Psychotherapeutic Education Research Articles

Understanding the Difference Between Autism and the Autistic Spectrum: A Focus on the South African Context

Autism is a group of severe developmental disorders with impairments beginning before 30 months of age and characterized by a qualitative disturbance of social development and of language for communication, a stereotyped behaviour, and a lack of a broad set of interests. The expression of autism varies from one individual to the next. It is a communicative disorder and is not due to poor reception. The researchers drew their literature from reputable journal articles, book chapters from established publishers, and informal community conversations amid the researchers’ experiential intuition. Currently, South African children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) lack government support structures and rely primarily on families for assistance with education and therapy. An additional challenge is that in some South African black communities, autism is not recognized as a disorder. A study exploring differences in the nature, application, experience, and examination of social awareness and understanding of selected educators about new terminology in their environment found that local black teachers had less exposure to autism knowledge, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis in their communities, and little understanding, awareness, or acceptance of this condition. This article underscores the crucial role of social service professionals, such as psychologists, registered counsellors, social workers, etc, in these communities. Their presence and active involvement provide hope in these challenging times. It recommends that they conduct psychotherapeutic education, which could involve awareness campaigns and counselling about psychotherapeutic education. Their role would be to provide support, guidance, and education to the community members, helping them to build their resilience to fight the coronavirus.

Current Outpatient Psychotherapeutic Care for People with Migration and Refugee Experience in Germany - An Overview

Although mental health is a human right, even in a country with a well-developed healthcare system like Germany, it is not possible to ensure non-discriminatory access to mental health care for all people, regardless of their origin. For individuals with a history of flight or migration it is particularly difficult to gain access to adequate psychotherapeutic care. This review addresses key barriers contributing to the lack of outpatient care for people with a history of flight or migration. Lack of knowledge about the treatment system, fear of stigma, structural barriers, language barriers, lack of networking of healthcare providers, lack of knowledge of mental health practitioners, as well as stereotypes, discrimination, and racism towards people with a refugee or migration history were identified as the most important barriers with sufficient evidence. Innovative concepts such as peer support can enable non-discriminatory treatment access. In addition, there is an urgent need to train the profession of psychotherapists in racism- and discrimination-sensitive work and to integrate these aspects into psychotherapeutic education and training.

Urinary retention induced by psychotropics: A case report

IntroductionNeurological bladder is considered a functional disability that has a significant impact on the quality of life and psychological state of patients. Psychotropic drugs, in turn, can worsen the urinary dysfunction caused by this disease.ObjectivesOur objective is to illustrate, through the case of a patient suffering from a neurological bladder decompensated by the treatment of a characterized depressive episode, the link between these two pathologies.MethodsWe report the case of Ms. M.W., aged 51, with a history of high blood pressure stabilized under nebivolol and a neurological bladder diagnosed 10 years ago with episodic pollakiuria, admitted to the psychiatric department for repeated suicide attempts. She had never used psychoactive substances and had no family psychiatric history. The patient presented depressive symptoms evolving for 5 months. The diagnosis of a characterized depressive episode with melancholic features was made and the patient was treated with sertraline. From the first intake of the drug, the patient presented acute urinary retention (UR) requiring the placement of a permanent bladder catheter. The urinary symptoms improved upon stopping the treatment. Sertraline was changed to olanzapine and escitalopram. The patient stopped the treatment after one month because of the worsening of urinary symptoms requiring the installation of a suprapubic catheter. The urinary problem, together with the cessation of treatment, were responsible for a worsening of psychiatric symptoms leading to multiple suicide attempts. Given the advanced stage of the neurological bladder demonstrated by the urodynamic tests, our patient was treated with paroxetine, quetiapine and oxazepam along with psychotherapeutic education. The evolution was characterized by improvement in psychiatric symptoms and the urinary symptoms were stable.ResultsThe lack of improvement after treatment discontinuation could be explained by an underlying neurological bladder manifesting with pollakiuria. The current literature on UR induced by psychotropic treatments is quite rare limited in case reports. This effect occurs especially when selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are prescribed in combination with other antipsychotics. Unlike first generation antipsychotics, atypical antipsychotics have muscarinic receptor antagonist properties which can induce UR. Among atypical antipsychotics, olanzapine has been shown to have the greatest antimuscarinic effects. Regarding SSRIs, they are associated with a lower risk of UR than other antidepressants and sertraline had the highest risk of UR.ConclusionsSSRIs can induce UR particularly in combination with atypical antipsychotics. Coordination of care across multiple specialties and understanding the side effects of psychotropic medications can enable faster diagnoses and adequate management.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Научное наследие Ф.Е. Василюка: теория, практика, образование

