INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Objectives
 Define psychotherapy.
 Differentiate counseling and psychotherapy.
 Understand the importance of psychotherapy in
addressing mental health problems.
 Discuss the psychotherapies„ techniques, methods
and process.
What is Psychotherapy?
 According
to American Psychiatric Association
(APA), Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a way to
help people with a broad variety of mental illnesses
and emotional difficulties. Psychotherapy can help
eliminate or control troubling symptoms so a person
can function better and can increase well-being and
healing.
What is Psychotherapy?
 According
to American Psychological Association,
psychotherapy involves communication between
patients and therapists that is intended to help people:
 Find relief from emotional distress, as in becoming less
anxious, fearful or depressed.
 Seek solutions to problems in their lives, such as dealing
with disappointment, grief, family issues, and job or
career dissatisfaction.
 Modify ways of thinking and acting that are preventing
them from working productively and enjoying personal
relationships.
What is Psychotherapy?
 Psychotherapy and counseling are interactions
between a therapist/counselor and one or more
clients/patients. The purpose is to help the
patient/client with problems that may have aspects
that are related to disorders of thinking, emotional
suffering, or problems of behavior. Therapists may
use their knowledge of theory of personality and
psychotherapy or counseling to help the
patient/client improve functioning.
Differentiation Between Counseling and
Psychotherapy
COUNSELING
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Clients
For normal individuals
For severely disturbed
individuals
Purpose
For prevention
For healing and management
Cases
Behavioral problems
Mental illnesses and disorders
Goal
Educational and informational
Facilitative and in-depth
Work setting
Schools
Hospitals and psychology
clinics
Duration
Short-term
Long-term
Dealt with
Immediate issues
Longstanding and complex
issues
Importance of Psychotherapy
According
to
American
Psychiatric
Association,
Psychotherapy has been shown to improve emotions and
behaviors and to be linked with positive changes in the brain
and body. The benefits also include fewer sick days, less
disability, fewer medical problems, and increased work
satisfaction.
b) It can provide relief and can improve symptoms for
individual psychological discomfort such as depression,
general anxiety disorder, social anxiety, bipolar disorder,
OCD, phobias, and panic disorders when used as either the
sole treatment or in conjunction with pharmacological
treatments (Hunsley, Elliott & Therrien, 2013).
c) Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling
symptoms so a person can function better and can increase
well-being and healing.
a)
What are the different Psychotherapies?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Psychoanalytic Therapy
Adlerian Therapy
Existential Therapy
Person-Centered Therapy
Gestalt Therapy
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Family Systems Therapy
Integrative Reality therapy
Play therapy
Psychoanalytic Therapy
 Based
on Sigmund Freud's theories of
psychoanalysis.
 Psychoanalytic
therapy,
also
known
as
psychoanalysis, is a form of in-depth talk therapy
that aims to bring unconscious or deeply
buried thoughts and feelings to the conscious
mind so that repressed experiences and emotions,
often from childhood, can be brought to the surface
and examined.
Techniques
 Dream interpretation: According to Freud, dream analysis
is by far the most important psychoanalytic technique. He
often referred to dreams as "the royal road to the
unconscious." Psychoanalysts may interpret dreams to get
insight into the workings of your unconscious mind.
 Free association: Free association is an exercise during
which the psychoanalyst encourages you to freely share your
thoughts. This can lead to the emergence of unexpected
connections and memories.
 Transference: Transference occurs when you project your
feelings about another person onto the psychoanalyst. You'll
then interact with them as if they were that other person. This
technique can help your psychoanalyst understand how you
interact with others.
Benefits of Psychoanalytic Therapy
 Focuses on emotions.
 Explores avoidance.
 Identifies recurring themes.
 Exploration of past experienced.
 Explores interpersonal relationships.
 Emphasizes the therapeutic relationship.
 Free-flowing.
Adlerian Therapy
 Adlerian therapy is a short-term, goal-oriented, and
positive psychodynamic therapy based on the
theories of Alfred Adler.
 Adlerian psychotherapy is both humanistic and goal
oriented. It emphasizes the individual's strivings for
success,
connectedness
with
others,
and
contributions to society as being hallmarks of mental
health. Birth order is considered important in
understanding a person's current personality, yet the
therapy is future-minded, rather than retrospective.
