How Is Patient Participation In Psychotherapy Enhanced?

There are many people who, when deciding to start offering psychotherapy services after having trained in Psychology, fall into the trap of assuming that their work is limited to applying techniques to patients. This very unilateral way of understanding psychological therapy implies overlooking that in the psychologist’s consultation a dialectical process takes place between psychologist and patient: both parties must do their part to give rise to an adequate therapeutic alliance, something that goes beyond of the sum of two people as individuals.

In this ever-changing flow that is psychotherapy, professionals must be able to assume that they do not have total control over the sessions, on the one hand, and that their job is to facilitate the patient getting in tune with psychotherapy, on the other. other. In other words: know strategies to encourage the patient’s participation and involvement in the therapeutic process. We will talk about this in this article: what can be done so that, while psychologists recognize the autonomy of patients, make things easy for them to be interested in the therapy coming to a successful conclusion.

What do psychologists do to encourage patient participation in the therapeutic process?

It is of little use for a person to go to psychotherapy for the first time if they quickly come to the conclusion that it will not be of any use and in a couple of weeks they stop attending the sessions. In the same way, it does not allow progress to be made if patients go to the psychologist just to vent by having someone to listen to them, as if the simple fact of complaining about how bad they are going through would allow them to improve their situation. For patients to transform their lives and improve their quality of life It is essential that they want to change and allow psychologists to give them the support they need.

These are some of the most important strategies that psychologists use to facilitate patients’ involvement in psychotherapy, both in sessions and in carrying out tasks every day to achieve their therapeutic goals.

1. Analyze the reinforcers in operation when you arrive at the consultation

The work begins by understanding what incentive systems are behind the patient’s behavior patterns before starting therapy, and which are related to the problem they want to overcome. In this way it is possible to identify those that are problematic (for example, those that keep the dysfunctional management of anxiety going) and those that offer promising opportunities, but whose potential has not yet been tapped. In this way, by making relatively few changes, the person can move on to have a much better mindset and embrace a more emotionally healthy lifestyle.

2. Strengthen your self-esteem through cognitive restructuring

Self-esteem is closely linked to self-efficacy, the conception we have about our own horizon of personal development and learning, and what gives us an image of everything we are capable of if we set our minds to it. Therefore, helping patients maintain an adequate level of self-esteem, neither too low nor too inflated, is essential for them to “connect” emotionally with the therapeutic process, so that they feel capable of achieving the goal of the therapy and who know how to recognize their progress as such. And it is in this sense, the cognitive restructuring aimed at challenge your most dysfunctional beliefs about yourself It is key so that they do not become discouraged and trust in their latent abilities and talents.

3. Establish a program of sub-goals adjusted to the level of difficulty

Psychotherapy should always set goals that are not limited to the final objective and that provide references about the progress that the patient may be making. This will allow you to have a detailed image of his achievements, something that shows that his effort and involvement have rewards that are noticeable relatively quickly.

But for this segmentation of goals and sub-goals to work, They must correspond to the difficulty curve that fits the patient’s abilities and learning rate. If you do not provide significant challenges, you will feel a sense of stagnation and lose interest in therapy, and if everything is too difficult for you, you may even worsen your condition by assuming that you cannot do anything to improve your situation.

4. Maintain frequent dialogue with family members

If possible, it is very important to maintain a flow of communication with family members, doing everything possible to adapt to the lifestyle promoted in psychotherapy and to be interested in their progress, so that they are part of everything that motivates the person to continue improving (by creating expectations around them and at the same time by feeling good every time others recognize and appreciate their progress). All this making it clear to the patient that the confidentiality of the sensitive information discussed in the sessions is fully maintained.

Do you want to train in effective psychotherapy strategies?

If you are interested in specializing in psychotherapy practices in patient care, the Postgraduate in intervention formats and therapeutic techniques offered by the Mensalus Institute is for you.

This is a training program aimed at graduates and graduates in Psychology who want to become professional in the clinical field, lasting 6 months, and which offers the possibility of being carried out online. From an integrative theoretical position that combines several currents of psychology and psychotherapy techniques, this Master is taught by psychologists who dedicate most of their professional dedication to patient care, and by having the Mensalus psychology clinic as its epicenter, it gives the possibility of knowing the day-to-day details of this type of work.