<p>The paper presents the review of scientific meetings dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the birth of Doctor of Psychology, Professor Fyodor Efimovich Vasilyuk (October 6, 2023, Moscow). The purpose of the event: discussion of F.E. Vasilyuk's contribution to science, practice and education in the field of psychotherapy and psychological counseling, the development of counseling psychology and educational practices in this area. The speakers' discussions also focused on the prospects for the development of his legacy. Particular attention was paid to the innovative approach to psychotherapeutic education, implemented at the Faculty of Counseling and Clinical Psychology of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, created by F.E. Vasilyuk. It was decided to hold annual scientific meetings in memory of F.E. Vasilyuk.</p>

Brief App-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Symptoms in Psychiatric Inpatients: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.

Psychiatric inpatients often have limited access to psychotherapeutic education or skills for managing anxiety, a common transdiagnostic concern in severe and acute mental illness. COVID-19-related restrictions further limited access to therapy groups on inpatient psychiatric units. App-based interventions may improve access, but evidence supporting the feasibility of their use, acceptability, and effectiveness in psychiatric inpatient settings is limited. MindShift CBT is a free app based on cognitive behavioral therapy principles with evidence for alleviating anxiety symptoms in the outpatient setting. We aimed to recruit 24 participants from an acute general psychiatric inpatient ward to a 1-month randomized control study assessing the feasibility and acceptability of providing patients with severe and acute mental illness access to the MindShift CBT app for help with managing anxiety symptoms. Recruitment, data collection, analysis, and interpretation were completed collaboratively by clinician and peer researchers. Inpatients were randomized to two conditions: treatment as usual (TAU) versus TAU plus use of the MindShift CBT app over 6 days. We collected demographic and quantitative data on acceptability and usability of the intervention. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress were measured in pre- and poststudy surveys for preliminary signals of efficacy. We conducted individual semistructured interviews with participants in the MindShift CBT app group at the end of their trial period, which were interpreted using a standardized protocol for thematic analysis. Over 4 weeks, 33 inpatients were referred to the study, 24 consented to participate, 20 were randomized, and 11 completed the study. Of the 9 randomized participants who did not complete the study, 7 were withdrawn because they were discharged or transferred prior to study completion, with a similar distribution among both conditions. Among the enrolled patients, 65% (13/20) were admitted for a psychotic disorder and no patient was admitted primarily for an anxiety disorder. The average length of stay was 20 days (SD 4.4; range 3-21) and 35% (7/20) of patients were involuntarily admitted to hospital. Small sample sizes limited accurate interpretation of the efficacy data. Themes emerging from qualitative interviews included acceptability and usability of the app, and patient agency associated with voluntary participation in research while admitted to hospital. Our study benefitted from collaboration between peer and clinician researchers. Due to rapid patient turnover in the acute inpatient setting, additional flexibility in recruitment and enrollment is needed to determine the efficacy of using app-based psychotherapy on an acute psychiatric ward. Despite the limited sample size, our study suggests that similar interventions may be feasible and acceptable for acutely unwell inpatients. Further study is needed to compare the efficacy of psychotherapeutic apps with existing standards of care in this setting. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04841603; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04841603.

PSYCHOANALYTIC MANNER AND ITS RELATION TO THE LITERATURE

This research continues the methodological discussion between psychoanalytically-oriented therapists and their colleagues, who understand the point, the process and the influence of psychotherapy through a CBT-oriented lens. The central point of research is the question of connections between psychoanalysis and literature, or even, of psychoanalysis itself as a kind of literature. The key features of a psychoanalysts mode of thinking is to be found in the plane of aesthetics. It is proposed, that, unlike a CB-therapist, who mainly goes by the rational principles of cognition, a psychoanalyst is prone to experience the reality of psychotherapy in terms of literary aesthetics, and their attempts to verbalize their understanding of the patient is based on a literary perspective. There exists certain similarity between a writers work, as he tries to embody an imaginary character onto a page, and an analysts work, as he tries to incorporate his analytic intuition into a psychodynamic hypothesis and create a psychological portrait of the patient. Thus, the article is focused on the empirical exploration of therapeutic texts, made by therapists based on viewing an unstructured first-session interview, executed by therapists with different levels of psychotherapeutic education, experience and predisposition to psychoanalytic thinking. (For measuring said predisposition an adaptation of the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale(CPPS) has been carried out, its inner coherence and diagnostic validity have been established. The results of simultaneous independent criterion-based analysis of the produced texts by literary experts and psychoanalytic supervisors have shown, that the literary aesthetic is an a priory feature of the descriptions of psychoanalysts, and the more so, the higher the analysts therapeutic quality. This does not so much concern the artistic value of the descriptions, but the artistic taste: the ability to distinguish kitsch and artistic form, and the ability to integrate them into new gestalts on basis of sensual harmony. Thus, the evidence supports the claim, that artistic taste is a fundamental feature of a psychoanalysts therapeutic cognition. It is particularly the aesthetic ability of the analyst, which allows for the specific non-goal-oriented approach to his therapeutic influence, which gives room to the development of the true Self according to Winnicott, and further separates the therapeutic process from the goal-oriented therapeutic learning. Thus it is concluded, that the analytic process from the position of aesthetics may fall under the risk of devolving into forms of kitsch practices.

PSYCHOTHERAPY: DISCUSSION ISSUES OF TRAINING AND ACTIVITIES OF PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROFESSIONALS

The article deals with highlighting of the results of psychological problem analysis demanded by the current state of the development of psychotherapy – medical and psychological science and practice of treatment by word; establishing the relationship between psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy, which has been recently formed in the world practice on providing psychological care; identifying the ideas of scientists and practitioners working in the field of psychotherapy, the strategies and tactics of training future psychotherapists in universities. The article presents debatable, sometimes diametrically opposed, views of domestic and foreign scientists (physicians, practicing psychotherapists and supervisors) on the definition of their own, different from each other, subjects in psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy - sciences related to a common object of study – the human psyche, as well as which of the specialists who provide psychological assistance has the right to work as a psychotherapist. Considerable attention in the content of this article is paid to the explanation of what points of view exist in the representatives of science, public organizations, medicine and psychology on the delimitation of psychotherapeutic functions and powers of psychotherapists at present; showing how the competencies of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, medical psychotherapists and psychologists-psychotherapists differ, and what are the specific differences between them. The traditions and author’s understanding of training the future psychotherapists in medical and psychological institutions of higher education and retraining of specialists in the field of psychotherapy, as well as the role and importance of psycholinguistic knowledge, discursive skills, abilities and competencies in psychotherapeutic education are described. The results of monitoring the content of training the psychotherapists in medical and psychological institutions of higher education in the specialties: “clinical psychology”, “psychotherapy” are shown, the imperfection characteristic for the current psychotherapeutic education are described, and it is emphasized on existing of the problem of significant terminological disorder not only among the names of specialities acording to which the psychotherapists are trained, but also in the educational and professional qualifications received by future specialists. It is proved that regardless of the medical or psychological sphere in psychotherapy, it cannot exist and develop in a promising direction without applied psycholinguistics, which equips it with scientifically substatiated rational means, in particular speech-language psychotechnics, metamodels of psychological (discursive) influence, samples of psychotherapeutic discourses providing lapidary effective intervention in the subconscious and conscious layers of the psyche of clients / patients.

