Critical Thinking Essays - Psychotherapy, Clinical Psychology

Critical Thinking Essays - Psychotherapy, Clinical Psychology Critical Thinking Chapter 4 Critical Thinking 1. You undoubtedly had certain beliefs and ideas about therapy before reading this chapter. Has studying this chapter changed these beliefs and ideas? Explain. Yes, because before reading the chapter I thought therapy was just for people who were diagnosed with a psychological disorder or be deeply struggling in order to seek therapy. Now I know that people go to therapy to cope with disorders, relationships, stress, and grief, to figure out who they are and learn to live life to the fullest. I also that it was pointless because all therapists do is rehash common knowledge and that is unnecessary when you can just talk to good friends. I now know that therapy is different from relationships with friends or family because therapists are highly trained professionals who?ve spent years learning and practicing how to diagnose and treat cognitive, emotional, behavioral and relational issues.? Instead of arguing with the issue, as with friends, therapy is devoted only on you. 2. Which form of therapy do you personally find most appealing? Why? I think that I would prefer behavior therapy because it focuses directly on the problem rather than on all the causes and I wouldn?t have to focus so much on my feelings. I believe that I would gain a lot from talking through problems, and find it cool to try a different approach to my problems. I wouldn?t prefer insight therapy because I would want a more straightforward answer to my problem instead of more insight on why I might be having the problem. I wouldn?t want to use biomedical therapy because I believe it will only be needed if the problem is severe. 3. What do you consider the most important commonalities among the major forms of therapy described in this chapter? What are the most important differences? All major forms of therapy are designed to address disturbed thoughts, disturbed emotions, disturbed behaviors, interpersonal and life situation difficulties, and biomedical disturbances, Research indicates that overall, therapy does work. Cognitive: Works in more scientific and logical way, can solve a large range of issues but general grounds is based towards more about the client's brain state rather than their mind. Humanistic: Works for people with self-confidence issues or other internal conflicts regarding their conscious self. Psycho-dynamic: Works for those who constantly deal with problems and cannot seem to find a way resolve it, generally meaning something is going on below the surface. 4. Imagine that you were going to use the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy to change some aspect of your own thinking and behavior. (Maybe you'd like to quit smoking, or be more organized, or overcome your fear of riding in elevators.) How would you identify faulty thinking? What could you do to change your thinking patterns and behavior? I would identify faulty thinking as jumping to conclusions and making uninformed decisions, blaming yourself for things you have no control over, rejecting positive feedback or suggestions, and making excuses. You can change your thinking patterns by first recognizing that there is a need to change your thinking pattern, be aware of the situations in which you are using destructive thinking patterns, and choose positive thoughts to replace the destructive thoughts.