psychotherapy
treatment involving psychological techniques; consist of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth
biomedical therapy
prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology
eclectic approach
an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy
psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud's therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences - and the therapist's interpretations of them - released previously repressed feeling, allowing the patient to gain self-insight
resistance
in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material
interpretation
in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight
transference
in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent)
psychodynamic therapy
therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that seeks to enhance self-insight
insight therapies
a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person's awareness of underlying motives and defenses
client-centered therapy
a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth
active listening
empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy
unconditional positive regard
a caring, accepting, nonjudgemental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance
behavior therapy
therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors
counterconditioning
a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning
exposure therapies
behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid
systematic desensitization
a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias
virtual reality exposure therapy
an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to electronic simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking
aversive conditioning
a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)
token economy
an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats
cognitive therapy
therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions
rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people's illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions
cognitive-behavioral therapy
a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)
group therapy
therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interaction
family therapy
therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members
meta-analysis
a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies
regression toward the mean
the tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average
evidence-based practice
clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences
therapeutic alliance
a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client's problem
psychopharmacology
the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior
antipsychotic drugs
drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder
antianxiety drugs
drugs used to control anxiety and agitation
antidepressant drugs
drugs used to treat depression and some anxiety disorders. Different types work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient
repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity