Psychotherapy is the process of providing assistance in prevention and elimination of mental disturbances and disorders. At the same time, it is a process of improving the quality of life and promoting growth and development on a personal, family and professional level. After successfully completed psychotherapy, people become more content, more willing to face life difficulties, to understand others, to achieve closeness.
Psychotherapy is accomplished through mutual exchange of knowledge, experience and emotions during psychotherapeutic conversation between therapist and client, through verbal and non-verbal communication. It is based on an equal cooperative relationship of mutual trust and appreciation. The therapist provides the client with the freedom to choose the theme, quantity and type of information he will exhibit and respects client’s competence and the uniqueness of the capacity for change. The therapist acts as a participant, facilitator and educator to clients in their efforts to achieve the desired changes. The therapist and client agree on the goals of psychotherapy in advance.
The most important psychotherapeutic ethical principle is confidentiality. It applies both to the therapist and to the client. Everything that happens during psychotherapy does not leave to a psychotherapy room, except when it is necessary to involve other experts, which is agreed between the therapist and the client.
Learn more: Integrative approach in psychotherapy implies gradual or comparative use of different psychotherapeutic methods. I use family therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy in order to better adapt to the needs of each client and more effectively eliminate disturbances and disorders, while respecting client’s ability and the uniqueness of the capacity for change. Integrative principles also include psychotherapy with all family members including children. Psychotherapy with children (elementary school age) and adolescents (high school students and students) is based on the principles of developmental psychology, family therapy, and cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. I have vast experience working with children and adolescents sine I worked in school as a psychologist for many years. The psychotherapy with children and adolescents differs significantly from psychotherapy with adults, which in particular relates to the role of therapists, the relationship and cooperation with parents, since the acceptance of therapy depends on parents‘s cooperation. Therapeutic techniques are modified according to the child development stages and the degree of child education. Role of the therapists in therapy with children and adolescents is very complex because the therapist creates security, takes responsibility for the boundaries and ethics of the process itself, while the internal psychic processes of the child and the relationship with parents are introduced to the therapeutic relationship. New relationships created through therapy are important for all later relationships. Considering the specificity of children and adolescents, therapeutic techniques are adapted depending on development stages and child’s problems as well as relationships with the environment. Specificity of psychotherapy with children and adolescents stems from their problems with motivation, reduction of retrospective capacity and the difficulties with time perspective. Particular difficulty is the preoccupation of the child‘s ego resisting to therapist, which is particularly emphasized with adolescents, which creates difficulties in establishing a relationship. Psychotherapeutic help is appropriate at all ages: • It helps children overcome developmental difficulties during growing up and maturation • It helps adolescents see their personal abilities and constraints, rather than being rebellious towards adults, without any reason, to successfully overcome developmental crises and to achieve the process of individualization and separation from the family. • Adults benefit from the prevention, mitigation and elimination of mental distress and disorders, but also for the preservation and improvement of their life quality. • Old persons benefit from preservation and life optimism enhancement in the life organization, persistence in the treatment of physical diseases, faster and better recovery after some illness. Watch video material: Psychotherapy, Puberty and Adolescence, The Creative Potential of Life Integrative Approach in Psychotherapy
What is an Integrative Approach?
What differs psychotherapy with children and adolescents from psychotherapy with adults?