Psychological Disorders

Those who suffer from psychological disorders or variations of mental distress typically undergo treatment through a process that we call Psychotherapy. A trained psychotherapist works with their patient to bring to light the underlying issues that are creating the type of stress or work with general problems such as a particular mental illness. The therapist can choose to several different types of therapy but psychotherapy commonly involves the preconceived notion of a patient lying on the couch. This approach is certainly part of the process. A psychotherapist and his patient develop a communicative relationship where they routinely talk about the problems and behaviors that are plaguing them, although a wide range of therapy is often utilized. So why does someone reach out to psychotherapy? There are many reasons. Some can be simply defined as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, a phobia or behavioral issue. However it can extend further, as we see many people reaching out for marital issues and family crises. Many people reach out for addiction, whether to alcohol or drugs, sometimes even sex addiction or an equally unhealthy preoccupation. We also see people reaching out because of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) perhaps from a military deployment, a rape or assault, child abuse when an adolescent. Then there are clients with medical disorders which require prescribed drugs, like bipolar disorder or Schizophrenia, who seem to benefit from some form of therapy.

Psychotherapy is often based on trust. The client needs to trust the person they are seeking guidance from. Commonly this trust is built up over visits and can be based on a one on one interaction or can be more open, such as pairs like in marriage counseling or can extend to group therapy. Once week the clients meet with their psychotherapist for approximately one hour. These visits can last for months or even year. It is said that the hardest part of successful therapy can be the patients unwillingness to continue sessions. Often they start feeling better and feel they no longer need to continue services. Choosing a therapist that the client feels comfortable with can also be a huge factor. In the course of the treatment it will be necessary for a client to divulge a considerable amount of personal information. One of the best way to find success is to feel a trusting relationship where the client can be as honest as possible. Ascertaining a therapist's educational background, experience and most common therapy practices can be pivotal in choosing the right person. While some therapist may push a client to expel their thoughts in a more direct manner that approach may not work for some people.

The 1950's brought about an influential school of thought known as humanistic psychology. It has secured a place in psychotherapy as one of the most widely used models. Carl Rogers was a humanist psychologist who coined the phrase client-centered therapy. This approach was focused around the therapist showing an unconditional positive regard to the client. Rogers had the goal of being as non-directive as possible, which was probably the reason that he started out calling his technique non-directive therapy. His approach was to guide his patients, although it is important to mention that he called his patients, clients. Emphasizing the importance of an individual seeking assistance and choosing to take the help of a professional rather than a medically necessary encounter. His thought was that patient implied illness and that an individual was seeking a cure to a disease. Rogers believed that a client needed to be guided, but in a subtly way, wanting clients to bring up their own issues and only using a slight guidance or by nudging them in the right directions. He found most clients were looking to him to overcome their issues or reshape their destiny so to speak and felt self-direction was a vital part of the therapy. This line of therapy called client-centered therapy is also sometimes called Rogerian therapy.

So was Rogers the great innovator of this line of thinking? Perhaps in some ways however his work really stems from one of the most widely known psychologists, Sigmund Freud. We have all heard of Freud known as the father of psychoanalysis, which is a type of treatment which falls under the broader umbrella of psychotherapy. Freud was the first to consider this line of therapy, using the assertion that psychological and behavioral behaviors are brought on my unresolved conflicts between the unconscious and conscious areas of the human mind. He started his work with hypnosis, believing that it was the most effective way to delve into someone's most hidden thoughts; however he later abandoned this line of thinking and developed "the talking cure". This approach favored free association and dream analysis and Freud thought this would bring repressed memories to the forefront