Rhonniesha Simpson-Coney - Essay Example

Paradigm Paper

Rhonniesha Simpson-Coney

National University

Paradigm Paper

Introduction

Psychotherapy has various approaches with some remaining special to catch up with the changing components of cooperation and rivalry. One of the approaches includes psychodynamic therapy whose origin initiates from the work of Freud and is mainly concerned with attending to the patient empathetically from within to assist him to locate and comprehend what could be going on within his world internally based on his background, and general development (Bateman et al., 2010). The aim of this therapy is to enable the client to generate self-awareness and understand the past and the present behaviors. The client also gets to learn some of the unresolved conflicts and the symptoms that tend to arise from the dysfunctional relationships, which propels the desire and need for abusing a substance. Through psychoanalytic theory, several approaches to psychodynamic therapy have evolved. These approaches have been applied clinically to a various range of disorders, and a developing sect of researchers supports the approaches efficacy. My main interest in psychodynamic therapies in focused on the brief psychodynamic therapy.

Brief Psychodynamic Therapy

It is in brief psychodynamic therapy that the client is effectively enabled to evaluate the unresolved conflicts that tend to arise from past occurrences. When the therapies are brief, they have the highest probability of effectivity when integrated into a related treatment program for the substance abuse, for instance. Such programs always possess drug-focused interventions, which involve drug counselling and regular urinalysis. The brief psychodynamic therapies are helpful when applied after the establishment of abstinence. Perfectly suited clients are those without less than the moderate severity of the drug or substance abuse. Therefore, the psychodynamic therapies have its enhancement dependent on various development and interactions between the therapist and the client. The long-term psychodynamic therapies, on the other hand, have sessions which last up to two years or more as it gives an opportunity for an alteration of specific aspects of personality or integration of developmental learning that tend to elude the client when stuck in the emotional development’s earlier stages.

The practice of brief psychodynamic therapy has enabled me to uphold the fact that some alterations happen via a highly rapid process; inasmuch it may not be appropriate in some cases, for instance cases involving clients with substance abuse disorders. One fact that I can claim about this approach is that the therapy should focus on one issue instead of being more traditional by allowing the patient to socialize freely and discuss irrelevant issues (Prochaska & Norcross, 2013). In the brief psychodynamic therapy, development of the central focus occurs in the process of initial evaluation which takes place either in the first or second session. The focus heavily relies on the agreement between the client and therapist. Most important issues are singled out during the initiation session, then a structure of treatment is generated after the goal is identified. The therapist main role is to fairly maintain session focussed towards the main issue. The clear focus enhances the possibility of interpretation within a short period, as only the circumscribed problem section is addressed. Comparison of this therapy to existential therapies has been made below, based on personal experience. However, theories of existential therapies are briefly highlighted to avail facts of comparison later.

Existential Therapies

In this case, therapists are provided with foundational principles which act as guidelines and structured meanings to support their practice (Prochaska & Norcross, 2013). Corbett and Milton, (2011) avails a clear explanation of existential therapies, its diversity, and the foundational structures, and he later unites them. Schopenhauer (2010) also unveils the fact that existential philosophers’ principles are committed to answering questions that human have failed to obtain satisfactory answers. It is, therefore, the therapists' job to subscribe to the principles by first stating them. The theories applying to the principles of this practice may apply singly or in specified sets depending on the situations at hand. The first theory associated with this practice is that the invariant aspect of human existence is the attempt of defining some life experiences. Secondly, it upholds the fact that human intentional meanings are derived from interrelated acts and reactions to the environmental factors (stimuli). The third theory states that, since the meanings are drawn from the world around intentionally, the meanings focusing on various interrelations are always incomplete. The fourth theory relates to the point that, the acceptance or avoidance of the consequences of the incomplete meanings above, and the persistency of fixing the incompletion, always causes unease and insecurity to the affected person. The fifth theory supports the fourth, by emphasizing on the fact that the unease and insecurity generate due to the feared temporal constraints and limitedness of time, which to some extent are always unknown. Some of the practitioners of these therapies have focused on the techniques associated with the therapies to be given the first place during the practice, is when understanding comes. This forms the basis of my disinterest. Since very limited facts are associated with these therapies, as per my experience, the limited compatibility could have been enhanced when the techniques applied after the understanding. Below are details based on my preference for the psychodynamic therapies, with a focus on various theories:

