An List Of: Talking Therapies/Counselling

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

Attachment therapy is the popular (lay) name collectively applied to a loosely identified category of mental health interventions, including parenting techniques or methods, which purport to treat a child for an attachment disorder, problem, disruption or difficulty, or for the behavioral sequelae to such an attachment disorder, problem, disruption or difficulty.

While there are attachment-related interventions based on generally accepted theory and using generally supported techniques, attachment therapy has primarily come to public notice because of the subset of controversial interventions, popularly called attachment therapy, which have been implicated in several child deaths and other harmful effects.

\"Although focused primarily on specific attachment therapy techniques, the controversy also extends to the theories, diagnoses, diagnostic practices, beliefs, and social group norms supporting these techniques, and to the patient recruitment and advertising practices used by their proponents.\" (Chaffin et al, 2006, p77[1])

To date, nearly all public discussion of attachment therapy is about this controversy under a number of names, including \"rebirthing,\" \"compression therapy,\" \"holding therapy,\" \"the Evergreen model,\" \"holding time,\" and \"rage-reduction\".[1]

Basic principles: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_Therapy#Basic_principles

Main article: attachment theory: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory

Main article: attachment disorder: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_disorder

Attachment theory is an evolutionary theory which in relation to infants, primarily consists of proximity seeking to an attachment figure in the face of threat, for the purpose of survival. This means that infants, in a situation of perceived or actual danger, immediately seek to be close to a particular person, (called the 'caregiver'), usually but not necessarily the mother, for their own safety and survival.

Although an attachment is a \"tie\" it is not synonymous with love and affection (Bowlby 1969, p181), but the forming of an attachment as an infant is very important for a childs subsequent development and forms part of the basis for all subsequent relationships.

Disturbances of attachment may have significant behavioral consequences, not the least being in relation to a childs capacity to form or maintain relationships.

A serious disturbance of attachment indicates the absence of either or both elements of seeking closeness to an attachment figure, and/or there being a particular attachment figure.

This can occur either in institutions, the most well known examples being orphanages, or with repeated changes of caregiver, or from extremely neglectful primary caregivers who show persistent disregard for the child's basic attachment needs, in other words, appropriate responses from the caregiver.

There are a variety of attachment 'styles', some of which are more problematic than others. The main styles are 'secure', 'insecure (ambivalent), 'insecure (avoidant)' and 'disorganized/disoriented'.

The only official classification of attachment disorder appears in DSM-IV and ICD-10 as Reactive attachment disorder.

Attachment therapy, which purports to treat disorders of attachment, was developed in the 1960's, mainly in the USA.

It is not considered to be part of 'mainstream' psychology on issues of attachment, either as to definition of attachment disorders, diagnosis or treatment.

It is primarily aimed at fostered or adopted children who's difficulties and behavioral problems are ascribed to a failure to 'attach' to their new caregivers.

There have been criticisms of attachment therapy over time but it really came to the attention of professional bodies and the wider public following a series of prosecutions for deaths or serious maltreatment of children from the 1990's onwards, allegedly at the hands of \"attachment therapists\" or parents following their instructions.

Two of the most well known cases are those of Candace Newmaker in 2001 and the Gravelles in 2003-5.

Probably the most common form of attachment therapy is 'holding' therapy, whereby a child is firmly held (or laid upon) by therapists and/or parents, who then seek to produce in the child a range of responses such as rage and despair which is considered 'cathartic' by the therapists.

Control over the children is usually considered essential and the therapy is often accompanied by parenting techniques which emphasise obedience.

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) set up a Task Force to report on the subject of diagnosis and treatment of reactive attachment disorder, attachment disorder and attachment therapy.

The Task Force's Report, also known as Chaffin et al, was published in 2006.

It concluded by laying down guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of attachment disorders. (Chaffin et al, 2006, p83[1])

The Taskforce describe the controversy as follows:

\"The attachment therapy controversy has centered most broadly on the use of what has been known as \"holding therapy\" (Welch, 1989[2]) and coercive, restraining, or aversive procedures such as deep tissue massage, aversive tickling, punishments related to food and water intake, enforced eye contact, requiring children to submit totally to adult control over all their needs, barring children's access to normal social relationships outside the primary parent or caretaker, encouraging children to regress to infant status, reparenting, attachment parenting, or techniques designed to provoke cathartic emotional discharge.

