Month: July 2021

1. A relatively new approach, Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) uses behavioural techniques in combination with an emphasis on clients’ use of language to alleviate client distress. Here, the focus is on accepting a feeling, event, or situation rather than avoiding it.
2. ACT therapists believe many emotional problems develop as clients use ineffective methods, such as avoidance, to control their emotions. Rather than having clients focus on avoiding a feeling, they help clients accept a feeling, event, or situation. Clients can then look at their thoughts and feelings rather than look from them.
3. ACT help clients clarify values and commit to behaviours that fit with these values. This treatment is useful in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and anxiety-related disorders.

1. Sex is one of the most private aspects of an individual’s life and problems in it are often hidden or ignored due to fear or embarrassment. No matter how hard one tries to fight it, it can’t be solved without the help of an expert.
2. Sexual problems are common in the modern world and can have many causes including physical, psychological or situational reasons. One of the potential causes may be anxiety which may inhibit normal sexual arousal, resulting in dysfunction.
3. Sex Therapy utilizes techniques to reduce anxiety such as progressive relaxation and systematic desensitization, resulting in enhanced sexual arousal.
4. The goal of sex therapy is to improve sexual functioning, interpersonal relationships and correct wrong notions a person might have regarding sexual intercourse.
5. It involves discussion about possible solutions and encourages individuals to work on difficulties in their relationship such as a poor communication or and being comfortable with self and partner’s bodies. This is carried out in a safe and private environment in the presence of a trained professional.

1. Nutrition is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Without proper nutrition, one does not have enough energy to make it through the day. Also, health declines without proper nutrition, making one more susceptible to illness and disease. Also, certain problems like Eating Disorders and obesity often lead to malnutrition which, in the long run, can lead to serious diseases.
2. Diet counselling helps the person to create an action plan so as to adopt a healthier lifestyle and diet. Through diet counselling, individuals can learn more about how their food choices affect their health. It is an ongoing process in which the counsellor works with an individual to assess his or her usual dietary intake and identify areas where change is needed. He/she provides information, educational materials, support, and follow-up to help the individual make and maintain the needed dietary changes.

1. The family is the foundation on which most societies are built. Family therapy might be necessary where there are disturbances in the family system. Often the problems that a person faces can be understood by going deeper into the interactions between the family members.
2. It must be understood that the exchange between the family members involve a form of communication which can lead to either harmony or disharmony in relationships.
3. Family therapy explicitly focuses on altering the interactions between or among family members and seeks to improve the functioning of the family as a unit, or its subsystems, and the functioning of individual members of the family. By increasing the problem-solving capacity and communication within the family system, the individual client can be helped to recover from his problem.
4. Family therapy is a recognized form of treatment in major psychiatric problems such as schizophrenia, depression, alcohol or drug use, conversion related disorders eating disorders, and bipolar disorder.

1. Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) is based on principles of motivational psychology and is designed to produce rapid, internally motivated change.
2. The MET approach begins with the assumption that the responsibility and capability for change lie within the client.
3. The therapist’s task is to create a set of conditions that will enhance the client’s own motivation for and commitment to change. Rather than relying upon therapy sessions as the primary locus of change, the therapist seeks to mobilize the client’s inner resources as well as those inherent in the client’s natural helping relationships.
4. MET consists of four carefully planned and individualized treatment sessions. The first two sessions focus on structured feedback from the initial assessment, future plans, and motivation for change. The final two sessions at the midpoint and end of treatment provide opportunities for the therapist to reinforce progress, encourage reassessment, and provide an objective perspective on the process of change.
5. MET may be particularly useful in situations where contact with clients is limited to few or infrequent. Treatment outcome research strongly supports MET strategies as effective in producing change in substance abuse clients.

1. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is a type of cognitive behaviour therapy first used by Albert Ellis which focuses on resolving emotional and behavioural problems. The goal of the therapy is to change irrational beliefs to more rational ones.
2. REBT involves uncovering clients’ irrational or dysfunctional beliefs and actively and directively disputes them. It sees people’s self-defeating cognitions, emotions, and behaviours as intrinsically and holistically connected, not disparate. It holds that they disturb themselves with disordered thoughts, feelings, and actions, all of which importantly interact with each other and with the difficulties they encounter in their environment. Therefore, with emotionally and behaviourally disturbed people, REBT employs a number of thinking, feel, and action techniques that are designed to help them change their self-defeating and socially sabotaging conduct to self-helping and socially effective ways.
3. REBT theorizes that virtually all humans consciously and unconsciously train themselves to be to some degree emotionally disturbed. Therefore, with the help of an effective therapist and/or with self-help materials, they can teach themselves to lead more satisfying lives—if they choose to do so and work hard at modifying their thinking, feeling, and behaving.
4. REBT encourages a person to identify their general and irrational beliefs (e.g. I must be perfect”) and subsequently persuades the person challenge these false beliefs through reality testing.

