Category: Adult Treatments

1. Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) is based on principles of motivational psychology and is designed to produce rapid, internally motivated change.
2. The MET approach begins with the assumption that the responsibility and capability for change lie within the client.
3. The therapist’s task is to create a set of conditions that will enhance the client’s own motivation for and commitment to change. Rather than relying upon therapy sessions as the primary locus of change, the therapist seeks to mobilize the client’s inner resources as well as those inherent in the client’s natural helping relationships.
4. MET consists of four carefully planned and individualized treatment sessions. The first two sessions focus on structured feedback from the initial assessment, future plans, and motivation for change. The final two sessions at the midpoint and end of treatment provide opportunities for the therapist to reinforce progress, encourage reassessment, and provide an objective perspective on the process of change.
5. MET may be particularly useful in situations where contact with clients is limited to few or infrequent. Treatment outcome research strongly supports MET strategies as effective in producing change in substance abuse clients.

1. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is a type of cognitive behaviour therapy first used by Albert Ellis which focuses on resolving emotional and behavioural problems. The goal of the therapy is to change irrational beliefs to more rational ones.
2. REBT involves uncovering clients’ irrational or dysfunctional beliefs and actively and directively disputes them. It sees people’s self-defeating cognitions, emotions, and behaviours as intrinsically and holistically connected, not disparate. It holds that they disturb themselves with disordered thoughts, feelings, and actions, all of which importantly interact with each other and with the difficulties they encounter in their environment. Therefore, with emotionally and behaviourally disturbed people, REBT employs a number of thinking, feel, and action techniques that are designed to help them change their self-defeating and socially sabotaging conduct to self-helping and socially effective ways.
3. REBT theorizes that virtually all humans consciously and unconsciously train themselves to be to some degree emotionally disturbed. Therefore, with the help of an effective therapist and/or with self-help materials, they can teach themselves to lead more satisfying lives—if they choose to do so and work hard at modifying their thinking, feeling, and behaving.
4. REBT encourages a person to identify their general and irrational beliefs (e.g. I must be perfect”) and subsequently persuades the person challenge these false beliefs through reality testing.

1. All fields of human endeavour use measurement in some form, and each field has its ownset of measuring tools and measuring units. In psychology, we tend to measure behaviour by the use of various standardised tests.
2. Psychological assessment involves the gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making a formal psychological evaluation that is accomplished through the use of tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, behavioural observation, etc. This is necessary for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment.
3. Psychological testing is always performed by a licensed psychologist and consists largely of paper-and-pencil tests. It is done to help a psychologist better understand an individual and provide valuable insights into the individual’s behaviour, skills, thoughts and personality.
4. Psychological testing commonly includes intelligence testing, personality testing, and skills testing, among other areas.

Stress is a normal part of life. In small quantities, stress is good; it can motivate you and help you become more productive. However, too much stress, or a strong response to stress can be harmful. Stress can come from any situation or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or anxious. Everyone sees situations differently and has different coping skills. For this reason, no two people will respond exactly the same way to a given situation.

Managing stress is all about taking charge: taking charge of your thoughts, your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun – plus the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on. Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. It offers a range of strategies to help you better deal with stress and difficulty (adversity) in your life.

Once you know your potential stressors, you can either (a) change the situation – by avoiding or altering the situation or (b) change your reaction – by accepting or adapting to the stressors. Managing stress can help you lead a more balanced, healthier life. The approaches towards Stress Management includes:

• Keeping a positive attitude.
• Accepting that there are events that cannot be controlled.
• Being assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.
• Learning to manage your time more effectively.
• Set limits appropriately and say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life.
• Making time for hobbies and interests.
• Don’t rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviours to reduce stress. Drugs and alcohol can stress your body even more.
• Seeking out social support. Spending enough time with those you love.
• Seeking treatment with a psychologist or other mental health professional trained in stress management.

1. Relaxation training is a general term that refers to methods that are used to teach and learn specific techniques to help people moderate or control reactivity or arousal that is problematic to them.
2. It includes various arousal control methods, such as muscle relaxation training, biofeedback, meditation, imagery, and paced breathing.
3. Relaxation training often is used in behaviour therapy as a means to reduce anxiety, tension, and stress. Research has shown it to be effective in a variety of disorders and conditions, primarily those related to anxiety, fear, and stress.
4. Training patients to relax typically involves providing a rationale, demonstrating exercises, and practicing relaxation in treatment sessions. In addition, patients almost always are asked to practice (“homework”) between therapy sessions. Often, forms or log books are used for patients to record details about their practice.
5. It also can be used to help facilitate communication during a therapy session with a client who may be too tense or anxious to communicate effectively with the therapist. The goal of relaxation training is to make the person physically relaxed and mentally alert.
6. Relaxation training is different from lazing on once bed, sleeping and just not doing anything. It involves a series of steps which one must follow to achieve a state of lowered physiological arousal. Learning how to relax is beneficial in various situations, this simple technique can increase energy, motivation and productivity.

