Scenario: Supressed Anger

[Star-struck]

Forgive me if I don't use the proper clinical terms here....Scenario: Someone suffers a traumatic event as a child. The person's mind has suppressed the event. There is an underlying and subconscious anger in that person, stemming from the event, but which can't be expressed in a manner related to the event because the event is being suppressed. What techniques could said person use to associate their anger with the event in order to express and expel the anger?

[Intelligence]

The following answer is HIGHLY EDUCATED, and based on CENTURIES of SCIENTIFIC STUDIES.

 

Your answer...

 

...Therapy.

[Star-struck]

I was looking for something a little more focused.

[Intelligence]

I know you were. However in reality that's the best it gets.

 

Therapy - this person in question should talk to a therapist regualarly. A therapist is able to guide the focus of the session in a way that will attack the multiple issues involve and provide insight that will expel these angry notions.

 

It's just the only way to do it. It's a simple answer but it's the answer nonetheless.

[Star-struck]

What techniques or methods do therapists use to guide a session?

[blike]

Glider will probably be able to help with this..

[Intelligence]

Struck - it depends on the method of therapy.

 

Which is to say therapists are idiots.

 

It's like going to a fair to choose whether you want to know your future through palm readin, tarots cards or a god dammed glowing ball.

 

Is this you who has this problem star?

 

If so perhaps I can help. Briefly explain the incident that caused this and who it was and where this person is now.

[NSX]

I'm not sure if this is of any relevance, but this scenario happened in The Simpsons when Ned Flanders suppressed his anger from the hate of his parents. He overcame this by expressing his thoughts rather than non-scensical jabbering.

[Glider]

Originally posted by Star-struck

What techniques or methods do therapists use to guide a session?

It depends on the school. Gestaltists, Freudians, Humanists, Eclectics etc. all use different techniques (or mixed in the case of eclectic therapists). However, I'm not really from that end of Psychology, and I don't know too much about it, but I do know that of all the different approaches available in psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy has been shown to produce the most reliable results.

 

The techniques used to guide a session are manifold. The most important is silence. People get uncomfortable in silence, so if they provide a 'clipped' answer to a probe, the therapist will remain silent for a little longer than is 'socially comfortable'. Often the client will start talking again. The therapist has to maintain a state of 'free floating attention', i.e. has to listen without focussing on any details too much. They have to listen to 'flow', so that when it changes, or the rhythm breaks, they recognise that as a signal that the client has approached something meaningful. The therapist will also be looking for things like shielding; topics the client avoids (often without realising it), so what is not said is often important too. By guiding a client around the topic, the 'blank' (i.e. the shielded area) often get shown up 'in relief' as it were. Reiteration, areas a person returns to frequently. Changes in affect, i.e. signs of discomfort or other emotional changes, and many other things.

 

All these provide clues to the therapist, and based on these clues, the therapist can begin to guide their client into the area that needs to be addressed. E.g., once the therapist has a 'feel' for the area being avoided in sheilding, they will then begin to get specific, and guide the client directly into that topic.

 

Originally posted by NSX

I'm not sure if this is of any relevance, but this scenario happened in The Simpsons when Ned Flanders suppressed his anger from the hate of his parents. He overcame this by expressing his thoughts rather than non-scensical jabbering.

That would be an example of a Freudian approach. Their aim is to locate the original cause and work through it. This can take a very long time. CBTs on the other hand, feel that you can't actually go back to the original problem, as it is in the past, and the real problem is your current mode of thought and behaviour. Their aim is to help you recognise how you respond to certain stimuli, events/situations, and to help you change the way you percieve them and respond to them. They deal with the here and now situation, Freudians deal with the 'child'.

[Intelligence]

I think I can sum up Glider's comments.

 

I wasn't going to type up for you all the stupid ways therapists go about "dealing" with someones therapy.

 

It's complete and total political idiocy.

 

There is, was, and always will be certain methods which work BETTER for someone than others.

 

You damn well wouldn't have a doctor picking from a bag of medicine to decide which pill you'll get.

 

The doctor will use the MOST affective one for your specific case with the LEAST amount of side effects.

 

This is the largest problem we have in the field of psychology and it's sickening.

 

A therapist has a BIAS philosophy about what method of therapy they'd like to use, and they use it on EVERY client they get no matter whether it's success ratio is HIGH OR LOW for a particle statistical client.

 

I absolutely cannot stand this aspect of therapy, and it kills me that it is still taught in undergraduate AND graduate schools that these methods are of a therapists choice.

 

It's as if you can go to one physician who will ALWAYS perscribe PAXIL, while another will ALWAYS perscribe ZOLOFT no matter what the case.

 

The worst thing is that clients do not know this. The average person seeking therapy has no idea that a therapist will always use the identical method.

 

Sorry to get off subject but Gliders post riled me up.

 

Not that Glider is saying this is good or bad - but it just got me started.

[Glider]

Originally posted by Intelligence

I think I can sum up Glider's comments.

Clearly, you can't. Your post was not a summary of what I said. Please don't put words in my mouth.

 

My post simply outlined a few of the methods some therapists use to guide sessions, in response to the question "What techniques or methods do therapists use to guide a session?".

 

Whilst it is clear you have strong feelings concerning therapy as whole, the reasons you present demonstrate only that you know even less about it than I do (and I know very little about therapy). I do know that no therapist would treat any two clients exactly the same, whatever their approach. Therapy sessions are, by definition, client driven. That is to say, the therapist is only a 'partner' in the client/therapist relationship, not a leader. The client decides where they go, the therapist acts only as a guide, to help the client focus, be aware of their own reactions to certain things, and to 'hold their hand' through the more difficult areas.

 

Whilst on the whole, I have very little time for some of the 'woolier' schools of therapy (e.g. Freudian psychoanalysis), some approaches are very effective (e.g. CBT). It's much more common these days, that therapists don't stick to any one approach, but are 'eclectic therapists' who trained in several styles of therapy. This (they say) helps them to tailor their approach more effectively to the needs of the client.

 

In any event, I can say that I don't know enough about most approaches to therapy to make a valid judgement concerning their efficacy or worth. Are you certain you do?

 

Sorry to get off subject but Gliders post riled me up.

I have no idea why, as far as I can tell, my post is fairly neutral in nature.

 

Not that Glider is saying this is good or bad - but it just got me started.

Quite right, I never made any judgements concerning therapy, so why would it get you started? I think a therapist would find this of some significance.

[Intelligence]

Man, Glider is a thorn.

[Sayonara]

Glider is consistent.

[Dudde]

glider is a heck of a lot better at debating and giving information than some people, that's fer sure:-p

[MaxCathedral]

I found Glider's response to be amazingly well written, concise and packed with pertinent information.

[Glider]

Aw shucks!