An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling

An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling For Mental Health/Depression: Focusing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focusing

Focusing is a naturally occurring human process first observed and made teachable by philosopher and psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin.

During his 15 years of research, beginning in 1953 at the University of Chicago, Gendlin analyzed what made psychotherapy either successful or unsuccessful.

He found that it is not the therapist's technique that determines the success of psychotherapy, but something the patient does during therapy sessions.

Though this 'something' is an inner act, it is one which is consistently marked by an observable set of behaviors so that it was possible for Gendlin to see in his research when this inner act was happening, and when it wasn't.

Gendlin found that successful patients intuitively focused on a very subtle and vague internal bodily awareness — or \"felt sense.\"

Much of what a person knows has never been consciously thought and verbalized.

A felt sense forms as a person pays attention to 'all that about ....' which is pertinent in some situation but which has not yet been made explicit.

Gendlin observed successful patients turning their attention to this not-yet-articulated knowing.

As a felt sense formed, there would be long pauses together with sounds like 'uh....' Then new words would come which framed new insights into the situation.

These successful patients were able to be successful because they could move beyond the 'old thoughts' they'd already had which had not been helpful to them, while remaining connected with their own experience.

Since these insights came from what they already knew implicitly, they 'owned' these insights and therefore could act from them.

Gendlin laid out steps for the process he had observed, so that it could be taught to other patients who did not already know it.

His six steps are detailed in the book Focusing,.

Focusing is now practiced all over the world.

Most practitioners of the skill find it easiest to Focus in the presence of a \"listener\" who has been trained in the kind of listening which best supports the Focusing process.

Focusing and listening sessions take place in professional settings with focusing trainers, focusing-oriented therapists or coaches, and also informally between laypeople.

A focusing session can last from approximately 30 minutes to an hour, on average — with the \"focuser\" being listened to, and his verbalized thoughts and feelings being reflected back, by the \"listener.\"

There is a school of therapy based on the process. The Focusing-oriented psychotherapist, among other things, attributes a central importance to the client's capacity to be aware of their \"felt sense,\" and the meaning behind their words or images.

The client's ability to sense into feelings and meanings which are not yet formed is also important.

Additionally, the therapist pays attention to their own felt sense as a source of information and insight during the therapy process.

Focusing has also been applied in other domains besides therapy.

Attention to the felt sense naturally takes place in all manner of processes where something new is being formed: for example in creative process, learning, thinking, and decision making.

Gendlin's training as a philosopher before he became a psychotherapist and researcher is relevant to the history of Focusing.

His philosophical investigations, which concerned themselves with the nature of 'the implicit', made it easy for him to notice that there was something being attended to by successful clients which was not yet explicit.

His later philosophical work also builds on what he learned as a psychotherapist and researcher.

The whole of Gendlin's philosophical work forms a framework for understanding what the felt sense 'is', and what makes Focusing possible.

An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling For Mental Health/Depression: (This article needs additional citations for verification): Freudian Psychotherapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis

Today psychoanalysis comprises several interlocking theories concerning the functioning of the mind.

The term also refers to a specific type of treatment where the analyst, upon hearing the thoughts of the analysand (analytic patient), formulates and then explains the unconscious basis for the patient's symptoms and character problems.

Unconscious functioning was first described by Sigmund Freud, who modified his theories several times over a period of almost 50 years (1889-1939) of attempting to treat patients who suffered with mental problems.

In the past 70 years or so, infant and child research, and new discoveries in adults have led to further modification of theory.

During psychoanalytic treatment, the patient tells the analyst various thoughts and feelings.

The analyst listens carefully, formulates, then intervenes to attempt to help the patient develop insight into unconscious factors causing the problems.

The specifics of the analyst's interventions typically include confronting and clarifying the patient's pathological defenses, wishes and guilt.

Through the analysis of resistance (unconscious barriers to treatment), and transference to the analyst of expectations, psychoanalysis aims to unearth wishes and emotions from prior unresolved conflicts, in order to help the patient perceive and resolve lingering problems.

(This article needs additional citations for verification).

An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling For Mental Health/Depression: (This article does not cite any references or sources: August 2007): Gestalt Therapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_therapy

Gestalt Therapy is an existential and experiential psychotherapy that focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of the overall situation.

It emphasizes personal responsibility.

Gestalt Therapy was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s–1950s.

Overview of main premises: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_therapy#Overview_of_main_premises

Edwin Nevis described gestalt therapy as \"...a conceptual and methodological base from which helping professionals can craft their practice\" (Nevis, E., 2000, p.3).

In the same volume Joel Latner asserted that gestalt therapy is built around two central ideas: that the most helpful focus of psychology is the experiential present moment and that everyone is caught in webs of relationships; thus, it is only possible to know ourselves against the background of our relation to other things (Latner, 2000).

The historical development (see below) of gestalt therapy shows the influences that have resulted in these two foci.

Expanded, they result in the four chief theoretical constructs (see below under the theory and practice section) that comprise gestalt theory and guide the practice and application of gestalt therapy.

