Methods of Psychotherapy

There are many methods of psychotherapy, the common ones are: psychoanalytic therapy, behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, family therapy and Morita therapy.

1. Psychoanalytic treatment: Through special treatment settings, doctors use psychoanalytic techniques, such as therapeutic alliance, free association, empathy, counter-empathy, dream interpretation, and so on, based on psychoanalytic theories, to understand and adjust the patient's subconscious psychological conflicts and immature defense styles, so as to achieve the therapeutic goals of relieving symptoms and perfecting personality. It is suitable for patients with neurotic disorders, such as anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatization disorder, and personality disorders.

2. Behavioral therapy: based on behavioral learning theory, it helps patients eliminate or establish certain behaviors according to certain procedures, so as to achieve the therapeutic goal. Different techniques of behavioral therapy have corresponding suitable patients, such as aversion therapy for exhibitionism, fetishism and alcohol dependence, etc. have a certain effect; systematic desensitization therapy is effective for a variety of phobias; exposure and response prevention therapy is effective for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

3. Cognitive therapy: According to the theoretical assumption that cognitive process affects emotion and behavior, through cognitive intervention techniques, a class of psychotherapeutic methods starts from changing patients' irrational ideas and concepts to change the cognitive structure and gradually achieve the purpose of alleviating symptoms. It is mainly applied to depression disorder, anxiety disorder, personality disorder, schizophrenia, psychosexual disorder and so on. The current application is more cognitive-behavioral therapy, that is, focusing on the interaction between cognitive factors and behavior, increasing the intervention of the intrinsic psychological process, which has a better effect.

4. Family therapy: planning and carrying out treatment with the whole family as the object, focusing on the relationship between family members rather than paying too much attention to the inner psychological structure and psychological state of the individual. It is applicable to various psychological disorders in children and adolescents, and conflicts between couples and marriages.

5. Morita therapy: It is a psychotherapeutic method specialized in neurological disorders.