Variants of these treatments have carried various labels that appear to change frequently. They may be known as 'rebirthing therapy,' 'compression therapy,' 'corrective attachment therapy,' 'the Evergreen model,' 'holding time,' or 'rage-reduction therapy' (Levy & Orlans (1998), Lien (2004), Welch (1989), Cline (1992)[3][4][2][5]).

Popularly, on the Internet, among foster or adoptive parents, and to case workers, they are simply known as attachment therapy, although these controversial therapies certainly do not represent the practices of all professionals using attachment concepts as a basis for their interventions.\" (Chaffin et al, 2006, p83[1])

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

Autogenic training is a relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Schultz and first published in 1932.

The technique involves the daily practice of sessions that last around 15 minutes, usually in the morning, at lunch time, and in the evening. During each session, the practitioner will repeat a set of visualisations that induce a state of relaxation.

Each session can be practiced in a position chosen amongst a set of recommended postures (e.g. lying down, sitting meditation, sitting like a rag doll, etc.).

The technique can be used to alleviate many stress-induced psychosomatic disorders.

Schultz emphasized parallels to techniques in yoga and meditation.

It is a method for influencing one's autonomic nervous system.

Abbe Faria and Emile Coue are the forerunners of Schultz.

There are many parallels to progressive relaxation.

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

Behavior modification is a technique of altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the extinction of maladaptive behavior through positive and negative conditioning.

Description: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_modification#Description

While founded in behaviorism, behavior modification has long been used by psychotherapists, parents, and caretakers of those with special needs who don't necessarily have a behaviorist \"philosophy.

\" It involves some of the most basic methods to alter human behavior, through operant reward and punishment.

Classical conditioning, which aims to affect changes in behavior through associations between stimuli and responses, can also be a component of behavior modification, but it is generally less useful in applied settings because it focuses solely on basic involuntary reactions to stimuli and not on conscious learning associated with a behavior's function or context.

Strictly following behavioral principles, there is no analysis of the individual's thoughts, but many argue that the therapy can be improved with cognitive components.

In recent years, the concept of punishment has had many critics, though these critiques tend to not apply to negative punishment (time-outs) and usually apply to the addition of some aversive event.

The use of positive punishment in certified behavior analysts is restricted to extreme circumstances when all other forms of treatment have failed and when the behavior to be modified is a danger to the person or to others.

In clinical settings positive punishment is usually restricted using a spray bottle filled with water as an aversive event.

When mis-used, extreme punishment can lead to affective (emotional) disorders, as well as to the target of the punishment eventually focusing only on avoiding punishment (i.e., \"not getting caught\") rather than improving behavior.

Techniques: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_modification#Techniques

Therapy cannot be effective unless the behaviors to be changed are understood within a specific context. Therefore, a functional assessment is needed before performing behavior modification.

One of the most simple yet effective methods of functional assessment is called the \"ABC\" approach, where observations are made on Antecedents, Behaviors, and Consequences.

In other words, \"What comes directly before the behavior?\", \"What does the behavior look like?\", and \"What comes directly after the behavior?\" Once enough observations are made, the data are analyzed and patterns are identified.

If there are consistent antecedents and/or consequences, then an intervention should target them in order to increase or decrease the target behavior.

Many techniques in this therapy are specific techniques aimed at specific issues.

The only way of giving positive reinforcement in behavior modification is in providing compliments, approval, encouragement, and affirmation; a ratio of five compliments for every one complaint is generally seen as being the most effective in altering behavior in a desired manner.[1][2]

Criticism: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_modification#Criticism

Behavior modification is critiqued in person-centered psychotherapeutic approaches such as Rogerian Counseling and Re-evaluation Counseling[1].

The argument is that these methods involve connecting with the human qualities of the person to promote healing and that behaviorism is denigrating to the human spirit.[citation needed]

Further criticism extends to the presumption that behavior increases only when it is reinforced.

This premise is at odds with research conducted by Albert Bandura at Stanford University.

His findings indicated that violent behavior is imitated, without being reinforced, in studies conducted with children watching films showing various individuals 'beating the daylights out of Bobo'.

