The 6 Currents Of Psychological Therapy (explained And Classified)
Within the field of psychology applied to the field of patient care in psychotherapy we can find a wide variety of currents of psychological therapy. Therefore, if you are looking for psychology services, it is important to understand their similarities and differences to have a prior idea and know which one could best fit the problem to be treated.
Among the main currents of psychological therapy, it is worth highlighting psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy, humanistic therapy, the Gestalt school, the behavioral therapeutic current, cognitive therapy and, finally, family and systemic therapies.
In this article We will see what each of these currents of psychological therapy consists of and its characteristics and objectives when applied to patients.
Psychotherapy or psychological therapy is a treatment, based on scientific and psychological evidence and that is based on a conversation for change, based on a series of specific characteristics. In other words, psychological therapy is an essentially interpersonal treatment, which is based on a series of psychological principles, in which both the psychotherapist and the patient who comes seeking help for a mental disorder, complaint or problem must be involved.
The psychotherapist, therefore, must use psychological therapy, whatever its current, intentionally with the aim of helping the patient to resolve the disorder, complaint or problem that has brought him to the consultation and, to do so, must adapt or individualize each approach in psychotherapy for each particular patient and their needs.
The different currents of psychological therapy share a series of characteristics such as those we are going to explain below:
What are the currents of psychological therapy?
These are the most important currents of psychological therapy in the History of Psychology.
1. Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapies
The first of the currents of psychological therapy that we are going to see is psychoanalysis, one of the first integrated systems of modern psychological therapy. It was first developed by the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, whose work “Studies on Hysteria” (which he wrote with another psychoanalyst called Josef Breuer) has been considered the main starting point of modern psychotherapy.
1.1. Psychoanalysis
It is important to mention that in psychoanalysis emphasis was placed on the study of the psychic unconscious, proposing a series of main techniques to help make more or less explicit the internal and unconscious conflicts that generate discomfort in the person. To do this, psychoanalysts use strategies such as the management of the therapist’s positions (floating attention and abstinence rule), the methods for analyzing the patient (transference, free association and resistance) and change techniques (confrontation, interpretation and clarification).
The current of psychological therapy of psychoanalysis evolved over the years based on 4 large areas which we will briefly explain below:
1.2. Psychodynamic therapy
On the other hand, psychodynamic therapy, which is based on psychoanalysis, also focuses on the treatment of intrapsychic conflicts, but moving away from certain basic ideas of Freudian theory. Nowadays, generally proposes therapy processes with clear beginning and end sharing both current characteristics such as those we are going to mention below:
It is worth highlighting within the psychodynamic current authors such as Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler, Otto Rank or Sandor Ferenczi. Also to other followers of different currents of psychological therapy that were developed from psychoanalysis, such as the models of Melanie Kelin, Karen Horney, Harry Sullivan, Wilfred Bion, Donald Winnicott, Lacques Lacan or Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud.
2. Humanistic psychotherapy
The first of the currents of psychological therapy that we are going to explain is humanism, where we can find a series of humanistic-existential models coming from the European phenomenological tradition and also from American humanistic psychology by psychologists such as Abraham Maslow or Carl R. Rogers, among others.
In humanism there are some characteristics common to all psychotherapy models that follow this trend. In this sense, humanistic therapy is based on key ideas that They focus on human subjectivity and the individual’s ability to give meaning to their life. These ideas are:
Every human being must develop their potential, possessing a capacity for self-realization.
They focus on the “here and now”, the immediate experience.
They oppose the development of diagnostic classifications of mental disorders.
The theories of this model are subordinated to the experience and meaning of the subject in their own experience.
2.1. Maslow model (hierarchy of needs)
Maslow has been considered the originator of humanistic psychotherapy. He considered that people have a potential with a tendency to growth that can culminate in fulfilling the factor of self-realization and, therefore, he developed a theory based on a hierarchy of needs (Maslow’s famous pyramid):
Physiological needs.
Security needs.
Membership needs.
Recognition or ego needs.
Self-realization or “peak experience.”
The humanistic therapy developed by Maslow is aimed at helping the patient develop a series of strategies that allow you to overcome those obstacles that are preventing your personal growth.
Related article: “Maslow’s Pyramid: the hierarchy of human needs”
2.2. Person-centered psychotherapy (Rogers)
Carl Rogers’ person- or client-centered therapy is based mainly on an encounter between two people rather than on the application of a series of therapeutic techniques, since this psychologist developed his therapy model based on complete trust in the own capacity of the client (as he referred to the patient) to be able to orient and direct his home towards his own self-realization.
