The practice of awareness as a form of psychotherapy

Summary The practice of awareness most clearly defined by Buddhist writers is described. The effect of the practice on thought processes and the views of Jung and of Fromm on such exercises are discussed. There are many resistances both to the idea of doing the exercise and within the exercise. The writer describes his own experience and suggests that the practice may be an important aid to analytical psychotherapy for those in whom the critical analytical type of thinking is highly developed.     

Individual therapy as a special form of complex psychotherapy]

A combination of several psychotherapeutic methods will be meaningfull only if they are tuned to, and supplement, each other. Indiscriminate combinations may produce harmful effects. The choice of psychotherapeutic methods depends upon the objective that the psychotherapist desires to accomplish. In psychotherapy it is essential that all actions taken be governed by plans worked out in accordance with the particular objectives to be accomplished.     

Counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning: some implications for practice

This paper explores counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning. Previous experiences may create distortions in meaning-making perspectives, distortions that create templates for evaluating future experience. These templates act as barriers to being open to experience; thus there is an inability to learn from experience. The process of therapy can provide a learning milieu for the exploration and working through of these barriers, with a potential outcome of a return to learning from experience. It is suggested here that intrinsic to the learning milieu created in therapy there are elements of significant, transformative and emotional learning. Therapy is thus a reparative discourse that facilitates a return to learning from experience. A deconstruction of this concept is provided here as a way of developing the exploration of counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning.     

Music and movement education as a form of motivation in teaching Greek traditional dances

Research has shown that motivation for participating in physical education, particularly in traditional dances, has decreased dramatically. The aim of this research was to examine whether a music and movement program would increase pleasure and intrinsic motivation of students in elementary education while teaching them Greek traditional dances. 232 students were divided into two groups, a trained group of 135 participants (72 boys, 63 girls) and a control group of 97 (53 boys, 44 girls). The trained group was taught using the music and movement teaching model of traditional dances. The control group was taught using the instructional or guided teaching method of traditional Greek dances. To measure effectiveness of the two methods was accomplished by the completion of McAuley's Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Analysis of scores showed use of music and movement education had a positive effect on intrinsic motivation for dancing and active participation of students, especially of the trained boys' group.     

Exercise as psychotherapy

The use of exercise as a psychotherapeutic agent is reviewed. The benefits of exercise are considered to impact both physiological processes and psychological factors such as self-esteem and more efficacious self-talk. The possibility of the use of exercise as an adjunct to both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy is suggested.     

Transference as a religious phenomenon in psychotherapy

An analysis is presented of the conventional and far-reaching existential interpretations of the concept of transference. Analogies are drawn between the deepest meanings of transference and interpersonal and religious (man-and-God) dialogue. By way of case illustrations, it is shown that transference from patient to therapist can have implications for the patient's real relationship with God.     

Individual psychotherapy as an adjunct to group psychotherapy

This paper describes a form of combined psychotherapy in which the individual sessions are used as an adjunct to group therapy. Each group member is seen regularly in individual sessions to focus primarily on the member's ongoing group work. The individual sessions are scheduled on a rotating basis. Typically, each group member is seen in an individual session once every four weeks. Additional individual sessions are available only when immediate attention is appropriate and necessary. The group is viewed as the primary therapeutic component. A cost-effective therapeutic approach that uses both individual and group methods, this modality lends itself well to a clinic and to a private practice setting.     

Structural vs. Expressive form in Music

A sample of 128 Ss differing in flying experience were compared in their travel preferences and in their drawings of airplanes. Significant sex differences were found, with males drawing more “realistic” airplanes; and females, larger airplanes. Those males who had flown and who indicated motion in their drawings tended to report some experience of motion sickness. Those females who had flown and who indicated motion in their drawings tended to report fear of high places.     

Emotion-regulation skills as a treatment target in psychotherapy

Background

Deficits in emotion-regulation skills have been shown to be integral to the development and maintenance of a wide range of mental disorders.

Aim

To evaluate the importance of these skills as a treatment target in psychotherapeutic interventions.

Method

Nine specific emotion-regulation skills were assessed in a sample of 289 inpatients before and after cognitive-behavioural treatment. Self-reports of success in pretreatment skills application were first compared to those of 246 non-clinical controls. Pretreatment skills application and change in skills application during therapy were then related to a variety of outcome measures. Finally, the effects of integrating a brief training of general emotion-regulation skills into the CBT-based treatment were evaluated in a controlled trial.

Results

Uni- and multivariate analyses identified the skills of acceptance, tolerance, and active modification of negative emotions as particularly important for current mental health and treatment outcome. Replacing parts of the standard CBT treatment with the emotion-regulation training enhanced the effects of the CBT treatment on skills application and on other measures of mental health.

Conclusion

Incorporating interventions that directly target general emotion-regulation skills may improve the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions.     

The polar unities as a guide to psychotherapy

The author recognizes the need for a psychotherapy that aims to be either spiritual or wholistic to ground itself in appropriate philosophical and theological constructs. As one small step in this direction, the ontological elements as discussed by Paul Tillich are applied to some specific therapeutic issues. Striking parallels are found between Tillich's first two ontological elements (individualization-participation, and dynamics-form) and the two dimensions (cohesion and adaptability) of the circumplex model of family therapy. It is suggested that Tillich's third ontological element (freedom-destiny) throws useful light on the educational and psychotherapeutic issue of permissiveness versus authoritarianism.