Therapeutic Strategies in Mental Health
There are many therapeutic strategies in mental health, and each
depends on the patient and the diagnoses. For example, therapist
will often use what is known as eclectic technique therapy for
group meetings. The focus of this therapeutic strategy is to get
the patient to stay focused, voice their values and beliefs
freely without feeling threatened, learn to pay attention,
teaching the patient to accept responsibility and so forth. In
most events, the groups consist of Interpersonal, Psycho
educational, support, and psychotherapy groups. Many of the
patients that attend each of the groups have difficulty
socializing, staying focused, trusting others, and are often
emotional immature or underdeveloped.
Most of the patients were subjects of harsh society and
impractical parent/educational up bring. The patients were
probably ridiculed, mocked, punished, and so forth. The point
then is to bring the patient to a point of survival that does
not include fear. Another strategy used in therapy is the
life-picture map which is a method used to bring a person back
to the current times.
Often the patient will draw pictures that link to their past
finally focusing on their status in life, and then onto their
goals in life. For example, what do you see in the picture? I
see myself standing on a bridge and a car is nearby but I cannot
see the man's face. It is evident that this bridge, car and man
is outdated and may have brought forth fear in the individual.
Therefore, we can ask the patient did this man hurt you. I am
not sure, I feel uncomfortable, but I do not know why? Ok, let
us move on and look at the picture drawn that illustrates you
status in life.
What do you see in the picture? I see a person confused and
hurt. We can see that the person was hurt from this experience,
so our next step is to bring the patient to the point of
acceptance after opening up the doors to the past. Next, we move
onto the goal intended, which is the patient's future. What do
you see in the picture? I see a person striving to obtain his
goals. I see that the person has obstacles that he must overcome
to reach those goals. Great, now we are on the road to recovery.
The patient sees hope. We must achieve this goal.
Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy is a strategy utilized in
therapy to bring the patient (s) to a level of feeling and
understanding his or her inner being and what caused the areas
of trouble. For example if a person has a pattern of
self-destructive behaviors, such as outrageous outbursts. This
means the patient was taught to shout, scream, kick, fight or
what-have you and the therapist needs to reconstruct the patient
bringing him or her out of the habit and helping them to relate
to a new way of dealing with the problem. It is obvious the
patient was taught incorrectly and he or she may have endured
pain and suffering related to abuse, neglect, and/or violence.
Systematic Desensitization is geared to help patients that are
diagnosed with anxiety disorders and/or symptoms. The technique
is a trigger-anxiety strategy that helps the patient sees where
the triggers are in his or her attacks. For example if the
patient has difficulty when the phone rings, since he or she is
behind on the bills, it may cause an attack for the patient. The
patient obviously does not know how to deal with the problem and
is threatened by the sources on the other end of the phone. The
patient will need to learn management skills that will help him
or her find a method that works best for him or her to relieve
the problem area.
The patient also has an issue with avoidance, so therefore we
need the patient to take responsibility and face up to his or
her problem. We can also see that the patient has suffered a
degree of abuse, neglect, and/or underdeveloped growth. Therapy
is proving far more achieving than medications and today more
strategies and techniques are in development, helping the
mentally ill to the road of recovery.