Theory of Personality

Universally, with consideration to Freud's theory of personality, the human mind, which is the core determinant of personality, is in a continuous conflict between the unconscious and the conscious forces. The conflict also extends to what an individual desires and what the society chooses to be right. The evident personality is always a compromise of the dual issues of conflicts raised above (Prochaska & Norcross, 2013). Therefore, theories associated with psychodynamic therapy have incorporated this formation of personality, in that the eventual goal of all sessions leads the client towards a favourable compromise of the conflict. For instance, as the therapies enable the client to have sufficient self-awareness, and appropriate understanding of the present and past behaviour, the client can identify the unresolved conflicts from various symptoms then, voluntarily adjusts his or her desires and those of the society to hit a favourable level. This is quite different from the stimuli theory of existential therapy, which only try to mechanically fix the client in the environment without my understanding of him from the past lives, to make a favourable compromise. Existential therapy upholds the clients' acceptance of the world's situations and compromise of the client's behaviour. Personally, this may not be of assistance, as I may desire to maintain a bit of behaviour and compromise other portion appropriately as accepted in the society.

Theory of Psychopathology

In psychopathology, it is argued that personalities have a given level of immaturity caused by the inevitability of conflicts and the fixations that occur at pregenital stages. Emotion triggering situations provoke impulses that have been under control for long, and are revealed unconsciously. This, if not attended to, may result in a dysfunction hence a mental disorder generates; therefore, it is always communicated both intercultural and intersubjectively (Musalek et al., 2010). In such cases, psychodynamic therapists seeking to help the client understand the past and present self, enables them to know what goes on the client's unconsciousness. When the client is made aware of the unconscious state, the mental disorders may be prevented as the client may gain the motivation. Existential therapists do not encourage behavioural change for betterment, which personally does not suit my belief. Behavioural modification, to me, is what should follow as soon as a client is made aware of the unconscious aspect of the conflicts of the psychology.

Therapeutic Relationship, Process, and Content

The therapeutic relationship is the good relationship between the client and the therapist, whose enhancement leads to the achievement of the therapy's goal (Fomani et al., 2012). This initiates the identification of common factors between the client and the therapist, and upon them, an alliance is generated which leads to success. At such an occasion, the universal goal for every client is an expectation of change. Psychodynamic therapies uphold the therapeutic relationship with a perfect explanation of its effective use for the provision of comprehensive and explicit sessions that are assistive to the client. The therapist is also quite patient with clients whose disorders may be severe, just to ensure that the relationship is effective, much maintenance of patience psychological boundaries enhances the success of the relationship. This is quite contradictory to the existential theory whereby, the therapist has ready developed theories about the client and specific assumptions, though they claim not to prioritize them, their presence may arouse presumption when dealing with the client. With this in mind, generating the relationship, in this case, is at stake because some of the presumptions may not accurately apply to the client; hence the sessions may be controversial.

Conclusion

The first stage of the therapeutic involves raising of consciousness. This seeks to raise awareness level; hence the psychodynamic theory of self-awareness applies. The second process, catharsis, accepts the dynamics in the psychology which calls for emotional relief. At this point, the psychodynamic therapist gives the clients an opportunity to express what their psychology upholds as helpful, and is agreed upon by both of them. The third stage of the process gives the client an opportunity of choice, which is quite limited in existential therapy. Since existential theory tends to be relatively mechanical, the client's room of choice is limited. At the stage of conditioning stimuli, both the behaviour and the environment is compromised, this only occurs after the client is made aware of the past and the present ‘self' perfectly. The last stage, contingency control, enhances the fact that the level of the compromise explored in the behaviour is regulated by its consequences. The portion of the behaviour compromised is identified as the content. The processes summarized above are but a narration of the dynamics in the psychology; that is, the process that the client goes through mentally to be stable. The dynamics do not fit in the existential theories, which tend to clarify the client's' self' in various aspects of his relation to the world, with the aim of acceptance of the existing state mainly upheld.