Adlerian Therapy
 Adler focused much of his research on feelings of
inferiority versus superiority, discouragement, and a
sense of belonging in the context of one‟s community
and society at large. According to Adler, feelings of
inferiority can result in neurotic behavior but, in the
right setting, can also be used as motivation to strive
for greater success. Adlerian therapy focuses on the
development of individual personality while
understanding and accepting the interconnectedness
of all humans.
Stages of Adlerian Therapy
Engagement, or creating a collaborative relationship
with your therapist;
2. Assessment of your personal history, with an
emphasis on birth order and early childhood memories;
3. Insight, wherein the therapist helps you view your
situation from a different perspective; and
4. Reorientation, wherein the therapist suggests active
steps you can take outside of therapy to reinforce newly
developed insights and perhaps learn even more about
yourself and your capabilities.
1.
Overall, the focus is on reframing the attitudes, beliefs, and
lifestyle choices that block success, so that you are more
effective at reaching your desired goals.
Techniques
Adlerian theory emphasizes techniques that promote
growth and resilience. Some key techniques that are used
in this type of therapy include:
 Providing encouragement: Therapists show that they
care for clients by listening and showing empathy. This
also involves helping people learn how to recognize their
own strengths and gain confidence in their ability to
succeed.
 Creating expectations: Therapists may ask people to
consider how they would act if they were already the
person that they strive to be. This allows the client to
visualize success, overcome resistance to change, and
establish the expectation that the individual will succeed.
Techniques
 Examining the purpose for behavior: As people explore
their behaviors, a therapist might ask the client to reflect on
the purpose of these behaviors. Often, understanding the
purpose that some of these maladaptive behaviors serve can
help people develop healthier coping strategies.
 Examining memories: Looking at past moments can serve
as a way to gain insight into past patterns of behavior that
might contribute to current problems. After exploring several
memories, therapists can look for certain themes that may
emerge. 3
Adlerian theory suggests that people are always trying to satisfy
certain desires and reach specific goals. How those goals are
reached can vary greatly from person to person depending on
their personalities and environments.
Benefits of Adlerian Therapy
Adlerian therapy can help:
• Reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety by
encouraging individuals to take action towards achieving
their goals.
• Increase self-esteem so people feel more empowered
because they are able to achieve success through hard
work and determination
• Improve relationships with others by focusing on what is
important to you without worrying about pleasing
everyone all the time. This is a way for both people in a
relationship or friendship to be happy. They don‟t have to
always compromise for each other‟s wishes.
Benefits of Adlerian Therapy
• Help give back your life meaning, purpose, joys, and
motivation that may have been lost due to job loss or
other stressful situations such as an illness or
accident.
• Increase social interest which helps decrease feelings
of isolation by connecting with others who share
common interests and goals.
Existential Therapy
● Developed out of the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren
Kierkegaard.
● Kierkegaard theorized that human discontent could only be overcome
through internal wisdom.
● In the early 1900s, philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Jean-
Paul Sartre began to explore the role of investigation and interpretation
in the healing process.
 Otto Rank was among the first existential therapists to actively pursue
the discipline, and by the middle of the 20th century, psychologists Paul
Tillich and Rollo May brought existential therapy into the mainstream
through their writings and teachings, as did Irvin Yalom after them.
Existential Therapy
Existential psychotherapy
● Focuses on concepts that are universally applicable to human existence
including death, freedom, responsibility, and the meaning of life.
● Emphasis on the human condition as a whole.
● Uses a positive approach that applauds human capacities and
aspirations while simultaneously acknowledging human limitations.
● It shares many similarities with humanistic psychology, experiential
psychotherapy, depth psychotherapy, and relational psychotherapy.
Existential Therapy
 Existential psychotherapy is based upon the fundamental
belief that all people experience intrapsychic conflict due
to their interaction with certain conditions inherent in
human existence, which are known as givens. The
theories recognize at least four primary existential
givens:
●
●
●
●
Freedom and associated responsibility
Death
Isolation
Meaninglessness
EXISTENTIAL THERAPISTS PROCESS
●
Therapists who practice existential psychotherapy do not focus on a
person's past. Instead, they work with the person in therapy to discover
and explore the choices that lie before them.
●
Through retrospection, the person in therapy and therapist work
together to understand the implications of past choices and the beliefs that
led those to take place, only as a means to shift to the goal of creating a
keener insight into the self.
●
In existential therapy, the emphasis is not to dwell on the past, but to
use the past as a tool to promote freedom and newfound assertiveness.
