
Systemic Therapy: This seeks to address people not at an individual level, as is often the focus of other forms of therapy, but as people in relationship, dealing with the interactions of groups, their patterns and dynamics (includes family therapy and marriage counselling).
Hypno-Psychotherapy: This is therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is often applied in order to modify a subject's behaviour, emotional content, and attitudes, as well as a wide range of conditions including dysfunctional habits, anxiety, stress-related illness, pain management, and personal development.
There are dozens of approaches, which continue to be developed around the wide variety of theoretical backgrounds. Many practitioners use several approaches in their work and alter their approach based on client need.
What actually happens?
Psychotherapy usually involves regular meetings at the same time, same place every week or two weeks. In most cases the length of the treatment will be agreed between the client(s) and the therapist(s) within a month or so of starting. What happens during a session is considered confidential to the people in that session. In individual psychotherapy, one patient and one therapist talk together in a quiet room, usually for 50 minutes or so.
In group therapy several people with similar sorts of problems meet regularly with a therapist or therapists. These sessions may be longer than in individual psychotherapy. Group therapy may appear less intimate, but it is not a cheap or second-rate treatment - in fact it is the best treatment for some problems. The experience of discovering one is not alone, and of being able to help other people, is powerfully encouraging and is often the first step towards getting better. We offer Family Group therapy
Scientific validation of different psychotherapeutic approaches
Within the psychotherapeutic community there has been some discussion of empirically-based psychotherapy, e.g. virtually no comparisons of different psychotherapies with long follow-up times have been carried out. The Helsinki Psychotherapy Study is a randomized clinical trial, in which patients are monitored for 12 months after the onset of study treatments, of which each lasted approximately 6 months. The assessments are to be completed at the baseline examination and during the follow-up after 3, 7, and 9 months and 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years. The final results of this trial are yet to be published since follow-up evaluations will continue up to 2009.
The therapeutic relationship
Research has shown that the quality of the relationship between the therapist and the client has a greater influence on client outcomes than the specific type of psychotherapy used by the therapist (this was first suggested by Saul Rosenzweig in 1936 ). Accordingly, most contemporary schools of psychotherapy focus on the healing power of the therapeutic relationship.
This research is extensively discussed (with many references) in Hubble, Duncan and Miller (1999) (quotes in this section are from this book) and in Wampold (2001).
A literature review by M. J. Lambert (1992) estimated that 40% of client changes are due to extra-therapeutic influences, 30% are due to the quality of the therapeutic relationship, 15% are due to expectancy (placebo) effects, and 15% are due to specific techniques. Extra-therapeutic influences include client motivation and the severity of the problem:
In one study, some highly motivated clients showed measurable improvement before their first session with the therapist, suggesting that just making the appointment can be an indicator of readiness to change. Tallman and Bohart (1999) note that:
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is an integral part of the therapeutic relationship and psychotherapy in general.
Criticisms and Questions Regarding Effectiveness
There is considerable controversy over which form of psychotherapy is most effective, and more specifically, which types of therapy are optimal for treating which sorts of problems.
The dropout level is quite high, one meta-analysis of 125 studies concluded that mean dropout rate was 46.86%. The high level of dropout has raised some criticism about the relevance and efficacy of psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy outcome research in which the effectiveness of psychotherapy is measured by questionnaires given to patients before, during, and after treatment—has had difficulty distinguishing between the success and failure of the different approaches to therapy. Not surprisingly, those who stay with their therapist for longer periods are more likely to report positively on what develops into a longer term relationship. Of course, this suggests that some "treatment" may be open-ended with concerns associated with ongoing financial costs.
As early as 1952, in one of the earliest studies of psychotherapy treatment, Hans Eysenck reported that two thirds of therapy patients improved significantly or recovered on their own within two years, whether or not they received psychotherapy.
Many psychotherapists believe that the nuances of psychotherapy cannot be captured by questionnaire-style observation, and prefer to rely on their own clinical experiences and conceptual arguments to support the type of treatment they practice. This means that "if you believe you are doing some good, you are," a conception of dubious merit.