For this reason, this psychologist described a series of attitudes and conditions that he considered fundamental and necessary for therapeutic change to occur towards client improvement:
Unconditional positive acceptance: respect, interest and total acceptance of the client’s (patient) experiences.
Empathy: putting yourself in the client’s shoes and trying to understand their feelings.
Authenticity and congruence: the psychologist must show congruence between what he says and what he does.
These three conditions that Rogers described as necessary to achieve therapeutic change are today accepted by all, or most, currents of psychological therapy.
It is also worth mentioning other humanist models such as that of Rollo May or existential psychotherapy models such as the existential psychoanalysis of Jean-Paul Sartre or Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy author of the book “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
You may be interested: “The Theory of Personality proposed by Carl Rogers”
3. Behaviorism
Behaviorism would be another of the main currents of psychological therapy, being developed initially based on the scientific discoveries of Ivan P. Pavlov and Burrhus F. Skinner, who discovered classical conditioning and operant conditioning, respectively. It was also developed in its beginnings by psychologists such as Thorndike, Watson, Rayner and Mary Cover Jones.
Within the different behavioral therapies, a series of common characteristics should be highlighted:
An evaluation of the problem behavior is first carried out to know the triggering and maintaining factors.
Most behaviors are learned.
Mental problems develop as a product of learning.
They focus on the study of behavior at different levels (cognitive, psychomotor and physiological).
The fundamental objective is to modify and replace those behaviors that are maladaptive.
Techniques based on rigorous prior scientific research are carried out.
Treatment focuses on the patient’s current characteristics, focusing on the present moment.
Various behavior modification techniques are used (contingency management, exposure, verbal control, etc.).
The techniques used in the different behavioral models can be quite useful in cases of patients who are too emotionally and/or psychologically damaged to receive psychological help from other currents of psychological therapy that are based on verbal communication. as well as in young boys and girls.
3.1. radical behaviorism
In this current behavior is considered to be governed by its consequences. BF Skinner developed his therapeutic model based on Thorndike’s “law of effect” to develop the theory of operant or instrumental conditioning.
Here the behavior is considered to be included by a series of contingencies at the environmental level (reinforcements) accompanied by responses and thus change the probabilities that these may appear in the future.
In therapy it is important that there is a therapeutic environment that is based on its radical environmentalism; is about reinforce those behaviors that are considered adaptive or positive and seeks to eliminate or modify those negative behaviors.
Related article: “The 16 types of reinforcers (and their characteristics)”
3.2. Behavior therapy
The therapy evolved with the behavioral therapeutic models of authors such as Wolpe, Lazarus, Eysenck, Bandura, Walter, Kanfer, Sasloe, Phillips, Staats, Mischel, Hull and Mowrer, among others, arriving in the 70s and until today with the cognitive-behavioral orientation therapies by Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, which we will explain later.
In behavior therapy, the development of functional analysis is important (antecedents, organism, level of response and consequence) within a behavioral evaluation, where a series of techniques are carried out: initial analysis of that problematic situation, clarification of said problematic situation, motivational analysis, evolutionary analysis, self-control analysis, analysis of social situations and also of the physical and socio-cultural environment.
Within this therapeutic model there are also techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, breathing control techniques, biofeedback techniques, autogenic training, self-regulation therapy, exposure techniques, systematic desensitization, stimulus control and other operant techniques (aversive techniques). , overcorrection, satiation, response cost, time out, etc.
4. Cognitive therapy
Another of the main currents of psychological therapy is cognitive therapy, where Special attention is paid to cognitive variables (information processing). This represents an evolution from the behavioral approach, based on conditioning, to another that highlights the importance of these cognitive variables in the regulation of human behavior and, therefore, also in psychopathology and therapeutic change.
Therefore, in this form of psychotherapy we work a lot with belief systems and with the ways in which the patient interprets reality.
The fundamental characteristics of all cognitive therapies are the following:
They consider that behavioral and affective patterns develop from cognitive processes.
Cognitive processes could be activated at a functional level in a way similar to a learning process.
From this current, the psychologist would be considered as an evaluator, diagnostician and educator.
The psychologist must be in charge of helping to modify negative cognitions.
Furthermore, the psychologist must maintain a directive and active attitude.
Cognitions modulate affective and behavioral patterns.
