Psychotherapies paper for school

Psychotherapy

"Psychoanalysis is usually seen as a person laying on the couch as their psychologist says "mhm, and how does that make you feel", or at least that's what most movies and TV shows portray. In actuality, psychoanalysis and psychotherapies can range in different treatments to get the best result. Psychotherapy is a psychological technique used to help positive changes in a person's adjustment, behavior and overall personality (Coon).

Interpersonal psychotherapy is usually used to help people, especially people who are suffering from depression, eating disorders, and have social phobias, to help improve their relationships, bonding and social skills with others around them.

Free association is saying whatever comes to mind. Often people don't say how they feel or what they think due to worry of consequences of what they have to say. With free association the person is to say whatever the would like without worrying about pain, embarrassment or being judged. This is to help the person lower their defenses and let their feelings show versus keeping them bottled up.

Dream analysis is pretty much as it sounds, dreams are often seen to be something that was on our mind heavily before we went to sleep, our "forbidden desires" and "unacceptable feelings" (Coon). Dream analysis can help the patient get past these desires and feelings by making the meaning and symbol obvious and attainable or to where they are no longer desired.

Two more are the analysis of resistance and the analysis of transference. The analysis of resistance is when a patient doesn't want or refuses - resists - talking about important topics and conflicts. This causes walls to be nearly impossible to knock down or get over causing the session to be hard to move and resolve. Analysis of transference is when a patient "transfers" their feelings and often sees their therapist as an important person from their past, which can bring up different feelings and conflicts in the patient.

Each form of psychotherapy is individual and often times, the same one wont work for everyone or every problem. Finding the right one is usually based more on the patient's problem and reactions or personality."