Adulthood Psychology

Behaviour Therapy

Behaviour therapy is a direct and active mode of therapeutic intervention that recognizes the importance of behaviour, acknowledges the role of learning, and includes thorough assessment and evaluation.

Instead of exploring past traumatic events or inner conflicts, behaviour therapists focus on the presenting problem—the problem or symptom that is causing the patient great distress.

Behaviour therapy proves to be of immense help to those who have substance use disorders. This disorder occurs when the recurrent use of alcohol and/or drugs causes clinically and functionally significant impairment, such as health problems, disability, and failure to meet major responsibilities at work, school, or home.

These substances not only lead to addiction but may also contribute to psychiatric problems like mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders and psychosis.

Techniques used in Behaviour Therapy include Exposure therapy, Aversion therapy, Modelling, Systematic use of reinforcement and Token economies.

Behaviour therapy ranges wide and is known to be successfully applied in children, adults as well as old age population.

Every person’s experience with substance use disorder is unique, so our therapist aims to plan treatment that is tailored to individual needs of the client to ensure maximum benefit.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET)

MET is based on principles of motivational psychology and is designed to produce rapid, internally motivated change.

The therapist’s task is to create a set of conditions that will enhance the client’s own motivation for and commitment to change and rather than relying upon therapy sessions as the primary locus of change, the therapist seeks to mobilize the client’s inner resources as well as those inherent in the client’s natural helping relationships.

MET contains four carefully planned and individualized treatment sessions. The first two sessions emphasize on structured feedback from the initial assessment, future plans and motivation for change.

The final two sessions at the midpoint and end of treatment provide opportunities for the therapist to reinforce progress, encourage reassessment, and provide an objective perspective on the process of change.

MET is particularly useful in situations where contact with clients is limited to few or infrequent such as substance use disorder.

Supportive Therapy

Supportive psychotherapy is a dyadic treatment that uses direct measures improve symptoms and maintain, restore, or improve self-esteem, ego function, and adaptive skills.

The therapist attempts to help patients deal with their emotional distress and problems in living.

It can be a very beneficial treatment for a wide range of psychiatric disorders like Developmental disorders, Psychotic disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, Mood disorders, Anxiety disorders, Personality disorders, Adjustment disorders, etc.

Pharmacotherapy/ Medication

Pharmacotherapy involves the remediation or management of a psychiatric condition through the use of appropriate medication.

Mental health conditions like Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, OCD, Schizophrenia, Drug Addiction, Eating Disorder, Conversion, Personality Disorders, etc. often tend to require medication.

Advancements in science along with greater understanding of how the brain functions has led to more effective, less toxic, better-tolerated, and more specifically targeted medicines being available, with potentially fewer side-effects.

Our psychiatrists and neuro-psychiatrists will evaluate your condition and based on your needs they will provide appropriate psychiatric medication.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

The Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) uses behavioural techniques in combination with an emphasis on clients’ use of language to alleviate client distress. Here, the focus is on accepting a feeling, event, or situation rather than avoiding it.

ACT therapists believe many emotional problems develop as clients use ineffective methods, such as avoidance to control their emotions.

ACT help clients clarify values and commit to behaviours that fit with these values.

This treatment is useful in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and anxiety related disorders.

Career Counselling

Career counselling is specifically focused on a person’s career opportunities, most often provided in educational, work, and community settings.

It also may be undertaken to enable a person to change the direction of his or her career. The counselling process generally takes account of an individual’s preferences, intelligence, skill sets, work values, and experience.

Career Counselling will help you to know and understand yourself and the world of work in order to make career – related and/or educational decisions.

The goal is to not only help you make the decisions you need to make now but to give you the knowledge and skills you need to make future career and life decisions.

Career Counselling can be appropriate for adolescents, early teens and as well as young adults.

Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy

This is a broad term used to describe specific rehabilitation interventions designed to address problems in mental processing that are associated with chronic illness, brain injury, or trauma, such as stroke.

