What tools do mental health professionals use to improve the lives of their patients? Carme García Gomila, renowned psychotherapist with more than thirty years of clinical experience, explains in her book ‘Guide to psychotherapies’ (Arpa), what psychotherapy is, what types of therapy exist, how to choose a therapist… and not be lost when seeking help. This is an authentic map of psychotherapy for the first time in Spanish as the author reviews history from Freud to the present day and invites us to discover the multiple ways in which psychotherapy can transform lives.News Standard related Yes Anhedonia or the reason why some people do not enjoy anything Melissa González report Yes From silenced to a business Menopause, neither taboo nor fashion: a reality that is no longer invisible Raquel Alcolea- There is a lot of talk about psychotherapy but, what? What is it really? It is the relationship between a specialist professional and a person who needs psychological help and said help is carried out in consultation. This person who comes to the consultation has discomfort, behaviors or thoughts that bother or harm them and the professional intervenes from their training to provide light and heal through a psychological technique and a relationship generally mediated by the word. – Do they usually go to therapy? ‘motu proprio’? Sometimes it is not the person themselves who asks for it. In most cases it is usually someone close, a partner, another family member, a doctor or even a teacher, who are the ones who spend many hours with children and adolescents and detect it. They are the ones who warn. But if the person agrees to come, it is because they also see the need, even if only slightly. – What makes us choose a psychiatrist or psychotherapist from a certain school? A psychotherapist can be a psychologist, doctor or psychiatrist. The psychoanalyst, apart from being a psychologist, doctor or psychiatrist, has the training of a psychoanalyst. Generally, people are not obliged to choose one or the other, but rather they choose based on what is recommended to them or what the doctor or family member who knows an expert says. From here people consult and whether they feel comfortable they continue or not. Psychotherapy is a somewhat unknown area and with the book I try to encourage you to consult with a specialist what is wrong with you in order to find a solution as soon as possible. with quality tools and information. – Why is it recommended to go to psychotherapy? In principle it is a treatment that tries to improve some aspect of the person’s emotional and relational state, since the soul or psyche does not function well due to excessive anxiety that generates suffering. When there is excess anxiety, for example, one cannot function well, cannot rest, suffers, does not relate appropriately… it is an abnormal functioning of the psyche. This anxiety is a sign that something is not going well and we have to see what; a covert depression, an obsessive state, current or past traumatic situations, stress… Standard Related News No Why does the time change affect sleep and physical, emotional and cognitive energy Raquel Alcolea report Yes From silenced to a business Menopause, not taboo nor fashion: a reality that is no longer invisible Raquel Alcolea- What topics are most often brought to the consultation of a psychotherapist? Anxiety, depression and serious obsessive-type traits, which are less frequent but last a long time and will need medication or lifelong assistance.- Anxiety is one of the biggest problems today…Anxiety is one of the main causes of consultation and at some point in life 30% will have an anxiety disorder or depression. We look for internal and external causes, how the person manages events, we give understanding strategies and this makes the person heal, improve or be cured, although we must keep in mind that there are incurable diseases. We could say that anxiety is like fever: it is present in many bodily illnesses even if the cause is different. Anxiety is a primary symptom, that is, it indicates psychological discomfort. Work can cause anxiety, obsessive thoughts cause anxiety, anxiety due to a phobia of airplanes or riding the subway… The causes are very varied and at a biological level it is known that this fear is triggered in the hippocampus and amygdala and sets in motion some mechanisms that, if not managed well, become a symptom. – In addition to anxiety, what other problems are brought to consultation? Depression, for example. It is healthy to be sad in the face of grief, in a loss of any kind, because if you lose your job and are happy, we would say that it is not normal. But if the symptoms continue over time, we are already talking about depression because that person has not been cured of what happened to them. Emotions, if they don’t come out through the tap, make an escape and come out through the house. On the other hand, less common but serious disorders such as obsessive disorder, psychoses, bipolar disorder and more serious disorders such as addictions, eating disorders or personality disorders. These need a whole circuit of psychosocial and pharmacological care and the support of the family and the family. – What types of therapies are there? Until the end of the 19th century, those who had some type of mental problem were considered devilish and bad. They were branded as bewitched and punished. Despite being in sanatoriums, they did not heal anything and they were calmed with jets of cold water, they were beaten, they were isolated, they were made to fast and the use of cruel sedation systems. They were not considered sick. As the nature of the psyche and its way of getting sick have become known, it has been possible to delve deeper into the treatment of mental illnesses both through the development of drugs and different psychotherapies. The first were psychoanalysts by trial and error. Freud had the theory of the unconscious and attempted a cure that has evolved to this day. At the beginning of the 20th century, attempts were made to modify behavior. It is known as behavioral psychology, which attempts to influence behavior. Others say that it is not behavior that is social and it would be carrying out social therapy and seeing the impact of society. On the other hand, others say that it is neither the internal world nor the social, but rather what is important is how they relate. all the parts of a complex whole, and we would call this systemic theory. Starting with the pioneers, the following generations of doctors and psychologists can dialogue since all therapies have valuable things. Behaviorists, systemicists, psychoanalysts are coexisting and there are many ways of seeing the psyche and now, luckily, also the neurosciences. – It is not necessary to choose one and devalue the others…It seems that there is an opposition between them. But I prefer to see that they all try to heal and if applied by a prepared person in good faith, they will probably all help the patients who allow themselves to be helped. – Couples therapies are booming. Are both parties always willing to come? It’s hard for many people and they experience it as a humiliation, but in a couple’s situation one pulls and the other follows. There is always one of the two who distrusts it voluntarily and it is not easy. Even today there are those who are not afraid to go to the doctor for gastroenteritis, but consulting for something mental is difficult and they resist all types of therapies. The healthiest part of the couple is the one that asks for help but we should not be alarmed if the other finds it difficult to go to therapy because socially it is something that is still frowned upon and there is a predominant ideology that you can do everything yourself and that ‘wanting is can’. The social environment is very important.About Carme GarcíaPsychotherapist Carme García Gomila.Dr. Carme García Gomila (Barcelona, 1954) has a degree in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Barcelona, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst SEP-IPA, who is part of the International Psychoanalytical Association, created by Freud. Specialized in psychosomatic diseases, her innate curiosity about human relationships and interest in alternative medicines led her to explore different mental health techniques: relational psychomotor skills, Reichian therapy, bioenergetics and systemic therapy. For the last ten years she has been co-director and editor of the magazine Temas de Psicoanalysis, one of the most prestigious specialized publications in the Hispanic world.
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