In 2001 Bruce Wampold of the University of Wisconsin published "The Great Psychotherapy Debate. In it Wampold, a former statistician who went on to train as a counselling psychologist, reported that
- psychotherapy can be more effective than placebo,
- no single treatment modality has the edge in efficacy,
- factors common to different psychotherapies, such as whether or not the therapist has established a positive working alliance with the client/patient, account for much more of the variance in outcomes than specific techniques or modalities.
Although the Great Psychotherapy Debate dealt primarily with data on depressed patients, subsequent articles have made similar findings for post-traumatic stress disorder, and youth disorders
Some report that by attempting to program, (write down in a manual) specific treatments then psychotherapists may actually be reducing efficacy; although the unstructured approach of many psychotherapists cannot appeal to patients motivated to solve their difficulties through the application of specific techniques different from their past "mistakes."
Critics of psychotherapy are sceptical of the healing power of a psychotherapeutic relationship. Since any intervention takes time, critics note that the passage of time alone, without therapeutic intervention, often results in psycho-social healing. Social contact with others is universally seen as beneficial for all humans and regularly scheduled visits with anyone would be likely to diminish both mild and severe emotional difficulty.
Many resources available to a person experiencing emotional distress—the friendly support of friends, peers, family members, clergy contacts, personal reading, research, and independent coping—-present considerable value, suggesting that psychotherapy is often inappropriate or unneeded. Critics note that humans have been dealing with crises, navigating severe social problems and finding solutions to life problems long before the advent of psychotherapy.
Some therapies have answered to scientific critique saying that psychotherapy is not a science it is a craft. However, participation with a craft customarily lacks such common iatrogenic potential.
Further critiques have emerged from feminist, constructionist and discursive sources. Key to these is the issue of power. In this regard there is a concern that clients are persuaded—both inside and outside of the consulting room—to understand themselves and their difficulties in ways that are consistent with therapeutic ideas. This means that alternative ideas (e.g., feminist, economic, spiritual) are sometimes implicitly undermined. Critics suggest that we idealise the situation when we think of therapy only as a helping relation. It is also fundamentally a political practice, in that some cultural ideas and practices are supported while others are undermined or disqualified. So, while it is seldom intended, the therapist-client relationship always participates in society's power relations and political dynamics.
References
- Asay, Ted P., and Michael J. Lambert (1999). The Empirical Case for the Common Factors in Therapy: Quantitative Findings. In Hubble, Duncan, Miller (Eds), The Heart and Soul of Change (pp. 23-55)
- Field, Nathan Breakdown and Breakthrough: Psychotherapy in a New Dimension
(1996) Publisher: Routledge ISBN 0-415-10958-2.
- http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic schools
- Aziz, Robert, C.G. Jung’s Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity (1990), currently in its 10th printing, a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-0166-9.
- Aziz, Robert, Synchronicity and the Transformation of the Ethical in Jungian Psychology in Carl B. Becker, ed. Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. ISBN 0-313-30452-1.
- Aziz, Robert, The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung (2007), a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. ISBN 13:978-0-7914-6982-8.
- Bateman, Anthony; Brown, Dennis and Pedder, Jonathan (2000). Introduction to Psychotherapy: An Outline of Psychodynamic Principles and Practice''. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20569-7.
- Bateman, A.; and Holmes, J. (1995). Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Theory and Practice. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10739-3.
- Oberst, U. E. and Stewart, A. E. (2003). Adlerian Psychotherapy: An Advanced Approach to Individual Psychology. New York: Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 1-58391-122-7
- Ellenberger, Henri F. (1970). The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. Basic Books.
Humanistic schools
- Schneider (et al), Kirk (2001). The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology. SAGE Publications. ISBN 0-7619-2121-4.
- Rowan, John (2001). Ordinary Ecstasy. Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 0-415-23632-0.
- Ansel Woldt, Sarah Toman (eds) (2005). Gestalt Therapy History, Theory, and Practice. Gestalt Press. ISBN 0-7619-2791-3 (pbk.).
- Crocker, Sylvia (1999). A Well-Lived Life, Essays in Gestalt Therapy. SAGE Publications. ISBN 0-88163-287-2 (pbk.).
- Yontef, Gary (1993). Awareness, Dialogue, and Process. The Gestalt Journal Press, Inc.. ISBN 0-939266-20-2 (pbk.).