Sensitizing Family Caregivers to Influence Treatment Compliance among Elderly Neglected Patients-A 2-Year Longitudinal Study Outcome in Completely Edentulous Patients.

Healthcare workers have reported a certain segment of geriatric patients that are suffering from abuse/neglect, which in turn has been associated with anxiety, depression, and helplessness in the individual. Family caregivers (blood relations), being the most common perpetrators of elder abuse and neglect (EAN), have also been shown to respond to sensitization if the type of EAN and the interventions are appropriate. This study was aimed to comparatively analyze the influence of intervention (psychotherapeutic sensitization of FCG) upon long-term (24 months) treatment maintenance and satisfaction in elderly neglected patients. One hundred and fifty patients (aged 41–80 years) suffering from elder neglect (EN) (self-confession) and their respective FCGs, fulfilling the study criteria, participated in this longitudinal 2-year study. The patients were randomly distributed (simple random, convenient) in two equal groups (75 each), namely Group (GP) A (control) and GP B (test). A standardized, complete denture treatment was initiated for all the participants. Both the FCGs and the patients of GP B were sensitized (psychotherapeutic education) for EN, while there was no such intervention in GP A. The influence of such intervention was measured for denture maintenance [denture plaque index (DPI) scores] and treatment satisfaction (10-point visual analog scale). Absolute/relative frequencies and means were major calculations during data analysis. Differences between the groups for any treatment compliance parameter was done through the unpaired t-test, while Karl Pearson’s test determined the level of relationship between variables (p-value < 0.05). Decrease in mean DPI scores (suggesting improvement) was seen among patients in GP A from 1 month (m = 2.92) to 24 months (m = 2.77). A negligible increase in DPI scores was observed among patients of GP B from 1 month (m = 1.38) to 24 months (m = 1.44). Differences in mean values between the two groups were statistically significant at 24-month intervals, while the relationship between the variables was nonsignificant. FCG sensitization through psychotherapeutic education shows a long-term positive influence on the treatment compliance (maintenance and satisfaction). Identifying the existence of EAN among geriatric patients, followed by psychotherapeutic education of FCGs is recommended for routine medical and dental long-duration treatment procedures.

Vjerovanja terapeuta o terapiji izlaganjem

Numerous studies have confirmed the efficacy of exposure therapy, which is why this approach is considered the primary option in the treatment of most anxiety disorders. Despite this fact, in practice this approach is not used enough. Apart from the reluctance of clients to expose themselves to discomfort, therapists’ negative attitudes to exposure therapy also contribute to this. The aim of this study is to examine therapists’ attitudes toward exposure therapy and differences in beliefs according to type and level of psychotherapeutic education as well as experience with using this type of therapy. 226 therapists of various psychotherapeutic orientations and education levels participated in the study. The participants filled in a short online questionnaire which contained the Therapist Beliefs about Exposure Scale. The results show that behavioural-cognitive therapists and those who apply exposure therapy in their work have a more positive attitude toward its use in comparison with therapists of other psychotherapeutic orientations and those who do not use exposure therapy in their work. Among behavioural-cognitive therapists, accredited therapists, supervisors, and supervisees have a more positive attitude than therapists with lower levels of education. It may be concluded that knowledge and positive beliefs about exposure therapy encourage the application of this technique, while positive experiences of its application support and strengthen positive beliefs about it. It is suggested that within the training in behavioural cognitive therapy more effort should be invested into recognizing and altering potential dysfunctional beliefs about exposure therapy.

Risk of alcohol use relapse after liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease.

