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The most "classical" of the individual therapies is psychoanalysis, an invention of Sigmund Freud that was modified by many of his disciples. It was designed to help people get in touch with the origins of their problems, and thus to eliminate the problems. Freud did not think that psychoanalysis was appropriate for patients with psychoses. Psychoanalysis has always been a controversial method, and it has been replaced by or supplemented with many other forms of individual psychotherapy. Some, like psychoanalysis, are intended to provide patients with insights into their problems, but many have more pragmatic goals like helping patients adapt to their immediate problems or eliminating specific and troubling symptoms. One of the more successful individual therapies is cognitive, or cognitive-behavioral, therapy. This type of therapy is intended to change the way the patient or client thinks about his or her problem. Behavior is changed either directly or as a result of changes in patterns of thought. This type of therapy has been tested and found to improve the functioning of depressed people, either alone or in combination with antidepressant medication. Still other individual therapies are intended to provide support to hospitalized patients, or as they make transitions from the hospital to the community, or as they try to solve their own problems. Some brief therapies set short-term goals and limits on the number of sessions in which the goals must be accomplished. Patients or their families should find out about types of therapy and make the most informed choices possible about which type to choose, if indeed they have a choice. The wrong therapy, like the wrong drug, can do more harm than good, although the "side effects" may be less severe. If one therapist or one type of therapy is not working, another should be tried. Consumers of psychological services of all kinds should not hesitate to ask for evidence that a therapy works, just as they would ask their general practitioner for information about a prescription. Visit the links below for more detailed information on therapies. If you want to learn about a therapy not presently covered here, contact us and we will add it to our list. There are too many types for us to cover all of them at this time. Behavior
therapies Last updated 12/19/03 |
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