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Critical evaluation of psychodynamic therapy
How has psychodynamic therapy changed over time
Critical evaluation of psychodynamic therapy
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Psychodynamic therapy, focuses on unconscious mind and how past experiences, inner thoughts, fears, and emotions The main goal of psychodynamic therapy is for clients to be self-aware of the past and how it effects who they are in the present. This type of therapy focuses on the underlying problems and emotions that influenced the client’s behavior. (Psych Central, 2016) Psychodynamic psychotherapy was first started by Freud who worked to make this therapy better from 1885 when he began until he passed away in 1939. When Freud first began his first approach to psychoanalytic theory was primarily biological. As years past Freud changed his thoughts and views and it eventually evolved into the therapy it is today. (Borstein,2016) Freud …show more content…
In doing this it helps the client recognize patterns in how they avoid destress and how and why they developed their defense mechanisms. Psychodynamic therapists encourage their clients to speak freely of their thoughts, emotions, desires, and fears in order to let out the vulnerable feelings that have been pushed out of the conscious mind and out of their awareness. Psychodynamic therapy sessions are open ended and based on a process of free association. (Gad, …show more content…
The first stage in the psychodynamic therapy process is, The initial stage. In this stage the therapist should learn about the problems that patient is facing, their defense mechanisms, make sure they both have an understanding of what the main goals are, and then determine which is the best approach and treatment for the patient The second stage in the psychodynamic therapy process is, the transference stage. In this stage the development of treatment is set and now it is the patient’s time to let their feelings out. The patient expresses those feelings, emotions, fears, and desires to the therapist without having to worry about censorship. The feelings and behavior of the patient become more pronounced and become a vital part of the treatment itself. During this stage the therapist could experience and better understand of the patient’s past and how it impacted their behavior in the
Catharsis and working through are also important concepts for therapy. Psychodynamic therapists believe that patients must relive past feelings to overcome their problem in the future. To go along with catharsis, working through would be needed over many years to examine the same issues.
The psychodynamics theory which was introduced by Freud to understand the human mind and psyche, reached a new level in the continuous analysis from therapists. Psychodynamics originally has been explained as a study of various psychological forces that affect human behavior which is related to early experiences. It specifically discusses the connection between the conscious and subconscious motivations. The theory was further analyzed and developed by Melanie Klein, Carl Jung and Alfred Adler. Based on the theory, the psychodynamic therapy evolved to help patients through psychoanalysis. With time other therapies like individual, group and family therapy evolved to offer treatment by understanding the present day complexities in more detail. The main aim of the therapy is self –awareness through identifying the various influences of many past events in life. The therapies are continuously evolving since it was introduced by Freud to help in solving a variety of psychological disorders within people.
The aim of the psychoanalytic therapy is to resolve interpersonal conflicts, toward the end of reconstructing one’s basic personality. (Corey 2013). Gathering life-history data, dream analysis, free association, interpretation and analysis of resistance and transference. Such procedures are aimed at increasing awareness, gaining intellectual and emotional insight. This begins a working-through process that leads to the reorganization of the client personality. According to Freud, out most intense experience of anxiety occurs at birth, when we are speratated from our mothers. Using this model will allow to examine the aniety as the basis of all the clients feelings of anxiety. Seperation from his mother at the age of 6 may have had an impact. Finally, this model tend that if noramal, rational approaches of the ego to reduce anxiety are not effective, the ego revert to ego-defense mechanisms. Jackson’s was defensive when discussion of possible sexual abuse was introduced in the sessions. This was pointed out as the Defense Mechansims, Repression. Therapist find this useful to bring the past experiences to the present, so that the client can begin to be aware.
The psychoanalytical method involves just that, analyzing the psyche. When using this method, your goal would be to replace a person’s self detrimental behavior with positive behavior that will help them reach their personal goals of normality. You may also wish to reduce their inappropriate feelings of anxiety and guilt, leading them to more feelings of happiness and joy. There are 3 techniques used in this method of therapy, and they are free association, dream analysis, and transference. Free association involves letting the patient relax and say whatever comes to mind, revealing what they are really thinking in their subconscious. Dream analysis involves analyzing the contents of dreams, which can also be broken down into the manifest content and the latent content. Manifest content is the apparent images and scenes that the patient remembers and is describing from the dream, while latent content is the actual meanings behind the manifest content. Transference is the concept that because the analyst listens to the patient so much and relates to them, they become a sort of parent figure to the patient, and the analyst can use this to their benefit by asking questions only a parent could ask. This has been the psych...
The therapist must be aware of individual values and beliefs in order to develop an understanding of why the client responds to certain life-stressors. For e...
Mental Health is an issue that millions of individuals are facing here in the United States. Illnesses such as anxiety and panic attacks, borderline personality disorder, drug and alcohol addiction, and depression affect the lives of so many.
From a psychoanalytic perspective, the goal of counseling is to bring unconscious information to the conscious and strengthen the ego by bringing forth the clients energy to conscious processes (Murdock, 2013). Rasmussen & Salhani (2010) states the following regarding the goal of psychoanalytic theory which further supports Murdock’s statement, “we turn to psychoanalytic theory to understand not only the individual’s conscious, rational thinking, but also the unconscious dynamics and motivation” (Rasmussen & Salhani, 2010).
