Ch. 16.  Therapy

Slide 1: Is therapy effective?

• Efficacy studies
• How?
• In lab
• Limited number of sessions
• Restricted to interventions proscribed within the model
• Generally about 2/3 are reported to improve
• Effectiveness studies
• How?
• In “real world”
• Generally until improvement is reported
• Often “whatever it takes”
• Often improvements of between 80-90%

Slide 2: Types of change strategies

• Tertiary. To stabilize a person, without the goal of returning him or her to previous level of functioning
• Secondary. Once it is a problem, to return functioning to baseline
• Primary. Before it becomes a problem

Slide 3: Typical goals of therapy

• Behavior change
• Personality change or insight
• Support for person who would otherwise decompensate

Slide 4: Mechanisms of change

• Specific strategies
• Nonspecific strategies
• Tactics:
• Active listening
• Building trust
• Building rapport
• Asking for help from an authority figure
• Deep strategies:
• Instilling hope
• Building courage
• Developing interpersonal skills
• Encouraging rational approaches to looking at problems
• Developing insight
• Putting problems into a larger perspective

Slide 5: When to talk to a therapist?

• When there’s no one else to lean on
• When your support system is exhausted
• When you feel helpless & overwhelmed
• When your life is seriously disrupted by problems
• Because you want to get more out of life

Slide 6: What should you look for in a therapist?

• someone with whom you feel comfortable
• warmth, empathy, genuineness (Rogers' necessary conditions)
• respect
• hopefulness (part of what placebo does)
• therapeutic alliance

Slide 7: What should you beware of in a therapist?

• Sex in relationship
• Inordinately high fees
• If you feel disrespected or uncomfortable with therapist
• If you don’t feel free to question the therapist

Slide 8: Strategies of change

• Works best when:
• Therapist and client agree on goals
• Client is willing to address and change those problems
• Client and therapist are hopeful about the possibility of change
• When the client is distressed enough to want to change
• When focus is on what works, rather than what does not work

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URL= http://psy1.clarion.edu/jms/Abn16txpp.html

Last modified December 5, 2001.