Bandura believed that human personality and learning is the result of the interaction between environment, behavior and psychological process.

www.unca.edu/~nruppert/EDPsych/Week2/The...Albert%20Bandara.doc

While Behaviorism continues to grow as a science by including environmental factors, for example, it could be criticized for being reductionist.

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

Behavior Therapy is a form of psychotherapy used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other forms of psychopathology.

Its philosophical roots can be found in the school of behaviorism, which states that psychological matters can be studied scientifically by observing overt behavior, without discussing internal mental states.

History: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_therapy#History

Possibly the first occurrence of \"behavior therapy\" was in a 1953 research project by B.F. Skinner, Ogden Lindsley, and Harry C. Solomon.[1]

Other early pioneers in behavior therapy include Joseph Wolpe and Hans Eysenck.[2]

In the second half of the 20th century, behavior therapy was coupled with the cognitive therapy of Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, to form cognitive behavioral therapy.

Scientific basis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_therapy#History

Behavior therapy is based upon the principles of classical conditioning developed by Ivan Pavlov and operant conditioning developed by B.F. Skinner.

There has been up to now a good deal of confusion about how exactly these two conditionings differ and whether the various techniques of Behaviour Therapy have any common scientific base.

One answer has come in the form of an online paper called Reinforcing Behaviour Therapy which more and more psychologists are now studying and appreciating.

Methods: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_therapy#Methods

Systematic desensitization: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_desensitization

Exposure and response prevention: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_and_response_prevention

See Also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_therapy#See_also

Cognitive Therapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioural_therapy

Behavior Modification: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_modification

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

Gerda Boyesen (born May 18, 1922 in Bergen, Norway, dead December 29, 2005 in London) is the founder of Biodynamic Psychology, a branch of Body Psychotherapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Psychotherapy

Life: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Boyesen#Life

Gerda Boyesen was born in 1922 in Bergen. Her first marriage was with Carl Boyesen.

In 1947 she read a book by Wilhelm Reich which made a strong impression on her.

Shortly thereafter she began therapy with Ola Raknes, a vegetotherapist who had been trained by Reich. Later she studied psychology in Oslo and received training as physiotherapist which led to work with Aadel Bülow-Hansen.

Through her own therapy Boyesen got to know the connection between repressed emotions and muscle tensions.

In her book Über den Körper die Seele heilen she established and partly described in a very personal manner how she developed her own therapeutic method linking the beginnings of Wilhelm Reich, Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud, through her own studies, her own therapeutic experience as well as her own practice.

Gerda Boyesen is the founder of \"Biodynamics Psychology and Psychotherapy\".

In 1968 she left for London and opened a practice and later an international teaching and training institute.

In addition to client-oriented work other focus areas were included, most notably she was the first woman in Europe to establish her own psychotherapeutic training institute.

Gerda Boyesen lived and worked in different, mostly European, countries, however, her work influenced body psychotherapy worldwide.

Her books were translated into other languages.

She trained psychotherapists over several decades and throughout her life she continued to develop her ideas and methods.

She was the mother of three children (Mona Lisa, Ebba and Paul) who all got involved with Biodynamics and psychotherapy and partly carried on the work of their mother or continued in their own directions.

Work: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Boyesen#Work

Gerda Boyesen developed, among other things, the theory that the dismantling of psychological stress is also connected with the digestive system.

She came to the conclusion that certain massage techniques could bring to completion the expression of unwanted feelings, or \"incomplete cycles,\" and this would entail similar noises from the intestines as during digestion of food.

She called these noises psychoperistalsis.

This process of \"digesting\" psychological problems is often accompanied by new insights.

For this reason Gerda Boyesen was often called \"the lady with the stethoscope\" in body psychotherapeutic circles as she used the stethoscope to get a clearer impression of the bowel noises of her clients.

She could allegedly differentiate a multiplicity of peristaltic noises, diagnostically arrange and make inferences on the subconscious processes of the clients.

To Gerda Boyesen it was a good sign when the client's \"psychoperistalsis\" was in a particular way at the end of a session.

That meant it was resolving somewhat and would be able to organize anew without the old restricitve pattern.