Benefits of Existential Therapy
● People in therapy who are willing to explore the reasons for their
intrapsychic conflicts and the decisions that led to their current
circumstances can benefit greatly from existential psychotherapy.
● There are many behavioral and mental health issues that may be
successfully treated with this therapeutic approach, including
depression, anxiety, substance dependency, and posttraumatic stress
resulting from exposure to military combat, rape, childhood sexual
abuse, interpersonal violence, or other life-threatening experiences.
Benefits of Existential Therapy
● Individuals who respond to treatment tend to find meaning and
purpose in their lives and often experience heightened self-awareness,
self-understanding, self-respect, and self-motivation.
● The realization that they are primarily responsible for their own
recovery often increases the likelihood that people in treatment will see
beyond the limits of a therapy session and view recovery as a
therapeutic process.
Person-Centered Therapy
 Person-centered therapy was developed by Carl Rogers in the
1940s.
 The therapy is based on Rogers‟s belief that every human being
strives
for and has the capacity to fulfill his or her own potential.
 It uses a non-authoritative approach that allows clients to take
more of a lead in discussions so that, in the process, they will
discover their own solutions.
Person-Centered Therapy
ROGERIAN THEORY IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Rather than viewing people as inherently flawed, with
problematic behaviors and thoughts that require treatment,
person-centered therapy identifies that each person has the
capacity and desire for personal growth and change.

Rogers termed this natural human inclination
“actualizing tendency,” or self-actualization. He likened it
to the way that other living organisms strive toward
balance, order, and greater complexity.
Techniques/Approaches
SIX FACTORS NECESSARY FOR GROWTH IN
ROGERIAN THEORY
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Therapist and Client Psychological Connection
Client Incongruence and Vulnerability
Therapist Congruence and Genuineness
Therapist Unconditional Positive Regard
Therapist Empathy
Client Perception
Benefits of Person-Centered Therapy
 Overcome depression, anxiety, grief or stress
 Find a balance between the idealized self and the






actual self
Strengthen trust in the self and others
Achieve better self-awareness
Reduce feelings of guilt and insecurity
Seek and sustain healthier relationships
Healthier self-expression
Boost self-esteem and self-reliance.
Gestalt Therapy
 A humanistic, holistic, and person-centered kind
of psychotherapy that focuses on a person's current
life and issues rather than on their past experiences.
 This method emphasizes the necessity of knowing
a person's life circumstances and taking
responsibility rather than assigning blame.
 Gestalt therapy was established in the 1940s by
Fritz Perls with the support of his then-wife, Laura
Perls, as an alternative to more orthodox
psychoanalysis.
Gestalt Therapy
 Collaborated with others, such as Paul Goodman,
to establish a humanistic approach to treatment. In
other words, the approach was centered on the
individual and their unique experience.
Techniques
Examples of the different gestalt therapy
techniques:
 Paradoxical change. The theory of paradoxical change
focuses on the need for self-acceptance. It helps
individuals develop an improved sense of self-awareness.
 "Here" and "now". This technique enables individuals
to appreciate past experiences and how they influence
their present thoughts and behavior. The objective of this
technique is to help them live for the present and make
positive changes going forward.
Techniques
 Empty chair technique. This technique helps
individuals to open up and practice talking with an empty
chair. The goal of this technique is to visualize yourself
opening up to a particular person you needed to talk with.
 Exaggeration technique. This technique works by
making an individual become aware of underlying issues
that could be linked to their present problem. The therapist
may request you to exaggerate a specific behavior or
emotion. This helps in identifying and addressing the root
of the problem.
Benefits of Gestalt Therapy
 Increased self-awareness
 Improved Self-confidence
 Ability to make peace with the past, and an
improved sense of acceptance
 Increased ability to deal and cope with stressful
situations
 Being more responsible, improved ability to own up
for mistakes and behaviors without placing blames.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
 A type of psychotherapeutic treatment that teaches
people how to recognize and change harmful or
troubling thought patterns that affect their behavior
and emotions.
 Developed in the 1960‟s as a result of psychiatrist
Aaron Beck's observations that certain ways of
thinking related to emotional difficulties.
 Beck coined the term "automatic negative thoughts"
and devised the cognitive therapy procedure to
address them.
Techniques
 How to Recognize Negative. Thoughts Learning how
ideas, feelings, and situations might contribute to
maladaptive behaviors is critical.