Furthermore, my goal is to let client fix their problems on their own through insight and guidance from the therapist. I envision a successful therapeutic process being when a client follows their goals and achieves positive outcomes in their lives. I seek to gain a therapeutic process with my clients by building rapport, trust, and helping them gain insight. When my clients are stuck and need motivation, I plan to remind them about their goals and the positive things that will come with change. If family is important to a client, informing the client about their family and their happiness may help motivate them to continue to
Psychotherapy has been Around for many years and has a major role in our world today. It has grown over the years and now there are known many hundreds of different theories about. Clients that use therapy are for different reasons as to cope with a change of life experience or a disorder or for personal development. Integrative psychotherapy has been around for over one hundred years but has really only come into the forefront of therapy since the late 1970’s. “Research has indicated that psycho¬therapy is moving toward an integrated approach to therapy” (Norcross, 2005b). The therapy is a mixture of all theories that are tailored by the therapist professional experience to work with the client in a positive way. This assignment will look at the factors needed to enable the therapist to carry out successful therapy. It will highlight and explain what the five principles of integrative therapy are. Also, with the common factors and how they are important and across all therapies. Also,
In another technique applied in Psychodynamic therapy approach where a client’s past is brought in, psychodynamic therapists’ main goal is to understand or relate the past with the present. Furthermore, the therapists also seek to illustrate to the client how his or her past can claim its position in the present (Shelder 2010). According to his review, it is important then to understand that the only purpose the past can have in the therapy is to illuminate the current psychological issues. The Ultimate goal in Psychodynamic therapy approach is assisting the individuals in parting from the negatives of past and helping him or her transitioning to a life that is more
The psychodynamic approach allows the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that happened in the past like childhood experiences. It aims to increase the individual’s sense of his or her own well-being. During psychotherapy, the client talks to the therapist about how he or she thinks, feels, and reacts to challenges in life. The ultimate goal is resolving or reducing negative symptoms that would cause emotional and mental health problems. Compared to other forms of therapy, psychodynamic therapy emphasizes the relationship between the client and therapist as a way to
The psychodynamic theory focuses on the unconscious mind. Freud’s credence is that different mental forces operate in the mind. The unconscious mind can be described as being like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg represents the part of the mind that is conscious, everyday thoughts. The iceberg just below the water’s surface represents the pre conscious, thoughts and information that can be retrieved easily. And finally the base of the iceberg is the unconscious part of the mind where fears, traumas and bad experiences are contained, almost impossible to retrieve.
Through the psychoanalytic therapeutic approach, the counselor analyses the client and the occurring problem as well as teach the client how to comprehend the behavior and how it is related to the client’s past experiences. Focusing on the Adlerian approach, the counselor’s role becomes to create mutual trust and respect as well as identifying previous mistaken goals as well as teaching and encouraging the client to a brighter future. The client-therapist relationship becomes mutual towards determining goals and is built on equality. The role of the counselor with the focus of CBT is as a teacher. The counselor teaches the client to change his or her cognition to create a better cognitive schema and a more positive view in the future. However, the relationship is collaborative, meaning that the counselor helps the client identifying the problem and how to solve it. Lastly, the postmodern approaches, creates a collaborative partnership. However, the client-therapist relationship is different in the postmodern approaches compared to psychoanalytic therapy, Adlerian therapy, and CBT, where it is a teaching environment, with the counselor being the expert. In the postmodern approaches, the client is the expert on his or her life and takes control over developing a future-oriented goal with assistance from the counselor. Creating an
This approach draws on the importance of early experience and how people internalize events that happened in their youth. It draws on the idea that there is a conflict between events that happened in the past and what a person is trying to accomplish in the present. The therapist is very engaged and develops a close relationship to the client, in which the relationship helps model normative relationships that the client can use to generalize. The goal of this kind of treatment is to make the unconscious conscious to the client. The hallmark of psychodynamic psychotherapy is insight and working through, in which the client has deep and reflective epiphanies about themselves. Psychodynamic therapy has also shown to be effective in the treatment of individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Schottenbauer, Glass, Arnkoff, and Gray (2008) explored the contributions of psychodynamic approach to therapy in individuals suffering from PTSD and trauma. Some of the many contributions psychodynamic treatments include addressing interpersonal issues that are a by-product of PTSD, and also addressing development. Aside of bringing unconscious thoughts forward, the therapist also watches for defense mechanisms that the client might use. These defense mechanisms are important to the therapist, because they provide insight to the person’s wishes, feelings, and impulses. A benefit to using psychodynamic treatment over other approaches is that it is better suited for handling complex cases of PTSD, as well as comorbid cases. In addition to that, because it focuses heavily on interpersonal relationships, it helps create a social support system for the client. Having social support may aid the client in recovering. In the case of Frida, a psychodynamic treatment approach would be effective. A psychodynamic therapist would establish a rapport with Frida before
Najavits, L., &Strupp, H. (1994). Differences in the Effectiveness of Psychodynamic Therapists: A process-outcome study. Psychotherapy, 31, 114-123.