INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY;

Pychotherapy is a form of intervention to one’s personal life through the use of verbal and ideational techniques to influence human behavior. Various techniques are used in individual psychotherapy varying from the psychoanalytical approach where the patient is encouraged to undergo a relatively controlled regression in mental functioning to the cognitive behavioral approach where the principles of learning are applied to change specific problem behaviors. Let us summarize the different techniques we use in our practice:

SCHEMA THERAPY

In schema therapy, the goal of the treatment is to weaken the early maladaptive schemas as much as possible and build up the person’shealthy side. These schemas are extremely stable and enduring; they develop during childhood and are elaborated throughout the person’s life. Schema therapy incorporates cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal and experiential techniques in order to work on these schemas.

The difficult situations where the schema therapy can be helpful have the following features:

• The symptoms are enduring and continuous; do not respond to therapy and replicate.
• The problem is indeterminate but enduring.
• There are problems on enduring relationships.
• They have extreme avoidance, rigid thinking and behavior patterns.
• They have an extremely needy, insistent and boastful attitude.

Jeffrey Young, who investigated the problems on thought and emotions in these “difficult” people, found that these thoughts and feelings can be categorized and named them as “schema”. The researches proved the existence of 18 schemas.

According to schema therapy, the schemas are composed of memories, bodily sensations, feelings and cognitions. They are about the relationships between the person himself and the others. In the period of childhood and adolescence, they evolve by the frustration of basic needs and develop through person’s life. Schemas can cause intense feelings as well as some damaging results both for the individual and the people around him. Schemas can hinder independence, attachment and opening oneself. They are very deep structures within the psychic structure. They persist once they are formed and it is hard to change them with short-term techniques.

In schema therapy, the emphasis is on

• The therapy relationship
• Affective state
• Coping strategies
• The basic life events
• The childhood experiences and developmental stages

Schema therapy can help people understand and change lon-term life patterns. The therapy consists of identifying early maladaptive schemas and systematically confronting and challenging them.

 

COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY

The cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) suggests that our emotional problems result from distorted, negative thoughts. Sometimes, these thoughts turn into habits such that we do not recognize that we think about them. For this reason, we name them as automatic thoughts.

In the first part of CBT, the people are taught how to get rid of those negative thoughts and how to handle life problems in a more coherent way. In this period, the individuals develop a self-help technique where they can suggest alternative solutions to problems by increasing their self-esteem by which they can follow a rapid improvement.

In the behavioral part of CBT, systematic homework are given to the individuals on how this new outlook can be converted to reality. With the help of behavioral experiments, the individual is encouraged to test the reality of his beliefs.

In what kind of problems does CBT help?

• Phobias
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Depression
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Eating disorders
• Sexual problems
• Couple relations
• The problems of Childhood and Adolescence
• General Health problems
• Chronic Pain
• Behavior problems in the form of habits (i.e.tics)
• Problems related to substance or alcohol use
• Schizophrenia and other psychosis
• Problems of Learning Difficulty
• Bipolar disorder
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Sleep problems

PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

Psychodynamic psychotherapy consists of interventions that are aimed at improving a sense of mastery, autonomy and identity and facilitating the utilization of higher-level defense mechanisms such as anticipation, humor and suppression. The defense mechanisms used become more flexible, so that the person can be more resourceful in interacting with the external environment and the internal world. Those interventions are also aimed at the integrative representation of others in theri positive and negative aspects as distinct and separate from one’s actual self. This form of therapy facilitates sublimatory activities and the capacity for intimacy, concern and gratitude.

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