1. All fields of human endeavour use measurement in some form, and each field has its ownset of measuring tools and measuring units. In psychology, we tend to measure behaviour by the use of various standardised tests.
2. Psychological assessment involves the gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making a formal psychological evaluation that is accomplished through the use of tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, behavioural observation, etc. This is necessary for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment.
3. Psychological testing is always performed by a licensed psychologist and consists largely of paper-and-pencil tests. It is done to help a psychologist better understand an individual and provide valuable insights into the individual’s behaviour, skills, thoughts and personality.
4. Psychological testing commonly includes intelligence testing, personality testing, and skills testing, among other areas.

Stress is a normal part of life. In small quantities, stress is good; it can motivate you and help you become more productive. However, too much stress, or a strong response to stress can be harmful. Stress can come from any situation or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or anxious. Everyone sees situations differently and has different coping skills. For this reason, no two people will respond exactly the same way to a given situation.

Managing stress is all about taking charge: taking charge of your thoughts, your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun – plus the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on. Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. It offers a range of strategies to help you better deal with stress and difficulty (adversity) in your life.

Once you know your potential stressors, you can either (a) change the situation – by avoiding or altering the situation or (b) change your reaction – by accepting or adapting to the stressors. Managing stress can help you lead a more balanced, healthier life. The approaches towards Stress Management includes:

• Keeping a positive attitude.
• Accepting that there are events that cannot be controlled.
• Being assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.
• Learning to manage your time more effectively.
• Set limits appropriately and say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life.
• Making time for hobbies and interests.
• Don’t rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviours to reduce stress. Drugs and alcohol can stress your body even more.
• Seeking out social support. Spending enough time with those you love.
• Seeking treatment with a psychologist or other mental health professional trained in stress management.

1. Relaxation training is a general term that refers to methods that are used to teach and learn specific techniques to help people moderate or control reactivity or arousal that is problematic to them.
2. It includes various arousal control methods, such as muscle relaxation training, biofeedback, meditation, imagery, and paced breathing.
3. Relaxation training often is used in behaviour therapy as a means to reduce anxiety, tension, and stress. Research has shown it to be effective in a variety of disorders and conditions, primarily those related to anxiety, fear, and stress.
4. Training patients to relax typically involves providing a rationale, demonstrating exercises, and practicing relaxation in treatment sessions. In addition, patients almost always are asked to practice (“homework”) between therapy sessions. Often, forms or log books are used for patients to record details about their practice.
5. It also can be used to help facilitate communication during a therapy session with a client who may be too tense or anxious to communicate effectively with the therapist. The goal of relaxation training is to make the person physically relaxed and mentally alert.
6. Relaxation training is different from lazing on once bed, sleeping and just not doing anything. It involves a series of steps which one must follow to achieve a state of lowered physiological arousal. Learning how to relax is beneficial in various situations, this simple technique can increase energy, motivation and productivity.

1. Supportive psychotherapy is a dyadic treatment that uses direct measures improve symptoms and maintain, restore, or improve self-esteem, ego function, and adaptive skills. This therapy is based on encouragement, optimism and support.
2. Through supportive therapy one might be able to resume one’s daily’s activities and use his ability to cope with them. The aim of this therapy is also to reduce and prevent anxiety along with increasing a person’s awareness of his illness or his problem.
3. The therapist attempts to help patients deal with their emotional distress and problems in living. It includes comforting, advising,encouraging, reassuring, and mostly listening, attentively and sympathetically.
4. The therapist provides an emotional outlet, the chance for patients to express themselves and be themselves. Also, the therapist may inform patients about their illness and about how to manage it and how to adjust to it.
5. Depending on the client’s specific needs, as well as the degree of severity or complexity of the issues at hand, supportive psychotherapy may be a short-term intervention or a longer-term, ongoing form of treatment.
6. It can be a very beneficial treatment for a wide range of psychiatric disorders throughout the life span like Developmental disorders, Psychotic disorders, Mood disorders, Anxiety disorders, Personality disorders, Adjustment disorders, etc.
7. Supportive psychotherapy can help these individuals by reducing their anxiety, providing a nurturing, positive relationship, improving and reinforcing their coping skills, boosting their self-esteem, providing reassurance when appropriate, confronting inappropriate behaviour when necessary, and giving them guidance and advice as needed.