AIMTo investigate factors, including psychosocial factors, associated with alcoholic use relapse after liver transplantation (LT) for alcoholic liver disease (ALD).METHODSThe clinical records of 102 patients with ALD who were referred to Nagoya University Hospital for LT between May 2003 and March 2015 were retrospectively evaluated. History of alcohol intake was obtained from their clinical records and scored according to the High-Risk Alcoholism Relapse scale, which includes duration of heavy drinking, types and amount of alcohol usually consumed, and previous inpatient treatment history for alcoholism. All patients were assessed for eligibility for LT according to comprehensive criteria, including Child-Pugh score, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, and psychosocial criteria.RESULTSOf the 102 patients with ALD referred for LT, seven (6.9%) underwent LT. One (14.3%) of these seven patients returned to heavy drinking, but that patient was able to successfully quit drinking following an immediate intervention, consisting of psychotherapeutic education and supportive psychotherapy, by a psychiatrist. A comparison between the transplantation/registration (T/R) group, consisting of the seven patients who underwent LT and 10 patients listed for deceased donor LT, and 50 patients who did not undergo LT and were not listed for deceased donor LT (non-T/R group), showed statistically significant differences in duration of abstinence period (P < 0.01), duration of heavy drinking (P < 0.05), adherence to medical treatment (P < 0.01), and declaration of abstinence (P < 0.05).CONCLUSIONPatients with ALD referred for LT require comprehensive evaluation, including evaluation of psychosocial criteria, to prevent alcoholic recidivism.

Schoolgirls’ perspectives on self-disclosure in a group-based mental health intervention at school: acquiring friends or risking harassment?

The article draws on interviews with participants in a psychotherapeutic education programme, called Depression in Swedish Adolescents, which has seen wide distribution within Swedish schools. We d ...

CIES Bibliography 2011

CIES Bibliography 2011

Liberating the Mind or Governing the Soul? Psychotherapeutic Education, Children’s Rights and the Disciplinary State

This article draws on theoretical contributions from Michel Foucault, Nikolas Rose and from within the new sociology of childhood to open up for critical analysis and debate contemporary policy and practice initiatives involving the introduction of formal psychotherapeutic education programmes in schools. While the primary focus is the UK, the article also makes reference to wider European and international contexts. A children’s rights perspective is taken in considering the potential implications of such initiatives for children and young people. Specifically, the article challenges the assumption that formal psychotherapeutic education programmes are an unequivocal ‘good’ and it explores the possibility that they may undermine rather than promote children’s agency, hence their ‘emotional wellbeing’. It is concluded that intensified surveillance of children’s emotional lives is both related to, and contributes towards, wider governance practices of the late modern neo-liberal disciplinary state.

Personal Therapy in Psychotherapeutic Training: Current Research and Future Directions

Recent research literature in the field of personal therapy for psychotherapists shows that therapists claim overwhelmingly positive outcomes with few negative effects (Orlinsky et al., The Psychotherapist’s own psychotherapy: Patient and clinician perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005). However, there has been little interest to date in the extent to which the personal characteristics of therapists might have a bearing on the way in which personal therapy is experienced in psychotherapeutic training. This paper reviews some of the current research in the field and then discusses a subset of results from a small-scale qualitatively-driven study (Rizq and Target, Counselling Psychology Quarterly 23(4):1–27, 2010b) suggesting that early attachment experience may be a relevant factor in understanding how a mandatory training therapy is perceived and experienced within psychotherapeutic training. Implications for psychotherapeutic education are briefly discussed and some directions for future research proposed.

P02-212 Differences in the psychotherapeutic orientation among Dutch and Belgian psychiatric residents

The psychotherapeutic education of psychiatric residents remains a poorly studied area. Until now, there have been a few mainly theoretical or local researches, mainly rooted in a psychoanalytical descriptive framework, and many normative guidelines. One could almost believe that psychiatrists are spending very little time considering their own social determinations. So we did a large scale study in 2006, among Belgian and Dutch residents. This allows us to present a few first results: notably the difference in orientation according to some demographic variables (a.o. religious background and language) and major dissimilarities concerning referential authors for Dutch, Flemish and Walloon residents. These objective points corroborate the idea that psychiatry is not (yet) an homogeneous field in Europe, but is subject to considerable cultural variations.