They are especially concerned about the scientific methodology that supports their therapy models and techniques.
They also use behavior modification techniques.
The precursor of cognitive therapy was George A. Kelly, although the main representatives are Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck. In addition, the most used techniques are some such as cognitive restructuring, training in coping skills or problem solving.
4.1. Rational Emotive Therapy (Ellis)
This therapy is based on the fact that mental or psychological problems are caused by a series of maladaptive patterns in thinking, being irrational, dogmatic, and/or absolute. Ellis believes that people have the ability to control their own destiny and, to do so, first They must feel and act based on their beliefs and values. From there he developed Rational Emotive Therapy (RET).
You may be interested: “Albert Ellis: biography of the creator of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy”
4.2. Cognitive Therapy (Beck)
Beck’s cognitive therapy was developed mainly to treat unipolar depression, based on the fundamental idea that psychological, emotional and/or behavioral disorders occur due to one or several alterations in information processing, due to the activation of latent schemes. Therefore, behind depression, as a cause, there is a cognitive bias or distortion that influences the processing of information, since in the face of a certain external event, negative cognitive schemes are activated.
The objective of this Beck therapy, therefore, is to modify those negative schemas that are distorted by more adaptive and realistic ones.
Related article: “Aaron Beck: biography of the creator of cognitive-behavioral therapy”
Another of the main currents of psychological therapy is the Gestalt School, which focuses on the concept of form psychology or Gestalt psychology, created by Fritz Perls and Laura Perls in the middle of the 20th century.
It is based on a psychodynamic theory that has been developed based on the individual experiences of the patient. lived in the present moment, that is, in the here and now, but it also receives many influences from the humanistic approach. For this reason, it is sometimes considered a mixture of types of psychotherapy currents that are based on ideas from psychoanalysis and humanistic therapy.
The influences of Gestalt therapy are the following:
The person is a whole explained through the sum of its parts.
The person is constantly in a process of self-completion.
Importance of personal growth.
Gestalt therapy seeks “realization” or “insight.”
Incorporates theoretical ideas from Zen Buddhism (e.g., accepting what happens).
It incorporates ideas of humanism (importance of the present, the tendency to update and progress, etc.).
Pathology would be some personal barrier that prevents the satisfaction of one’s needs from occurring.
According to Gestalt psychology, if a person’s needs are not met, Incomplete forms of behavior and a series of psychological conflicts will arise. Therefore, the therapist of this current of psychological therapy will aim to help the patient using a series of techniques that follow this model and help promote the termination of these incomplete forms.
One way to do this could be by concentrating the significant elements of a specific situation in order to mobilize their energies in strategies that are advantageous (e.g., through the Gestural law of proximity).
6. Family and systemic therapies
Among the main currents of psychological therapy it is worth mentioning systemic therapies, which They were initially developed as family therapies, although today their field of application is broader there are also other approaches (e.g. individual).
6.1. International School of MRI (Mental Research Institute) of Palo Alto
In the 50s this school, located in California, was developed with the fundamental objective of understand the forms of communication between members of families in which there was a member who suffered from schizophrenia. In the Palo Alto systemic approach, the family is seen as a system and the member who suffers from the disease is seen as the carrier of the symptom that signals that dysfunction in the system, so the therapy seeks to cure the problem by changing the relationships in the family system and not the individual carrier.
Thanks to this school, where theories were developed based on the systematization of the members of a family and some of its most illustrious members, Paul Watzawlick, managed to revolutionize existing theories on communication, resulting in a new way of carrying out psychological treatments with families.
6.2. structural school
This school was developed mainly by Salvador Minuchin who defined that the processes of a family system are reflected in its structures, with a family structure composed of a hierarchy, limits between family subsystems and borders with the outside, as well as a series of rules that are responsible for to govern communication and power within the family.
Apart from this, in the family there are alliances between individuals and coalitions, so the rules about hierarchies and limits must be changed to change the interaction patterns that are maintaining the symptom.
Among the most relevant techniques of systemic therapies, he knows how to point out reformulation, redefinition, positive connotation, the use of resistance to change, paradoxical intervention, prescription of tasks, the illusion of alternatives, the ordeal, the use of analogies. and circular questioning.
The most recognized authors of systemic and family therapies are: Bateson, Watzlawick, Salvador Minuchin, Haley, Madanes, De Shazer, Weakland and Fisch, Selvini Palazzoli (School of Milan), among others.
