What is the aim of therapy

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Psychotherapy, often known as Talk Therapy, uses insight, problem-solving, reframing of cognitions and changes in behavior to bring about greater mental well-being. Successful psychotherapy also involves reaching three very important goals:

1. Response

2. Remission

3. Recovery

Problem is, many children and adults don’t reach all three – and this sets the stage for relapse of symptoms.

Learning more about response, remission and recovery will help you make the most out of psychotherapy.

Response

The first goal of psychotherapy is to get you to feel better.

This is clinically called response – and is defined as an improvement from the onset of your illness after psychotherapy begins.

Response is reached when, as a patient, you report less depressive symptoms, clinically meaningful improvement in mood, daily functioning, physical pain, and negative thinking. Getting to a response level will be easy for some. Generally, these adults and children report feeling better in a few sessions. For others, it can take weeks. And for those who experience treatment-resistant depression, response may not be achieved at all.

When it comes to attaining a response in psychotherapy, don’t compare yourself with another person’s experience. Instead, focus on your unique experiences with depression and set realistic goals with your therapist.

Remission

The second goal in treating your depression is to bring you to a full state of remission. Remission is clinically defined as the experience of being symptom-free from illness. This differs from response in that you not only report an improvement from when you started treatment, but you also describe the presence of well-being, optimism, self-confidence and a return to a healthy state of functioning.

It’s important to follow your treatment plan so you can achieve a full state of remission. Not doing so can lead to a partial remission – where relapse is likely to occur. A good takeaway here is if you’re still experiencing depressive symptoms, you have not reached full remission.

Partial remission signals the need to continue with your treatment for depression. This is where most children and adults with unipolar or bipolar disorders lose their way. They stop taking their medication or interrupt psychotherapy because they “feel better”… but in actuality, they haven’t achieved full remission.

Remission will be achieved at different times for different people. Again, don’t measure your journey to health against anyone else. Just work your treatment plan and be proud of the gains you make along the way.

Recovery

Recovery is clinically defined as the absence of symptoms for at least 4 months following the onset of remission. Recovery presents with periods of improvement and growth as well as with setbacks and stumbling blocks. So, essentially, you’ll have good days and you’ll have bad days. It’s important to monitor your depressive disorder by being mindful about your physical and emotional experiences – along with many of the other tools and techniques you’ve learned in psychotherapy. Also, it’s vital to keep up with your medication if that’s part of your treatment plan.

Research states that more than 50 percent of children and adults who have a mood disorder will not achieve recovery because they’re not consistent with their treatment plan.

Summary

Living with a moderate or severe mental illness requires consistent treatment and coordinated care. For those who experience treatment-resistant depression, alternative treatment plans will be created to deal with these unique challenges. But for others who have treatable depressive disorders, strive to make psychotherapy a priority. Aim to reach all levels of response, remission, and recovery.

Have you been considering psychotherapy? These days, it’s not uncommon for people to talk to a therapist about problems that can seem overwhelming. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), more than 25% of American adults experience anxiety, depression, or another mental disorder each year. Others may need mental health support because of addiction, grief, job loss, relationship troubles, stress, or other issues. Some may be trying to lose weight, stop smoking, or cope with a serious illness. These problems can often be debilitating.

Are you searching for psychotherapy services near Austin, TX? Then, reach out to Santé Center for Healing today by calling 866.238.3154 or contacting our team online.

What Is the Goal of Psychotherapy?

Adjusting to changes in life can lead to emotional challenges that interfere with working toward life goals. Psychotherapy involves a process of exploring a client’s emotions, life circumstances, and values. By increasing the client’s understanding of themselves, their close relationships, and other important factors, this form of therapeutic care moves closer to the goal of improving the client’s overall quality of life.

Therapy sessions are tailored to a client’s needs and specific goals, examples of which include the following:

Adjusting to injury or medical conditions
Dealing with difficult life decisions
Developing social skills
Focusing on wellness and personal growth
Improving communication skills
Improving emotional regulation
Managing excessive stress and tension

In summary, the goal of psychotherapy is to facilitate positive change in clients seeking better emotional and social functioning to improve their feelings of satisfaction and the overall quality of their lives. Psychotherapy helps clients live happier, healthier, and more productive lives.

How Does Psychotherapy Work?

Now that you know what the goal of psychotherapy is, it will be much easier to understand how this form of care works.

In psychotherapy, mental health professionals apply evidence-based techniques to help clients identify what they want to change in themselves, and then develop healthier, more effective habits. There are several approaches to psychotherapy — including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), and other types of talk therapy — that help clients work through their problems.

