Psychotherapy

A form of treatment in which a person who wishes to relieve symptoms or resolve problems through verbal interaction seeks help from a qualified mental health professional and enters into an implicit or explicit contract to interact in a prescribed way with a psychotherapist.

A collective term for all forms of treatment that use psychological rather than somatic means.

The treatment of mental disorders by psychological methods, as when a psychotherapist encourages a person to talk about his or her problems.

Treatment of mental disorders by psychological, not physical, techniques. There are many approaches to psychotherapy, including behavior modification, psychoanalysis, and group therapy.

Any therapy facilitated by a mental health professional which uses verbal or nonverbal communication between a patient or a group to treat a mental disorder.

Also called talk therapy; the treatment of emotional problems, behavioral issues, or mental illnesses through verbal communication. A psychotherapist is a professional who uses techniques such as re-education, suggestion, retraining, and exploration of the emotions to treat emotional problems and mental illness. There are three fundamental approaches to psychotherapy; behavior therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and humanistic therapy. Behavior therapy aims to improve the person’s functioning, whether the origin of the problem is understood or not. Psychodynamic psychotherapy was developed originally from the ideas of Sigmund Freud, who invented psychoanalysis, and is based on the theory that understanding the self, particularly the emotional past and the hidden feelings of the unconscious mind, is key to resolving emotional problems or illnesses. Humanistic therapy (also known as existential therapy or gestalt theory) focuses on the person’s immediate feelings, rather than thoughts or behaviors, and works toward increasing the person’s self-awareness.

Psychological (as opposed to physical) methods for the treatment of mental disorders and psycholbgical problems. There are many different approaches to psychotherapy, including psychoanalysis, client-centered therapy, and group therapy. These approaches share the views that the relationship between therapist and client is of prime importance, that the goal is to help personal development and self-understanding generally rather than to remove symptoms, and that the therapist does not direct the client’s decisions. They have all been very widely applied to differing clinical conditions but are of unknown value as treatments of mental illness.

The type of therapy which treats mental, behavioral, and emotional disorders by communication, nonverbal as well as verbal, rather than by chemical or other means.

A psychological rather than physical method for the treatment of psychological and psychiatric disorders. Almost every type of disease or injury has a mental aspect, even if this relates only to the pain or discomfort that it causes. In some diseases, and with some temperaments, the mental factor is much more pronounced than in others; for such cases psychotherapy is particularly important. The chief methods employed all depend on the client-therapist relationship being of prime importance.

A method of treating disease, especially psychic disorders, by mental rather than pharmacological means (e.g., suggestion, re-education, hypnotism, and psychoanalysis).

A treatment method that involves conversations with a trained professional who helps an individual understand and overcome a mental disorder.

The therapeutic intervention employed in the management of mental and behavioral disorders revolves around providing compassionate support and profound insight, with the ultimate goal of fostering the development of healthy behavioral patterns and facilitating the journey of personal growth and self-realization.