week 6 7 9
Running Head: WK. 9 ASSIGNMENT-PSYCHOTHERAPY 1
WK. 9 ASSIGNMENT-PSYCHOTHERAPY 5
Wk. 9 Assignment-Psychotherapy
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Wk. 9 Assignment-Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy involves a standard treatment based on the relationship between a psychotherapist and the individual seeking treatment. Psychotherapy provides a supportive environment where the psychotherapist allows the individual to share openly through a dialogue. Therefore, a psychotherapist should ensure that they are neutral, objective, and non-judgmental. Psychologists apply psychotherapeutic procedures that are scientifically validated to help their clients develop healthier and more productive habits (Dobson, D., & Dobson, K., 2018). For the case of Levy, he had developed anxiety and traumatic disorders associated with past events while he was on a military mission in Iraq. After ten months of leaving Iraq, he turned into drinking to avoid the memories of watching his colleague die after an explosion. Levy was drinking too much to the point that his wife was not comfortable with his new drinking behavior. His wife could not understand him, but after he mentioned Iraq, she decided to join a program that offers group counseling for similar problems. Therefore, the psychotherapist decided to use cognitive behavior therapy to help Levy heal from his post-traumatic stress disorder.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that uses a practical approach in solving a wide range of psychological problems. CBT is used to treat issues like sleeping difficulties, relationship problems, anxiety, depression, and alcohol or drug abuse (Dobson, D., & Dobson, K., 2018). CBT is based on several principles, which include learned patterns of unhelpful behavior and learning better ways of coping with a psychological problem. The group facilitator used the Exposure Therapy (ET), a type of cognitive behavior therapy, to treat post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed with the patients (Hofmann & Otto, 2017). Therefore, the facilitator exposes Levy and other people in the group to the feared situations in a careful and danger-free procedure. The facilitator chose this approach because it helps the person reduce anxiety and the fear associated with specific events. For instance, he directs Levy to practice breathing calmly to manage his stress, which eventually works out well. If I were a group counselor, I would use the same approach because it is scientifically proven to help patients overcome anxiety-related disorders. Furthermore, exposure therapy helps the affected person approach situations, events, or objects in a safe environment free from distraction or danger.
Group therapy is very supportive to individual members during times of trouble or pain, such as alcohol and drug addiction. Apart from CBT, other psychotherapeutic approaches can be applied to help persons suffering from addiction-related disorders. One of the alternative methods to addition is Cognitive Management (CM) and motivational incentives (Petry et al., 2017). The contingency and motivational incentive approach reinforces positive behavior through motivation or tangible rewards. The method is rooted based on operant conditioning through rewards for the desired action. Operant conditioning states that behaviors that are rewarded more are more likely to be repeated, and those that are punished are more likely to be avoided. Sometimes disciplinary measures are taken through the withholding of rewards or privileges when the affected individual does not portray desired behavior. According to a study by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, the program demonstrated effectiveness in the treatment of addiction to patients who go through methadone programs (Becker et al., 2019).
The CM works under the assumption that substance use and abuse are heavily associated with social, biological, and environmental factors. Therefore, the individual joining group therapy program must stay or move away from environments that expose him to substance use (Becker et al., 2019). There should be a relationship between the behavior and the consequences for the rewards and punishment to be effective in behavior collection. Some of the awards include, Voucher-Based Reinforcement (VCB) and price intensives. The specific relationship that occurs between a behavior and the consequence is referred to as a contingency. According to Petry et al. (2017), some states in the US have used contingency management to reduce recidivism for people with alcohol-related criminal offenses. For instance, the 24/7 Sobriety program which is used in South Dakota to help DUI offenders rather than sending them to jail. Furthermore, the CM can be used alongside other types of interventions such as medications and psychosocial treatment. The disadvantage of using this approach is that it can only apply to stop behaviors in specific contexts (Becker et al., 2019). Moreover, punishment does not generalize effectively with other behavior settings such as yelling and shouting at the person for showing undesired behavior.
References
Dobson, D., & Dobson, K. S. (2018). Evidence-based practice of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Guilford Publications.
Hofmann, S. G., & Otto, M. W. (2017). Cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder: Evidence-based and disorder specific treatment techniques. Routledge.
Petry, N. M., Alessi, S. M., Olmstead, T. A., Rash, C. J., & Zajac, K. (2017). Contingency management treatment for substance use disorders: How far has it come, and where does it need to go? Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 31(8), 897.
Becker, S. J., Scott, K., Murphy, C. M., Pielech, M., Moul, S. A., Yap, K. R., & Garner, B. R. (2019). User-centered design of contingency management for implementation in opioid treatment programs: a qualitative study. BMC health services research, 19(1), 466.