Bendigo Psychotherapy Centre

THE VARIETIES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP AVAILABLE

There are a number of people who choose the helping professions as their line of work.

Psychiatrists are qualified as medical doctors who have specialist training in mental disorders. They deal with severe breakdowns, work in hospitals and community mental health teams. They can prescribe medication. Some specialise in psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, or have other  forms of psychotherapeutic training.

Psychologists have a degree in psychology. They are trained to assess mental health difficulties and treat them. They can use questionaires. Some have undertaken specialist training in clinical or counselling psychology within the psychology discipline, and have also undertaken specialist training in psychotherapy and counseling available to all mental health practitioners including psychiatry.

Social Workers have completed a degree in psychology which is built upon an undergraduate degree , perhaps in Arts, Law or indeed psychology. They are trained to consider the contextual aspect of people's lives and to examine the ways in which people relate to others in their family or work environmment. Most Accredited Mental Health Social Workers have undertaken additional training in counselling and psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy  Training tends to be of a long duration, anything between three to five years or more. It draws profesionals from a variey of backgrounds: psychiatry, psychology, social work, occupational therapy or other mental health professionals.   Counselling tends to focus on adjustment issues – and is time limited– say between one and 40 sessions, or so. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy seeks to address deeper issues lying behind presented difficulties – often this work is open ended, although some very effective short term psychoanalytic psychotherapy work can be done in some instances depending upon the issues.

GENERALLY the main modalities of counselling or therapy available are:

Behaviourists – who work with symptom relief and provide techniques to manage stress and anxiety. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a useful form of therapy for many people – as it also lends itself to scientific research and thus considered to be 'evidence based'.

 Psychoanalysis – the talking cure is an intense form of treatment, which can be anything between 3and 5 sessions a week.It is based on what the patient brings to the session, and upon the relationship between therapist and patient. ( This is often called 'transference and countertransference).  Generally psychoanalytic psychotherapists see people between 1 to 3 times a week. 

Humanistc schools,  These include Gestalt, Existentialism, Bioenergetics and so on. Many pratictioners of alternative therapies use this modality on conjunction with their work as it follows a client centred ethos.

Systems Theory

This is generally used in family therapy settings in which family patterns of relating are tracked and analysed.  Family of origin work enables family patterns to be traced through generations.

***In all of these modalities increased knowledge and understanding  enables personal patterns to be reviewed and, if desired, changed.