1. Supportive psychotherapy is a dyadic treatment that uses direct measures improve symptoms and maintain, restore, or improve self-esteem, ego function, and adaptive skills. This therapy is based on encouragement, optimism and support.
2. Through supportive therapy one might be able to resume one’s daily’s activities and use his ability to cope with them. The aim of this therapy is also to reduce and prevent anxiety along with increasing a person’s awareness of his illness or his problem.
3. The therapist attempts to help patients deal with their emotional distress and problems in living. It includes comforting, advising,encouraging, reassuring, and mostly listening, attentively and sympathetically.
4. The therapist provides an emotional outlet, the chance for patients to express themselves and be themselves. Also, the therapist may inform patients about their illness and about how to manage it and how to adjust to it.
5. Depending on the client’s specific needs, as well as the degree of severity or complexity of the issues at hand, supportive psychotherapy may be a short-term intervention or a longer-term, ongoing form of treatment.
6. It can be a very beneficial treatment for a wide range of psychiatric disorders throughout the life span like Developmental disorders, Psychotic disorders, Mood disorders, Anxiety disorders, Personality disorders, Adjustment disorders, etc.
7. Supportive psychotherapy can help these individuals by reducing their anxiety, providing a nurturing, positive relationship, improving and reinforcing their coping skills, boosting their self-esteem, providing reassurance when appropriate, confronting inappropriate behaviour when necessary, and giving them guidance and advice as needed.

1. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy constitutes a group of treatment procedures aimed at identifying and modifying faulty thought processes, attitudes and attributions, and problem behaviours.
2. CBT focuses on solutions, encouraging patients to challenge distorted cognitions and change destructive patterns of behaviour. The tools deployed in CBT—which include learning to identify and dispute unrealistic or unhelpful thoughts and developing problem-solving skills—have been used to treat a broad range of mental health challenges.
3. CBT is now considered among the most efficacious forms of therapy, especially when clients incorporate strategies into their daily life. This effort to gain insight into one’s cognitive and behavioural processes and modify them in a constructive way often involves ongoing practice but research has proven CBT to be an effective tool in the management of variety of mental health issues viz. depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, panic, schizophrenia and OCD to name a few.

1. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), is a popular form of therapy used in people with Borderline Personality Disorders. Dialectical behaviour therapy may be best described by the title words: dialectical and behaviour.
2. Dialectical refers to the fact that in an argument there is an assertion and a position that opposes the assertion. To resolve the argument, a synthesis that incorporates the assertion and the opposition will help to move past the argument and resolve it. For patients with borderline symptoms, this provides a way to reduce symptoms and find meaning in their lives by balancing acceptance and change.
3. Behaviour refers to the need to use behavioural methods to change self-destructive behaviours (such as careless driving or cutting one’s arms). Different therapeutic methods like Mindfulness values and meditation techniques are applied in individual and group therapy sessions.

Counselling professional assistance in coping with personal problems, including emotional, behavioural, vocational, marital, educational, rehabilitation, and life-stage (e.g., retirement) problems. The counsellor makes use of techniques of active listening, guidance, advice, discussion, clarification, and the administration of tests. During the counselling process, the counsellor and client engage in an interpersonal process as they attempt to define, address, and resolve specific problems of the client on a one-to-one basis. Counselling is a form of confidential helping which seeks to elicit each client’s innate internal resources, coping abilities and strengths. Counsellors may help clients with specific problems in the present, but they may also support clients with long-term problems stemming from the past too. Counselling takes place both in individual and group settings, One of the factors that make it special is the quality of helper listening, which involves attending to what the client means to say, as well as what he or she is actually saying.  Confidentiality is another important component of the counsellor– client relationship that sets it apart from several other helping activities. Another important aspect of counselling is the concept of client empowerment. In simple terms, this indicates a confidence in the innate potential for self-determination which clients are believed to have. This capacity for self-determination may not always be apparent to the client, and certainly in times of stress or emotional upheaval it may become blocked or temporarily obscured. Counselling can help by enabling clients to look more closely at their experiences and to clarify them. When this is achieved, ways of addressing difficulties can be devised by clients themselves, and strategies for change can be implemented. The non-judgmental and empathic presence of a trained helper facilitates the processes just described, and the fact that counsellors do not expect any reciprocal help from clients (the kind of help friends might expect from each other, for example) means that clients feel valued and respected in a way they may not have experienced before. Nor do counsellors impose conditions or expectations on the clients they help, and even when goals and objectives are an integral part of the counselling contract, these are freely negotiated between client and counsellor.

Couple counselling, also known as couples therapy or marriage counselling, is a form of therapy designed to help couples resolve conflicts, improve communication, and strengthen their relationship. It is a specialized type of therapy that focuses on the unique dynamics and challenges faced by couples.

The primary goal of couple counselling is to facilitate healthy and effective communication between partners. It provides a safe and neutral space where couples can openly express their thoughts, feelings, and concerns. The therapist acts as a mediator and facilitates constructive dialogue, helping couples understand each other’s perspectives and work towards mutual understanding and resolution.

Goals

Improved communication: One of the main goals of couple counselling is to enhance communication between partners.

Conflict resolution: Couples often seek counselling to address ongoing conflicts and disagreements. The goal is to learn healthy conflict resolution strategies that promote mutual understanding, compromise, and effective problem-solving.

Rebuilding trust and intimacy: Couple counselling aims to rebuild and strengthen these essential elements of the relationship. The therapist helps couples work through trust issues, heal emotional wounds, and create a safe space for vulnerability and intimacy to be nurtured.

Enhancing relationship satisfaction: This goal is to create a more fulfilling and satisfying partnership. This may involve exploring shared values, goals, and aspirations, and finding ways to create a deeper connection and sense of meaning in the relationship.

Developing effective coping strategies: Couple counselling can assist in developing effective coping strategies to manage these stressors. Couples can learn to support each other during difficult times, reduce negative coping mechanisms, and build resilience together.

Strengthening commitment and long-term success: It involves exploring the couple’s vision for the future, setting goals, and developing skills to navigate challenges that may arise in the future. The goal is to foster a lasting, fulfilling partnership.

It’s important to note that the goals of couple counselling are highly individualized and may vary based on the unique needs and circumstances of each couple. The therapist collaboratively works with the couple to identify specific goals and tailor the counselling process accordingly.