Apart from the emphasis on gentle unloading through massage she also worked with Wilhelm Reich's vegetotherapy as well as the theories of Jung and Freud, and she continued to develop these into her own method.

In this manner the client is to be encouraged to discover his or her own mental experience (introspective ability), to follow and to express his or her bodily-psychological impulses.

Unconscious conflicts would in this way be brought to the surface and to conscious attention and could then be further processed with psychotherapy and finally resolved.

A further element is the Deep Draining, a special kind of massage aimed at affecting \"deeper layers,\" which is supposed to contribute to attitude changes, physically as well as psychologically. Neurotic patterns would thus be traced, loosened and finally resolved.

Beside Jay Stattmann (Unitive body psychotherapy), Alexander Lowen (Bioenergetics), David Boadella (Biosynthesis), and Ron Kurz (Hakomi), Gerda Boyesen is one of the founders of modern body psychotherapy.

Gerda Boyesen was honorary member of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy (EABP) as well as honorary president of the German Gesellschaft für Biodynamische Psychologie (Society for Biodynamics psychology), the professional association for biodynamics therapists in Germany.

The education of Biodynamics body psychotherapists through the European School for Biodynamics and Erogenetics (ESBPE) in Lübeck is recognized by the EABP as a psychotherapist education.

Criticism: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Boyesen#Criticism

Like most body psychotherapeutic schools, Biodynamics isn't recognized by the health insurance companies in the United States as a scientifically based therapeutic intervention.

Nevertheless the scientific psychotherapeutic research continues and many of its theories are later confirmed.

In Switzerland, Biodynamics is covered by heath care insurance and is on the verge of being accepted as one of the first methods in alternative medicine.

In several other counties Biodynamics isn't recognized by evidence-based medicine as a scientific method.

Thus the German compulsory health insurance scheme (AOK) states: \"The idea of \"emotional residue\" which is delivered via the bowels is scientifically baseless.

Also there are no scientific studies to attest to the efficacy of the therapy. (...) It is surely so that anxiety and stress have effects on the vegetative nervous system of the intestines and would express itself as changes in digestive activity.

However, the idea that intestinal noises is an expression of the psychological situtaion of the patient cannot be established.\"

However, this does not alter the fact, that Biodynamics is well received by clients.

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

Bioenergetic Analysis is an important part of body psychotherapy (body-oriented psychotherapy) based on the expression of feelings and the re-establishment of energy flow in the body.

Developed out of Wilhelm Reich's character analytic technique of vegetotherapy by Alexander Lowen and others, it is practised under the auspices of the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis.

Bioenergetic Analysis recognises several clearly circumscribed human character structures, each able to be \"read\" in the form and posture of the individual's body: schizoid, oral, masochistic, psychopathic, rigid and narcissistic.

Bioenergetic treatment involves the adoption of one of a number of \"stress positions\" designed to promote confronting the individual with his or her structure, and the repressed emotions holding it together.

The most common position is standing upright, knees slightly bent, weight on the centre to outside of the feet, belly relaxed (the \"grounded\" position); then fists pushed into the middle of the back (to open the chest region}; and head up and chin pushed slightly forward (assertion of the right to be/feel).

Bioenergetic Analysis is practised as an individual and as a group psychotherapy.

In therapy groups, the most common application of bioenergetics is in exercises such as beating a pile of mattresses with a tennis racquet or the fists, or lying on the back on a mattress kicking and yelling.

This method is thought within co-counselling movements like Re-evaluation Counselling to be based on promoting bodily emotional discharge.

The basic tenet is that when a person breathes deeply, he or she can begin to feel deeply, and that with deep feeling comes a resurgence of repressed feelings and lost memories, which need to be understood both on the feeling and reflective levels through catharsis, verbal processing and physically grounding the individual in emotional reality.

Bioenergetic Analysis Societies exist in all states of America, and throughout the world.

The International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis publishes The Journal of the IIBA, focusing on issues related to Bioenergetics, and Bioenergetics Press now has republished most of Dr. Lowen's previously out of print works as well as his new autobiography Honoring the Body: The Autobiography of Alexander Lowen, M.D..

See Also:

Body Psychotherapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Psychotherapy

Vegetotherapy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetotherapy