Psychotherapy Approaches Research Articles

What Is Catholic Psychotherapy and How Should It Move Forward?

Catholic psychotherapy is a critically important specialization that underscores the need for culturally competent best practices. It integrates state-of-the-art psychotherapeutic professional services with the rich religious, spiritual, and cultural contributions and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the Church is the single largest religious denomination in the world and represents about a quarter of the United States population, there is ample need for Catholic-informed and engaged psychotherapists with expertise in working thoughtfully and sensitively with Catholic clients, including laypersons and clerics, and with Church institutions such as schools, hospitals, and charitable groups. While the Catholic Psychotherapy Association has been an important organization to promote Catholic psychotherapy, a new journal dedicated to this topic provides a mechanism to share quality peer-reviewed science, practice, and reflection on how to move the field forward in a way that serves the most people possible. This article reflects on two central questions: What is Catholic psychotherapy, and who are good candidates to provide and receive these specialized services? It also offers examples of cases that fit well into the Catholic psychotherapy approach, and it discusses future directions as well as potential ethical challenges.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНІ ОСНОВИ КОРЕКЦІЙНОЇ ПРОГРАМИ САМОПРИЙНЯТТЯ ЛЮДЕЙ З НАДМІРНОЮ ВАГОЮ

The article describes the program correcting the self-perception of people with overweight. Modern society and mass media offer a slim body as an ideal to strive for. The social networks increase this pressure on those people who do not meet this ideal. If a person fails to achieve an ideal slim image he/she suffers of a lowered self-attitude, feelings of guilt and shame for one's own body, his/her relationships with loved ones become worse and his/her self-acceptance decreases. In turn, a person tries to overcome these bad emotions with the help of excess nutrition. We offer a program that is primarily aimed at strengthening a person's self-acceptance, developing his/her abilities in the emotional sphere and teaching self-help. The correctional program is based on the principles of the humanistic approach to people's nature, the Positive Psychotherapy approach proposed by N. Peseschkian (since 1977) and used in counselling and psychotherapy and the psychodynamic approach. Approbation of the program showed its high efficiency.

Comparing the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy and the integration of metacognitive therapy with an evolutionary psychotherapy approach in reducing depression symptoms

Background and Objective: Depression has been identified as the third leading cause of non-fatal global health loss in 2017, affecting more than 300 million people worldwide. The present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy and combining metacognitive therapy with an evolutionary psychotherapy approach in reducing depression symptoms. Methods: The data collection method is semi-experimental with pre-test-post-test and control group with two-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research includes women with depression. In the first stage, 45 women with depression were selected as the statistical sample of the study based on the available sampling method, and in the next stage, they were divided into three groups through a simple random sampling method. Metacognitive therapy (15 people), combining metacognitive therapy with evolutionary psychotherapy (15 people) and the control group (15 people) were included, and Beck's depression questionnaires (1961) were completed in three stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Results: The results of the research showed that there was a significant difference between the depression scores in the two groups of metacognitive therapy and the combination of metacognition and developmental therapy, which was in favor of the group of metacognition and developmental therapy (p<0.05). The results also showed that there was a significant difference in depression scores between metacognitive therapy and the control group, which was in favor of the metacognitive therapy group (p<0.01). There was a significant difference in depression between the metacognitive integration and evolutionary therapy group and the control group (p<0.01). Finally, the results showed that metacognition therapy was effective in depression scores (p<0.01) and the combination of metacognition with evolutionary therapy was effective in depression scores (p<0.01). Conclusion: It can be concluded that metacognition therapy and the combination of metacognition with evolutionary therapy were effective in reducing the symptoms of depression. Also, the combination of metacognition and evolutionary therapy was more effective in reducing depression symptoms than metacognitive therapy.

DUYGU DÜZENLEME GÜÇLÜKLERİNİN AZALTILMASINDA SANAT TERAPİSİNİN ETKİSİNİN İNCELENMESİ: TERAPİ Mİ EĞİTİM Mİ?

It can be said that the main goal of psychotherapy approaches is to change dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors. The therapeutic effectiveness of psychotherapy methods that lead to change, in other words, the establishment of a causal relationship between the change in the target behavior, symptom or disorder and the intervention is examined through effectiveness studies. Emotion regulation processes play an important role in the development of many psychopathologies. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of the art therapy program on reducing the emotion regulation difficulties of individuals and to compare it with the effect of the same practices on reducing the emotion regulation difficulties of individuals participating in art therapy training, which is carried out in an experiential way. In the study, art therapy program was applied to the first experimental group and art therapy training was applied to the second experimental group. Psychology undergraduate and psychology graduate students participated in the study. Individuals who scored high on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and volunteered were assigned to the first experimental group (11) and the second experimental group (11) by random sampling method. The program was applied to both experimental groups once a week for a total of ten sessions, each session lasting 180 minutes. The same program developed by the program coordinator was applied to both groups. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to compare the groups within each other. As a result, it was found that the emotion regulation difficulties of the individuals who participated in the art therapy program decreased, and the difference between the mean pre-test and post-test scores of the individuals who participated in the art therapy training program was not significant at the .05 level. From this point of view, treatment motivation is an important issue for art therapy as in other treatment methods. It can be stated that being ready for change and taking steps towards recovery is an important factor in emotion regulation.

Mentalizing the patient-Patient experiences with short-term mentalization-based therapy for borderline personality disorder: A qualitative study.

Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) is an evidence-supported psychotherapy approach for borderline personality disorder (BPD) that has been implemented in mental health services worldwide. Originally, MBT was developed as an 18-months program for BPD. However, a short-term (5 months) MBT program has been developed. Research into patient experiences with long-term MBT for BPD is scarce, and no studies have investigated patient experience with short-term MBT for BPD. The objective of this study was to explore patient experience with short-term MBT for BPD in the Danish mental health services. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 outpatients diagnosed with BPD, who attended short-term MBT for 5 months. The interviews were verbatim transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis with double coding. The analysis resulted in four subordinate themes: (1) Treatment duration - too short or appropriately short?, (2) The group as a "safe space," (3) Bad experiences impacted treatment negatively, and (4) My life has changed for the better. The results suggest that most of the patients were overall satisfied with short-term MBT, which they experienced as having a positive impact on their lives. However, a subgroup of patients wanted more therapy. This study highlighted the strengths and limitations of short-term MBT for BPD as experienced by the patients, and points to barriers in developing service-user informed short-term treatment options for BPD.

Quel accompagnement pour les adolescents et jeunes adultes suivis à la protection judiciaire de la jeunesse ?

ObjectivesThis article questions the support provided to youth who have committed a criminal offense by educational social workers in France's juvenile judiciary protection system, in the context of upcoming implementation of the new code of justice for minors. MethodsA literature review of the official texts and the main academic works on juvenile delinquency was conducted on official website and on two databases, Medline and Google Scholar. ResultsFrance's juvenile justice system was conceived on the basis of the excuse of offenders’ minority and on their educability. Following the ruling of February 1945, professional from the juvenile judiciary protection system supported youth through social rehabilitation programs, with education prevailing over punishment. But the “tough on crime” turning point in the Nineties encouraged a reinforcement of judiciary treatments. Youth in juvenile judiciary protection are mainly males, in the second half of adolescence, who express their suffering through acts, sometimes violent. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders and drug abuse in this population is higher than for their age cohort, and many have experienced abuse and/or have grown up with parents suffering from psychiatric disorders. Several developmental models explain behavioral disorders by combining predisposition and vulnerability factors. The intervention of educational social workers supplements judiciary condemnations, through in-depth investigations of the young person's history and of the environment in which they grew up. Social workers foster social reinsertion while providing regular reports to the judge on the youth offender's progress. In some cases, youth are removed from their home environment. Other social interventions can include supporting a return to school or, more frequently, professional training. A wider multidisciplinary team supports the work of education social workers (psychologists, teachers, supervisors, etc.). Overall, encounters with these social workers can be an opportunity for repair when youths feel an authentic involvement. Psychiatrists can feel unequipped to treat these youths, whose symptoms can express psychic suffering as well as socioeconomic precariousness or cultural exclusion. Yet, beyond the treatment of psychiatric disorders, several psychotherapy approaches to behavioral disorders have proven to be effective, when compared to external control techniques. Moreover, a systemic approach encouraging reintegration in community, involving the youths and their families, appears to prevent the repetition of behavioral disorders; whereas both incarceration as well as “scared straight” approaches appear ineffective. A growing body of literature depicts the process of “desistance,” or disengagement from delinquency, moving from a static and dichotomic approach to a dynamic understanding of the transformations of identity at play. Whereas desistance follows a long, complex, and non-linear path – and one that is singular to each youth –, some factors appear essential (such as age, steady employment, and durable emotional commitment), while the role of religion appears less protective than was previously thought. Mental disorders and drug abuse delay the process of desistance. The main defenders of the new code of justice for minors in France cite its continuity with the core humanistic principles of the ruling of February 1945. However, the judiciary, socio-educational, and mental health workers are already overwhelmed by their missions. With no additional resources budgeted, the acceleration of justice creates the risk of increasing punishment instead of providing the further in-depth interventions required to respond appropriately to these higher demands. Yet, for these youths exposed to multiple vulnerability factors during their childhood, behavioral disorders can be a cry for help, demonstrating both early deprivations and sign of hope. If punishment remains the main response, this encourages double sentencing and the repetition of criminal offenses. DiscussionThe new code of justice for minors in France supports a shortened and reliable delay between the offense and its judgment, which seems better aligned with adolescent temporality as well as beneficial in term of mental reassurance and mentalization. Nonetheless, the feasibility of this project may be undermined in light of the increasing demands placed on educational social workers, the vulnerability factors facing these youths, and the current modalities of justice. ConclusionWithout strong and reliable resources, the innovations laid out in the next French code of justice for minors create a risk of an increasingly punitive approach to juvenile sentencing, unaligned with the multimodal and inclusive approaches recommended by international literature to reduce behavioral disorders.

Individual Psychology in 2023

Individual Psychology in 2023 Jon Sperry and Len Sperry We are most pleased to share this open issue with you. This issue consists of five noteworthy articles that offer clinical and theoretical applications of Individual Psychology. These editors' notes were written during an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. As the war rages on, many of our Adlerian colleagues have embodied the spirit of social interest by housing Ukrainian refugees, offering counseling services to Ukrainians in need of mental health services, and donating funds for various essential items. We are hopeful that the Adlerian community will continue to find ways to support and contribute to those experiencing unnecessary suffering and who are geographically displaced by this war. This issue begins with an article titled "Freud's Disavowal of Adler and Adler's Subsequent Influence on Psychoanalytic Thought," by Richard Watts, Noah Thorne, and Marina Bluvshtein. This article is particularly meaningful, as its original version was written by Richard Watts while he was a doctoral student. He informed us that this will be his last publication because of his current health status. As editors, we are beyond grateful to Richard for his various articles, conference presentations, and other contributions to this theory. The next article, by Shantell A. Johnson, Natalie Noble, Lily Slavin, and Timothy Hartshorne, offers a wonderful contribution to the CHARGE and Individual Psychology literature in "Fathers and CHARGE Syndrome: Impact on the Life Tasks." The authors present their study that examined how 93 fathers of children with CHARGE syndrome experience the life tasks. They examined the challenges and resiliency of the fathers faced with parenting a child with this rare genetic condition. Len Sperry's article, "Adlerian Case Conceptualization and Therapy: The Pattern-Focused Approach," compares his pattern-focused case conceptualization and psychotherapy approach to the more common way in which Adlerian therapy is conceptualized and practiced. Described are the [End Page 423] clinical value, indications and counterindications, and the evidence base of this new approach. Then case material illustrates similarities and differences between the approaches. Calvin Armerding presents a timely article, "Contemptuous Political Partisanship: An Adlerian Conceptualization and Call to Action." The increasing ideological polarization in the United States and around the globe makes political compromise or cooperation seem almost impossible. Armerding conceptualizes this sociopolitical trend with an Adlerian framework and also proposes that Adlerians must model healthy political engagement by engaging in Gemeinschaftsgefühl in political discourse with one another and their respective communities. The final article, by Philip Davis, an internal medicine physician, reviews an article written by Rudolf Dreikurs in 1934 that highlighted the mind–body connection for a patient with gastrointestinal symptoms and psychological symptoms. Davis's article, "Rudolf Dreikurs Speaking Truth Across the Ages," identifies the present-day relevance of Dreikurs's original article in his daily practice, particularly with patients experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms. [End Page 424] Copyright © 2022 University of Texas Press

Open dialogue trainees' perspectives on learning processes and psychotherapeutic practice: A prospective focus group study.

Open Dialogue is a collaborative approach to mental health care emphasizing integrated services and a dialogical psychotherapy approach. Open Dialogue training programs eschew traditional didactic teaching of technical therapeutic skills in favor of more experiential learning processes. It is unclear how these training programs affect trainees and shape their perspectives on Open Dialogue. Our aim was to follow up a group of Australian Open Dialogue trainees and explore their perspectives on learning processes and psychotherapeutic practice. We utilized a prospective focus group design with data from audio-recorded focus groups convened before (n=2) and after (n=3) participants completing an advanced Open Dialogue training program. Data were subjected to reflective thematic analysis. We identified the theme "Extending possibilities by holding ideas lightly," which represented a universal principle that participants applied to multiple aspects of their practice, for example, favoring multiple perspectives and approaches to therapy, including those other than Open Dialogue. This theme had two sub-themes: (1) "Allowing intimacy by being aware of personal biographies" and (2) "Learning by joining others," which reflected an increased willingness by participants to reflect on and share their inner experiences and an emphasis on joint experiential exercises in the training program. "Extending possibilities by holding ideas lightly" facilitated a means of incorporating a dialogical perspective into existing practices thus avoiding the potential barriers to a wholesale implementation of Open Dialogue. Findings indicated that the participants were not learning how to practice a therapeutic technique or propositional knowledge, but were socialized into a dialogical way of being.

Phenomenology of Non-Ordinary Logics in Brief Strategic Therapy.

Brief Strategic Therapy (BST) is a psychosocial treatment for mental disorders based on a unique theory of psychological dysfunction that differs from major psychotherapy approaches in that psychological dysfunction follows non-ordinary logics rather than classic logical principles. BST contends that there are three different kinds of non-ordinary logics that underpin psychological dysfunction: the logic of contradiction, the logic of paradox, and the logic of belief. BST therapeutic strategies are based on these non-ordinary logics processes. Unfortunately, descriptions and case examples of these non-ordinary logics are scattered among a myriad of books so that it is difficult for the clinician to get acquainted with them. Additionally, BST literature has described these non-ordinary logics with a somewhat obscure and metaphorical language that might be difficult for the clinician to grasp. Herein, we condensate descriptions and case examples of the three non-ordinary logics, clarify the phenomenological processes of each of the classes of non-ordinary logics, and highlight research findings from different theoretical orientations that are coherent and consistent with our phenomenological accounts of non-ordinary logics. Based on our clinical observations, non-ordinary logics can be distinguished by three variables: (a) the immediate effect of the dysfunctional attempted solution (DAS), (b) the long-term effect of the DAS, and (c) the most salient mental phenomenon associated with the DAS that maintains a psychological problem. This advancement could foster clinicians' ability to identify non-ordinary logics and their ability to devise appropriate strategies to solve psychological problems.

Positive Psychology and Spirituality: A Review Study

Unlike traditional psychotherapy approaches focused on disease and disorder, positive psychology has opened a new window to the science of psychology by emphasizing the importance of embracing all aspects of individuals. Positive psychology approach not only underlines that the positive, strong aspects of individuals and the good aspects of life deserve at least as much attention as negative facts, but also states that the negative effects of existing problems can be eliminated by identifying and supporting the positive and strong aspects of the individual. Furthermore, positive psychology highlights the necessity of examining these aspects with scientific methods. Spirituality and religious belief occupy a central position in the lives of many individuals and affect the lives of individuals in various ways. Ignoring the spiritual/religious aspect of individuals in the psychotherapy process will lead to an incomplete evaluation. This is contrary to the basic point of view of positive psychology. Positive psychology is open to adressing spirituality in the psychotherapy process. In addition, spirituality is a notion that is examined as part of character strength and virtues in the positive psychology perspective. In this study, which aims to examine the place of spirituality in positive psychology, the relationship between positive psychology and spirituality is examined within the framework of the relevant literature, the basic concepts of positive psychology are discussed within the framework of spirituality. Additionally, the characteristics of the positive psychotherapy process are examined, the studies in which spiritual/religious practices are included in the positive psychotherapy process and these studies effects were given. It is hoped that this study will complete the missing points in the literature and offer a new perspective to practitioners and researchers.

Increasing Stress Resilience in Difficult Times: Integrating Proven Practices from Biofeedback and Psychotherapy

People across the country are experiencing significant levels of stress across most areas of life, including economic (jobs and inflation), health (epidemics), social and relationship issues, and international conflicts and political strife. People want to cope better but the amount of information available on stress management is staggering, confusing, and sometimes contradictory. Drawing from empirically supported intervention research that integrates biofeedback and psychotherapy approaches, three simple practices can help clients build stress resilience: balancing life demands with equanimity, becoming more aware but less worried, and actively engaging in flexible coping strategies. These three practices are straightforward to learn and easy to do as part of daily life. Although these approaches are typically administered individually in psychotherapeutic settings, there is significant potential in using a community approach to intervention. Most importantly, these techniques are proven, cheap, and have no side effects and can be easily administered using online website instruction and smartphone assessment technology.

Jungian psychotherapy, spirituality, and synchronicity: Theory, applications, and evidence base.

The aim of this article is to give an introduction to the theoretical model of Jungian psychotherapy (JP) and the role of spirituality in it, with a special focus on the concept of synchronicity (meaningful coincidences), by which the application of a spiritual viewpoint in JP will be exemplified. The paper gives an overview of the empirical studies of the effectiveness of JP and then focuses on the results of an empirical study on the occurrence of synchronistic events in psychotherapy and how they are integrated in the therapeutic process. JP can be called the prototype of a spiritually integrated psychotherapy, since Jung was the first in the development of psychotherapy who put a strong emphasis on a spiritual perspective and who succeeded to integrate spirituality into his psychotherapy approach with a coherent theoretical model in the background. Moreover, Jung's psychology became a major reference point for many other spiritual psychotherapy approaches which developed in the twentieth century. Regarding the studies on the effectiveness of JP it can be said that there is some empirical support pointing to the effectiveness of JP, but there is a strong need for further research, especially with randomized controlled trial designs. The paper presents the results of a study investigating how psychotherapists integrate synchronistic experiences and make use of these to support the therapeutic process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Chronic Pain in Older Adults: A Neuroscience-Based Psychological Assessment and Treatment Approach

Chronic pain remains a serious healthcare challenge, particularly for older adults who suffer substantial disability and are susceptible to serious risks from pain medications and invasive procedures. Psychotherapy is a promising option for older adults with chronic pain, since it does not contribute to medical or surgical risks. However, standard psychotherapies for chronic pain, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based interventions, produce only modest and time-limited benefits for older adults. In this article, we describe a novel, evidence-based psychological assessment and treatment approach for older adults with chronic pain, including a detailed case example. The approach begins with reviewing patients’ pain, psychosocial, and medical histories to elicit evidence of a subtype of chronic pain called centralized (primary, nociplastic, or psychophysiologic) pain, which is highly influenced and may even be caused by life stress, emotions, and alterations in brain function. Patients then undertake a novel psychotherapy approach called emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET) that aims to reduce or eliminate centralized pain by resolving trauma and emotional conflicts and learning healthy communication of adaptive emotions. Our published preliminary clinical trial (n = 53) indicated that EAET produced statistically significant and large effect size advantages over CBT in pain reduction and marginally greater improvements in pain interference than CBT for older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Geriatric mental healthcare providers may learn this assessment and treatment approach to benefit many of their patients with chronic pain.

Experiential-role approach in psychotherapy

The article presents the author's approach to the practice of psychological help, which we call experiential-role psychotherapy. It comes into being as a synthesis of methods of psychodrama, transactional analysis, the theory of systemic family psychology and psychotherapy, and a problem approach to the practice of psychological help based on author’s practical achievements and theoretical models. The essence of the method is the organization of emotional experience and practical experience in a state of role impersonation. The method makes it possible to work with a wide variety of problem topics, situations, relationships. Among them, three directions can be distinguished that determine the specificity of psychotherapeutic interventions. The first direction covers interventions in a state of non-hypnotic age-related regression, using transactional models of redecision and reparenting. Such work allows solving many psychotherapeutic tasks: changing ineffective and destructive scripted beliefs, improving self-relationship, harmonizing relationships with others. The second direction includes interventions focused on experience of physical sensations; their goal is a redecision at the level of the bodily script. This work is aimed at problems related to bodility, including psychosomatic reactions, dysfunctions of individual organs and systems of the body, and even with psychosomatic diseases in the early stages of development. The third direction is interventions within the framework of the family system; here there is a redecision in the state of historical regression at the level of the family-generic script. The work uses the model of the family-ancestral unconscious and is aimed at solving a number of systemic problems related to problematic or traumatic family information, excluded figures, family secrets, etc. Special attention is paid to working with the consequences of collective traumas experienced by a person's relatives and ancestors. In addition to traditional role figures, the work uses specific “age-related”, “bodily” and “historical” roles, that opens up the possibility of successful psychotherapy in working with many problems.

Psychotherapy Within Occupational Therapy Literature: A Scoping Review

Background. Recent changes in the Canadian regulatory landscape have prompted reflections on the role and scope of occupational therapy in the provision of psychotherapy. Purpose. To document how psychotherapy has been explored in occupational therapy literature. Method. We conducted a scoping review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines by searching eight databases (e.g., Medline, AMED, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Sociological Abstracts, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses). Articles included at the full-text stage were subjected to a narrative synthesis. Findings. A total of 207 articles met the criteria for inclusion, spanning 93 years. 47.3% of these articles represented non-empirical literature, with only 14% representing effectiveness studies, suggesting that this body of literature remains in an early stage of development. Implications. Occupational therapists have been writing about and practicing psychotherapy for nearly a century, yet there remains an important opportunity to develop and evaluate occupation-based psychotherapy approaches. Effectiveness studies are needed.

Investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of a modular treatment program for children and adolescents with depression and interpersonal problems: study protocol of a quasi-experimental pilot feasibility trial (CBASP@YoungAge)

BackgroundDepression is a serious disorder in childhood and adolescence. Affected children and adolescents show significant impairments in various aspects of life. Studies on the effectiveness or efficacy of psychotherapy in depressed children and adolescents are qualitatively very heterogeneous and reveal small effect sizes. There is thus a need to better tailor psychotherapy approaches to these age groups to improve outcomes like parent-child relationship, symptomatology, or quality of life.To address this gap, we designed a modular, individualized treatment program for children and adolescents based on the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) including caregiver involvement.MethodThis quasi-experimental pilot feasibility trial is a phase 1 to phase 2 study investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of CBASP@YoungAge by including an intervention group (CBASP@YoungAge) and a treatment-as-usual control group. The treatment of depressive symptoms as well as interpersonal problems with primary caregivers are the main targets of CBASP@YoungAge. Personalization is ensured concerning the treatment course, caregivers’ involvement, and the patient’s age. The primary outcome relates to two areas: the feasibility of the CBASP@YoungAge treatment program in an outpatient context and a change in patients' depressive symptomatology from before to after treatment. We conduct a brief process evaluation after each session in the intervention group to closely monitor the treatment process and examine feasibility from the therapists' and patients' perspectives and mechanisms of symptom change. In addition, we consider interpersonal behavior between children and caregivers, parenting behavior, and monitor the global-health-index in children and parents as secondary outcomes. Pre-, post-, and follow-up data are evaluated.DiscussionThis is the first study of a modular-based intervention program for children and adolescents with depression and a clear focus on the interpersonal problems between the depressed young patient and her/his caregiver. It will provide important knowledge on the feasibility and effectiveness of the program and potential benefits of including caregivers in psychotherapy. Based on this study’s results, we plan a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial whose long-term aim is to improve the psychotherapeutic care of young patients with depression while preventing persistent courses of depressive disorders.Trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register, DRKS (identifier DRKS00023281). Registered 17 November 2020–Retrospectively registered

Modular-based psychotherapy (MoBa) versus cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) for patients with depression, comorbidities and a history of childhood maltreatment: study protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility trial

IntroductionIn depression treatment, most patients do not reach response or remission with current psychotherapeutic approaches. Major reasons for individual non-response are interindividual heterogeneity of etiological mechanisms and pathological forms, and...

Ethics in Psychotherapy: Informed Consent, Digital Professionalism, and Sexual Misconduct.

Ethics in Psychotherapy: Informed Consent, Digital Professionalism, and Sexual Misconduct.

Psychotherapy in Dealing with Crises in the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the article, a theoretical analysis of the study of crisis states and the methodological foundations of crisis psychotherapy, taking into account foreign and domestic experience, is carried out. Based on the results of empirical studies, modern foreign and domestic researchers have established that crisis conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic are accompanied by suicidal reactions, depression, neurotic conditions with post-traumatic stress disorders, exacerbation of psychosomatic diseases, psychopathological disorders.Psychological approaches in psychotherapy together with crisis psycho-psychotherapeutic interventions for working with acute crisis states and crisis psychotherapy of clients in the post-quarantine period are considered.The concepts of a crisis state, the features of the influence of "covid" psychotrauma on the mental and psychological health of a person, and the provision of psychological assistance in crisis situations during the COVID-19 pandemic are described in detail. It is noted that in working with crisis conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, modern foreign and Ukrainian specialists prefer cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.At the theoretical and methodological level, it has been proved that psychotherapy of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is close to crisis psychotherapy and is aimed at reintegration of mental activity disturbed by the "conductive" psychotrauma and restoration of psychological adaptation to a certain extent.The psychotherapeutic model of psychological crisis intervention in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is based on a biopsychosocial approach and requires a comprehensive and integrated use of crisis psychotherapy methods with the integration of neuropsychotic methods and Internet technologies into the entire therapy process.

The Therapeutic Relationship in EMDR Therapy.

The history of EMDR Therapy goes back to 1987, when it was introduced as EMD, a novel treatment for PTSD by Francine Shapiro. Over the course of time EMD developed into the comprehensive therapy approach named EMDR Therapy. The development of the “Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) Model”, the model of pathogenesis and change of EMDR Therapy, was a milestone in this development from technique to psychotherapy approach. Up to date EMDR Therapy offers not only a model of pathogenesis and change, but also a variety of treatment plans and techniques to treat patients of various diagnosis far beyond PTSD. What seems to be missing is a specific description of the therapeutic relationship in EMDR Therapy. The therapeutic relationship should be described as a core element of EMDR Therapy, and seems be related to the structure of EMDR Therapy. As attachment theory offers a view on the development of interpersonal relationships in general, an attachment theory based perspective of the therapeutic relationship seems advisable. A description of the therapeutic relationship in EMDR Therapy is necessary at this point of the development of EMDR Therapy to a psychotherapeutic approach and therefore we try to describe the therapeutic relationship in this article and point out parallels between the therapeutic relationship and the development and core features of an attachment based relationship. We propose to describe EMDR Therapy as a sensitive psychotherapy. Implications for treatment, training and research will be discussed.