Psychotherapy- How to offer to the suffred?

Encouragement and support are also tools of brief psychotherapy, and when skillfully used often can be effective. Reparative psychotherapy, as it is sometimes called, may be used when measures such as ventilation and reassurance are not enough and when some corrections or repairs of personality may be required. Beyond helping the individual to develop a new and better perspective on problems he knows he faces, reparative psychotherapy makes an effort to look at problems the individual may not be aware of. As in ventilation, the patient is encouraged to speak out about his problems and feelings. As he does so, the therapist tries to gain some insight into what is left unspoken-the unconscious problems and motives that bother the patient.

The therapist, as he himself gains the insights, may provide the patient with interpretations and understanding, although there may be no at- tempt, because of the extended period that might be required, to develop full understanding on the part of the patient. The skill comes in providing enough practical understanding for the patient to digest and sometimes, too, in helping to alter the patient's living situation. Thus, for example, a domineering and difficult woman may be directed into a job in which she can express some of her domineering qualities. The therapist may well discuss with her the fact that by taking such a job she may make life easier for her husband and children and, in so doing, for herself as well. But there may be no effort to go into, or even once discuss, the fact that her domineering characteristics may have roots in a deeply buried resentment that she is a woman instead of a man. Group therapy is a method of treatment coming into increasing use. Four to ten patients may be treated during the same therapy period. Some psychiatrists combine group therapy with individual sessions as well; others use group therapy alone. Group sessions can be valuable because patients react to each other as well as to the doctor and because their self-confidence is increased by being with people whose problems are similar to their own. For example, obese people who overeat for psychological reasons may respond well to group therapy. Alcoholics Anonymous, which has a high success rate, uses some of the principles of group therapy, its members encourage, advise, and exhort each other.

They are kept sober by the support of the group, so that even though there may be no basic change in their personalities, there is vast change in their habits. Group therapy is used in many kinds of institutions as well, including rehabilitation centers for adolescent boys, veterans' hospitals, and prisons. There are many variations in approach, but all forms of group therapy are based on the principle that humans are social beings, influenced greatly by groups to which they belong. Family therapy is another method in increasing use. Just as an individual has, a family has its values, principles, goals, and problems. Perhaps only one member of a family appears to be in trouble, but the relationships within the family group may have much to do with that trouble and may have to be examined. In family therapy, the entire family may work out with a therapist its conflicts and difficulties through discussions, much as an individual do in individual therapy.