 Exercising new abilities. It's critical to begin
practicing new abilities so that they can be applied in
real-life circumstances.
 Goal-setting. Setting goals might be a crucial step in
recovering from mental illness.
Techniques
 Problem-solving. Learning problem solving skills can
help you identify and solve problems that arise from life
stressors, both big and small, and reduce the negative
impact of psychological and physical illness.
 Self-monitoring. Also known as diary work, self-
monitoring is an important part of CBT that involves
tracking behaviors, symptoms, or experiences over time
and sharing them with your therapist.
Benefits of Cognitive Behavior Therapy
 It enables you to adopt healthy thought patterns.
 It's a good alternative for a short-term treatment.
 It has been demonstrated to be useful in the treatment of
a wide range of maladaptive behaviors.
 It is frequently less expensive than other methods of
therapy.
 It has been found to be successful both online and in
person.
 It's appropriate for people who don't need psychotropic
drugs.
.
Family Systems Therapy
 A form of psychotherapy that focuses on the family as a
whole unit.
 Bowen Family Systems Theory is a family theory put
forward by Dr. Murray Bowen in the late 1960s.
 Dr. Bowen based his theory on the idea that human
beings and families function as one emotional unit in a
family and it is easier to understand them when they are
viewed within the context of their family ties and
relationships.
Family Systems Therapy
Eight Interlocking Concepts
1.
Triangles: A three-person relationship system that acts as a building block for
other emotional systems.
2. Differentiation of the self: This refers to the ability to maintain individuality.
3. Nuclear family emotional process: This refers to how the family operates in
their emotional interactions.
4. Family projection process: Parents can also transmit their problems and
anxieties onto their children.
5. Multigenerational transmission process: This describes how people choose
partners who have similar levels of differentiation as themselves.
Family Systems Therapy
6. Emotional cutoff: In order to manage conflicts within a family, some
members may distance or cut themselves off from other members of the group.
7. Sibling position: Bowen believed that birth order had an impact on family
dynamics including in areas such as parental expectations, sibling relationships,
and parental discipline patterns.
8. Societal emotional process: This concept suggests that many of the things
that impact families also affect societies as well. Societal attitudes, cultural
shifts, and conflicts can often play a part in affecting families.
Techniques/Approaches
 Strategic family therapy is a technique that focuses on finding
solution to deal with specific issues. Each problem needs a fresh
strategy that is tailored to the specific challenge that the family is
dealing with.
 Intergenerational family therapy focuses on determining how
generational factors have influenced both individual behavior and the
functioning of the family unit. It assists families in gaining a better
understanding of how patterns passed down through the generations
affect the family and creating new ways of engaging.
 Structural family therapy (SFT) is a type of treatment that focuses
on assisting people in identifying and comprehending their family's
structure. The idea is to assist people in improving this organization as
needed and learning how to interact more effectively with one another.
Techniques/Approaches
 Psychoeducation entails teaching family members about many
elements of mental health and therapy. When one family member has a
mental health problem, this can be beneficial. The individual's support
system can respond more effectively to their needs when members of
the family are educated.
Benefits of Family System Therapy
 Better functioning families
 Stronger connections
 More cohesiveness
 Healthier communication
 Cost-effective
Integrative Therapy
 A type of psychotherapy that incorporates components of many
therapies.
 Integrative therapists believe that no single treatment technique can
treat every client in every situation. Rather, each individual must be
considered as a whole, with counseling strategies customized to their
own needs and circumstances.
 Depression, anxiety, and personality disorders can all be treated using
an integrative approach.
 Integrative therapy aims to bring together therapeutic strategies that
have been empirically proved to be successful in treating a specific
issue.
Integrative Therapy
TYPES OF INTEGRATIVE THERAPY
 Free association and dream analysis are two
techniques used in psychoanalytic treatment to
uncover how your past experiences have influenced
your future.
 Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on modifying
your current behavior in order to improve your
moods and coping abilities. It emphasizes the
relationship between thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors.
Integrative Therapy
 Humanistic therapy is concerned with your ability to
reach your full potential and believes that you are the
greatest judge of what works for you. It may look for
patterns in the past, but it also focuses on assisting you in
addressing current behavioral patterns.
 Mindfulness is also becoming more popular. It's a series
of techniques that allow you to be more aware of what
you're thinking, feeling, and experiencing right now,
rather than being preoccupied with anxieties about the
past or future.