Gestalt therapy was forged from various influences in the times and lives of the founders: physics, Eastern religion, existential phenomenology, gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis, theatrical performance, systems and field theory (Mackewn, 1997).

Gestalt therapy rose from its beginnings in the middle of the 20th century to rapid and widespread popularity during the decade of the 1960s and early 1970s.

During the 70s and 80s gestalt therapy training centers spread globally, but they were, for the most part, not aligned with formal academic settings.

As the cognitive revolution eclipsed gestalt therapy in psychology, many came to believe gestalt was an anachronism.

In the hands of gestalt practitioners gestalt therapy became an applied discipline in the fields of psychotherapy, organizational development, social action, and eventually coaching.

Until the turn of the century gestalt therapists disdained the positivism underlying what they perceived to be the concern of research, and so, largely, ignored the need to utilize research to further develop gestalt therapy theory and support gestalt therapy practice.

That has begun to change.

Gestalt therapy focuses more on process (what is happening) than content (what is being discussed). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should be.

Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness, by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be separate from interpreting, explaining and judging using old attitudes.

This distinction between direct experience and indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy.

The client learns to become aware of what they are doing psychologically and how they can change it.

By becoming aware of and transforming their process they develop self acceptance and the ability to experience more in the \"now\" without so much interference from baggage of the past.

The objective of Gestalt Therapy, in addition to helping the client overcome symptoms, is to enable him or her to become more fully and creatively alive and to be free from the blocks and unfinished issues that may diminish optimum satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth.

Thus, it falls in the category of humanistic psychotherapies: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanistic_psychology

(This article does not cite any references or sources: August 2007).

An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling For Mental Health/Depression: Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_Theoretical_Psychotherapy

Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is a method of psychotherapy based strictly on Gestalt psychology.

It was developed by the German Gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist Hans-Jürgen P. Walter and his colleagues in Germany and Austria.

One of the most striking characteristics of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is the key role of the epistemological grounding position of Gestalt theory (critical realism) and its applicability to the fundamental, theoretical and practical problems in psychotherapy.

In Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy this is closely bound up with the basic methodological approach (holistic, phenomenological, experimental) of Gestalt theory, its system theoretical approach, and its specific psychophysical and psychological approach.

Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is related to but different from Fritz Perls' Gestalt therapy in its theoretical foundation.

An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling For Mental Health/Depression: (This article does not cite any references or sources: August 2007): Group Analysis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Analysis

Group Analysis is a method of group psychotherapy originated by S. H. Foulkes in the 1940s’.

Group work was perhaps born of the need to deal economically and efficiently with a large body of returning soldiers with shared problems, but it soon developed into a much broader form in which individuals were given the freedom to speak about their experiences - to tell their tale.

Group Analysis combines psychoanalytic insights with an understanding of social and interpersonal functioning.

There is an interest, in group analysis, on the relationship between the individual group member and the rest of the group resulting in a strengthening of both, and a better integration of the individual with his or her community, family and social network.

Deriving from psychoanalysis, Group Analysis also draws on a range of other psychotherapeutic traditions and approaches: systems theory psychotherapies, developmental psychology and social psychology.

From this emerges a powerful psychotherapeutic technique.

Group Analysis also has applications in organisational consultancy, and in teaching and training.

Group Analysts work in a wide range of contexts with a wide range of difficulties and problems.

Group Analysis (or group analytic psychotherapy) is an established form of group psychotherapy based on the view that deep lasting change can occur within a carefully formed group whose combined membership reflects the wider norms of society.

Group Analysis is a way of understanding group processes in small, median or, large groups.

It is concerned with the relationship between a person and the network of activity in the many groups of which he or she might belong.

Through these group processes we can explore what bearing the public and private aspects of a person’s life have on one another, and the dialectic between group and personal development.

Group members are supported, through shared experience and joint exploration within the group, in coming to a healthier understanding of their situation.

Problems are seen at the level of group, organisation or institutional system; not solely in the individual sufferer, as they do in prevailing medical models.

Problems within are recast as obstacles without.

The way in which the group functions is central to this.

Democracy and co-operation are the pillars through which group-mediated solutions to problems can flow in ways that are enduring.

It is based on the principles developed by S.H. Foulkes in the 1940's and is rooted in psychoanalysis and the social sciences.

Group Analysis is the dominant psychodynamic approach outside the United States and Canada.

It is an approach that views the group as an organic entity and insists that the therapist take a less intrusive role, so as to become the group's conductor (as in music) rather than its director.

The group is seen as not merely a dynamic entity of its own, but functions within a sociocultural context that influences its processes.

In group analytic technique, the therapist weans the members from excessive and inappropriate dependency towards becoming their own therapists — both to themselves and to the other group members.

The Group Analytic Society and the Institute of Group Analysis were organisations established by Foulkes and others to promote group Analysis and to train practitioners.

(This article does not cite any references or sources: August 2007).

An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling For Mental Health/Depression: Group Therapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_therapy

Group Therapy is a form of psychotherapy during which one or several therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group.

This may be more cost effective than individual therapy, and possibly even more productive.

Group therapy often consists of \"talk\" therapy, but may also include other therapeutic forms than such as expressive therapy and psychodrama.