However, psychotherapy is a collaborative treatment based on the relationship between a client and a therapist. Grounded in dialogue, psychotherapy should provide a supportive environment that allows a client to talk openly to a therapist who’s objective, neutral, and nonjudgmental. A client and a therapist need to work together, so it makes sense that this relationship must be a solid foundation for successful treatment.

By the end of a psychotherapy treatment program, the client will not only have solved the problem they went into therapy for but will also have new tools and skills to better cope with whatever mental health challenges arise in the future.

When Should You Consider Psychotherapy?

Because of the many misconceptions about talk therapy, many people may not want to try it, even though they know how psychotherapy works. Reluctance is certainly understandable. However, if you’re struggling with overwhelming emotions and environments, it could be time to seriously consider getting professional help.

Some people end up seeking psychotherapy because they’ve felt angry, anxious, or depressed for a long time. Others may want help dealing with certain factors that are interfering with their emotional, mental, and even physical health. This would include things such as a lifelong illness, a divorce, or the death of a loved one. Signs that someone could benefit from psychotherapy include the following:

Always expecting the worst, being constantly on edge, and worrying excessively
An overwhelming and prolonged sense of helplessness or sadness
Difficulty in concentrating on carrying out everyday activities
Problematic and harmful actions, such as addictive substance use
Problems not resolved despite personal efforts and help from friends and family

Ready To Learn More About Santé Center for Healing’s Psychotherapy Services?

If you’re looking for psychotherapy services near Austin, TX, contact Santé Center for Healing today. Reach out to our team online or call 866.238.3154.

Therapists, psychologists, and related practitioners and theorists of mental health tend to hold one of two broad views about how to help clients. On the one hand, some maintain that, or at least act as though, the basic point of therapy is to help clients become clear about what they want deep down and to enable them to achieve it by overcoming mental blockages. On the other hand, there are those who contend that the aim of therapy should instead be to psychologically enable clients to live objectively good lives, say, ones that involve developing their inherent talents or exhibiting an authentic/integrated/resilient self. This chapter argues that neither of these prominent approaches is adequate. Contra the former, sometimes what clients want deep down is not something to promote, and, against the latter, it can sometimes be reasonable for clients to want to sacrifice their own objective interests and for therapists to assist them in this regard. It is argued that the category of meaningfulness does well at accounting for these counterexamples to the two dominant approaches, while capturing the kernels of truth in them. The proper aim of therapy, according to this chapter, is to enable clients to live meaningfully.

Keywords

Eudaimonism
Meaning in life
Mental health
Mental illness
Psychological well-being
Psychotherapy
Therapeutic aims

AIM: a child-centered approach you can try at home

What is AIM?

AIM stands for Accept, Identify, Move. AIM is a form of clinical behavior analysis that combines ABA, mindfulness, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT.) AIM helps individuals learn to accept physical and psychological experiences in order to participate more fully in the meaningful parts of life.

How can you apply AIM at home?

The first part of AIM involves mindfulness. You can incorporate mindfulness at home by practicing mindful minutes of breathing, focusing on elements within the environment, or doing a few minutes of yoga.

The second part is ACT, which increases psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is established through six core ACT processes. Each of these areas are conceptualized as a positive psychological skill.

Below you can find each of the six core processes and how to address and build these skills at home.

Present moment awareness: Children may seem predisposed to fixate on certain stimuli in the environment, often daydream and think about what they are doing later.

What to try:
- Focus: Notice when they are not present and bring them back to attending to stimuli in the current environment
- Focus: Have children notice when they are not present vs. present.
Self as context: Children may seem very sensitive to labels from themselves or others. Once they have labeled something, they may try to avoid certain situations.

What to try:
- Say: “You are more than your thoughts and behavior”
- Focus: Distinguish child from child’s behavior
Values: Children may struggle to see the difference between items and values. Make values more concrete for children (i.e. having friends, getting to do X).

What to try:
- Say: “What do you like and what is important”
- Focus: Differentiate values/things
Acceptance:

Children may act as though impulsive choices may seem to be the only choice for behavior.

What to try:
- Say:
  
  “It’s OK to be OK with good and bad”
- Focus: Model and practice what it looks like then accept and move on.
Committed action: Children generally do not like to lose, and failure is a cue for more failure. Also, children may need to learn to let go of past events in order to move forward.

What to try:
- Say: “What are obstacles and how will we overcome them?”
- Focus: Letting go of previous behavior so that it does not dictate future behavior.
Defusion: Children often become “obsessions” and children are not always able to discriminate truth from thought.

What to try:
- Say: “Step back from your thoughts”
- Focus: Label thoughts and feelings as “I’m having a thought that…”