Glossary
WPF Therapy have put together a glossary of all the most common
terms that are used on the website. Let us know if there are any others that you
would like to be added.
Cognitive Behaviour Theory (CBT)
This group of theories is concerned with how thinking and feeling
is dominated by patterns which in turn dominate our choice of
actions. A CBT therapist will identify patterns of thinking and
belief linked to feelings which may be contributing to emotional
distress and troubling behaviour. A CBT Therapist will help the
client develop new ways of thinking and behaving which can have a
positive effect on mood and ability to cope with life's challenges.
Countertransference
This term mainly refers to the counsellor's or psychotherapist's
response to the transference from the client. Reflecting on
countertransference can help the counsellor or psychotherapist
understand what it is like to be the client in terms of the
thoughts and feelings they evoke. As such it is a valuable tool,
but one which must be used with care and discernment.
Experiential
Learning through doing. Ideas, skills and techniques are best
assimilated through experience. This is facilitated in seminars,
group work, supervised clinical work and personal therapy.
Object Relations Theory
This refers to a whole area of theory that explores the capacity
and need of human beings to relate as well as how they relate to
themselves and others. It involves the idea that our current
relationships are influenced by our experience of past
relationships, especially those with parents, siblings,
grandparents and other important figures in early like.
Psychodynamic
The process by which patterns of experience that have been
experienced in infancy and childhood are dynamically, and
unconsciously, repeated in the client's internal world and also in
present day relationships, including with the counsellor or
therapist.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
The central principle of psychodynamic psychotherapy is that
distress in the present has been caused by events in early like of
which we are no longer aware. The therapy offers a reliable setting
for the client to explore associations, memories, fantasies,
feelings and dreams to do with the past and present.
Particular attention is given to the interaction with the
therapist and establishing a therapeutic relationship is of primary
importance. This involves fostering an atmosphere which is
respectful of personal difficulties and which pays careful
attention to what is said. Human beings have a tendency to repeat
patterns of behaviour, even why they would like to change them and
these patterns may repeat themselves in the relationship with the
therapist. The understanding of, and working with, such repetition
is referred to as working in the transference, a central element in
the psychodynamic process.
Understanding is also facilitated by the therapist paying
attention to his/her response to the client, in other words, using
his/her countertransference. In this way, the client may achieve
new and better resolutions of long-standing conflicts and
difficulties.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
A more intense way of working with clients/patients e.g., 3
times per week and usually with the use of the couch. The
psychoanalytic psychotherapist makes use of this more intense and
immediate relationship and the experience of the transference and
countertransference to enable the patient to gain awareness and
understanding of their internal world, their unconscious, their
patterns of relating, defences and the aspects of themselves which
are yet to be expressed.
In addition it involves the analysis of the unconscious meaning
of the words and actions of the patient and an investigation of the
mental processes of the patient in order to enable the patient to
gain insight and awareness
Supervision
The process by which counsellors and psychotherapists bring
their clinical work to be discussed with a supervisor (a more
senior practitioner who has been trained as supervisor) in order to
gain insight and awareness about the client/patient and the
dynamics of the work and develop their own learning and
understanding.
Unconscious
Psychodynamic theory asserts that we are influenced by thoughts,
wishes, desires, fantasies and other mental processes, of which we
are unaware, or which are unconscious. Being able to bring
unconscious mental processes into conscious awareness is seen as a
key way of helping a person to make freer choices in life.