The Therapist's Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling, Volumes 1 and 2

The Therapist's Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling, Volumes 1 and 2

Einstellung zu Psychotherapie bei jungen türkischen Migranten in Deutschland

To assess the effect of cultural identification in Turkish immigrants living in Germany on attitudes towards psychotherapy. The approach to psychotherapy of 139 Turkish immigrants and 164 Germans was examined. Overall the Turkish population reported a less positive attitude towards psychotherapy in comparison to the German population. The Turkish immigrants with a less traditional cultural background reported a more positive attitude towards psychotherapy when compared to Turkish immigrants of a more Turkish identified traditional cultural background. Results suggest that culture-specific factors affect attitudes towards psychotherapy in Turkish immigrants, which indicates a need for intercultural psychotherapeutic education.

Basic knowledge in psychodermatology

The authors try to define the framework of this approach, what should be acquired by "well-informed" dermatologists and what is required to be a pyschodermatologist. To better define the necessary knowledge to practice psychodermatology. 1) The first level is dermatology psychology: there is a psychotherapeutical implicit effect of the dermatological consultation with a goal that is not psychological change. This effect can be improved by acquiring better communication skills and information. The second level needs a possibility to change the emotional individual process and the relational context in a continuum between counselling and psychotherapy. To practice this level a complete psychotherapeutic education with some specificity is needed. This can be reached by a dermatologist also being a psychotherapist or by a team consisting of both dermatologist-psychotherapist. 2) The psychodermatological patient is characterized by alexithymia. He/she needs to be understood through the body language he/she presents. This kind of patient is coming from families where the theme of loss seems to dominate the histories and be associated with deep emotional experiences of separation anxiety. These characteristics must be known together with the different psychodermatological disorders and the mind-body interaction to handle these patients. 3) Taking all of this complexity into account, the psychodermatologist or the psychodermatological team should be able to integrate the different points and adapt attitudes to the patient's difficulty during the whole therapeutic process. 4) The evaluation of the problem should be done using psychological tools here described. The European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) together with the European Society for Dermatology and Psychiatry (ESDaP) are able to provide the specific education for dermatologist and psychotherapist. In the future, they could be responsible for the recognition of these special abilities and treatments on a governmental and European political level.

Career promotion in psychosomatic medicine

We present a concept of career promotion in psychosomatic medicine. An analysis of the current guidelines and promotion practice indicates that both are poorly structured, not tailored to specific phases, and not sufficiently goal- and process-oriented. The career path usually reflects a classical modular model: medical specialist education paralleled with many years of psychotherapeutic education and only then a potential start in research. According to the concept presented here, career promotion already begins in medical school and continues through several intertwined phases: Information about career opportunities, development of career plans, focusing on career goals, implementation of career steps, and evaluation of career success. Goal-oriented and phase-specific career promotion requires corresponding institutional structures and processes: career promotion as an institutional quality characteristic, use of synergies through intervision in peer groups, supervision/coaching by experienced mentors in each phase of career development, as well as systematic networking on all levels. Phase-sensitive and process-oriented career development can contribute to continuous biographies (in particular for women doctors), to more efficient research, and to a more distinct positioning of psychosomatic medicine as an independent area of specialization.

Støttende psykoterapi på voksenpsykiatriske hospitals-afdelinger i Danmark Empirisk spørgeskemaundersegelse

In 1989 an investigation by questionnaire, comprising psychologists and physicians employed at all psychiatric wards in Denmark, concerning individual, supportive psychotherapy for adult psychiatric inpatients was carried out. The questionnaire was answered by 41%. In this group supportive psychotherapy constituted a large amount of the daily work, most therapists were psychoanalytically oriented, and their psychotherapies implied many directive, reality-oriented techniques as well as interpretation. The level of psychotherapeutic education was high, and a need for further education in supportive psychotherapy of psychiatric inpatients was expressed.