Techniques/Approaches
 Modeling and reinforcement are two behavioral
tactics that can be used to modify a person's
behavior.
 Transference and free association are two
psychodynamic mechanisms that might assist people
achieve insight.
 Cognitive methods like cognitive restructuring
and exposure can assist you shift your automatic
negative ideas that are contributing to your behavior.
Benefits of Integrative Therapy
 Adaptable. Integrative therapists are more flexible in their treatment
strategies. If one type of therapy isn‟t effective or your circumstances
change, your therapist can recommend another.
 Holistic. Integrative therapy doesn‟t just take your mental health into
account. Your therapist will ask you questions that consider your whole
self. They may ask about habits that impact your daily life, such as
sleep, diet, and exercise.
 Individualized. You are an individual. Nobody shares your exact
story or experiences. A therapy approach that works for someone else
might not work for you. For your therapy to be most effective, your
therapist must consider your unique history and experiences.
Reality therapy
 A specific type of cognitive-behavioral therapy which was
first introduced in 1965 by psychiatrist Dr. William Glasser.
 Glasser believed that when someone chooses to change
their own behavior rather than attempting to change
someone else's, they will be more successful at attaining
their own goals and desires.
 Focuses on current issues affecting a person seeking
treatment rather than the issues the person has
experienced in the past, and it encourages that person to
use therapy to address any behavior that may prevent
them from finding a solution to those issues.
Reality Therapy
•
•
•
•
•
5 Genetically Driven Needs
Power: A sense of winning, achieving, or a sense of selfworth.
Love and belonging: To family, to a community, or to
other loved ones.
Freedom: To be independent, maintain personal space,
autonomy.
Fun: To achieve satisfaction, enjoyment, and a sense of
pleasure.
Survival: Basic needs of shelter, survival, food, sexual
fulfillment.
Techniques
 Self-evaluation. A therapist will use self-evaluation techniques
to help you recognize your present actions. This serves as a
foundation for planning new actions.
 Action planning. After self-evaluation, your therapist will
guide you through action planning. The goal is to plan new
actions that better serve your needs.
 Reframing. A therapist expresses a concept in a positive or less
negative way. This can help shift your mindset from problemfocused to solution-focused.
 Behavioral rehearsal. involves practicing appropriate social
behaviors. For example, your therapist might have you imagine
or talk about these behaviors. Or, you might act out the situation
with your therapist.
Benefits of Reality Therapy
• quality of relationships
• self-awareness
• self-confidence and acceptance
• personal growth
• coping skills in dealing with adversity
Play Therapy
 A form of therapy used primarily for children.
 A therapist encourages a child to explore life events that
may have an effect on current circumstances, in a manner
and pace of the child's choosing, primarily through play but
also through language.
 Some key individuals who contributed and founded this
field; Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, Melanie Klein, David
Levy, Joseph Soloman, Anna Freud, Carl Rogers,
Virginia Axline, and Roger Phillips.
Techniques/Approach
 Directive approach. the therapist will take the lead by
specifying the toys or games that‟ll be used in the session.
The therapist will guide the play with a specific goal in
mind.
 Nondirective approach. The child is able to choose toys
and games as they see fit. They‟re free to play in their own
way with few instructions or interruptions. The therapist
will observe closely and participate as appropriate.
Play Therapy for Adults
Adults who may benefit from play therapy include
those affected by:
• intellectual disabilities
• dementia
• chronic illness, palliative care, and hospice care
• substance use
• trauma and physical abuse
• anger management issues
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• unresolved childhood issues
Benefits of Play Therapy
• Taking more responsibility for certain behaviors
• Developing coping strategies and creative problem•
•
•
•
•
•
solving skills
Self-respect
Epathy and respect for others
Elleviation of anxiety
Learning to fully experience and express feelings
Stronger social skills
Stronger family relationships
References
Retrieved from:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-psychoanalytic-therapy-2795467
Family Systems Therapy: Definition, Techniques, and Efficacy
(verywellmind.com)
What Are the Benefits of Integrative Therapy? - Integrative Life Center
Existential Theory and Therapy: What Do the Two Have in Common?
(healthline.com)
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-gestalt-therapy
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gestalt-therapy4584583#:~:text=Gestalt%20therapy%20is%20a%20humanistic,respons
ibility%20rather%20than%20placing%20blame.