The process of CRT comprises 4 components:

Knowledge about cognitive weaknesses and strengths: The focus here is on developing awareness of the problem.

Process Training: This training refers to the development of skills through direct retraining or practicing the underlying cognitive skills. Here motive here is to resolve the problem.

Strategy Training: This includes the use of environmental, internal and external strategies. Here the focus is on compensating rather than resolving the problem.

Functional Activities Training: This involves the execution of the other three components in everyday life. The focus here is on real life improvements.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) constitutes a group of treatment procedures aimed at identifying and modifying faulty thought processes, attitudes and attributions, and problem behaviours.

It focuses on solutions, motivating patients to challenge distorted cognitions and change destructive patterns of behaviour.

The tools deployed in CBT, which include learning to identify and dispute unrealistic thoughts and developing problem-solving skills have been used to treat a wide range of mental health challenges.

CBT has been proved to be an effective tool in the management of variety of mental health issues viz. depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, panic, schizophrenia and OCD to name a few.

Counselling

Counselling involves professional assistance in coping with personal problems, including emotional, behavioural, vocational, marital, educational, rehabilitation, and life-stage (e.g., retirement) problems.

The counsellor makes use of techniques of active listening, guidance, advice, discussion, clarification, and the administration of tests.

During the counselling process, the counsellor and client engage in an interpersonal process as they attempt to define, address, and resolve specific problems of the client on a one-to-one basis.

Counselling takes place both in individual and group settings, One of the factors that make it special is the quality of helper listening, which involves attending to what the client means to say, as well as what he or she is actually saying.

Confidentiality is another important component of the counsellor– client relationship that sets it apart from several other helping activities.

Another vital aspect of counselling is the concept of client empowerment.

In simple terms, this refers to a confidence in the innate potential for self-determination which clients are believed to have.

The capacity for self-determination may not always be evident to the client, and in times of stress or emotional upheaval, it may become blocked or temporarily obscured.

Counselling can help by entitling clients to look more closely at their experiences and to clarify them.

When this is achieved, ways of addressing difficulties can be devised by clients themselves, and strategies for change can be implemented.

Psychoeducation

Psychoeducation refers to the process of providing education and information to those seeking or receiving mental health services and their family members.

Many individuals who have a mental health condition know almost nothing about the condition they have been diagnosed with, what they might expect from therapy, or the positive and negative effects of any medications they have been prescribed.

Information on these topics given to them by medical professionals may be confusing or otherwise difficult to comprehend and thus of little help.

Offered in both individual and group formats, psychoeducation can benefit the individual diagnosed, parents and other family members, caregivers and friends.

During psychoeducation, misconceptions are clarified, queries are answered and detailed information is provided.

It is commonly known that those who have a thorough understanding of the challenges they are facing as well as knowledge of personal coping ability, internal and external resources are often better able to address difficulties.

They are capable to feel more in control of the condition(s), and have a greater internal capacity to work toward mental and emotional well-being.

Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)

REBT is a type of cognitive behaviour therapy first used by Albert Ellis which focuses on resolving emotional and behavioural problems.

The objective of the therapy is to change irrational beliefs to more rational ones.

REBT involves uncovering clients’ irrational or dysfunctional beliefs and actively disputes them.

It sees people’s self-defeating cognitions, emotions, and behaviours as intrinsically and holistically connected, not disparate.

It holds that they disturb themselves with disordered thoughts, feelings, and actions, all of which importantly interact with each other and with the difficulties they encounter in their environment.

Therefore, with emotionally and behaviourally disturbed people, REBT employs a number of thinking, feel, and action techniques that are designed to help them change their self-defeating and socially sabotaging conduct to self-helping and socially effective ways.

Relaxation Training

Relaxation training is a term that refers to methods that are used to teach and learn specific techniques to help people moderate or control reactivity or arousal that is problematic to them.

It includes different arousal control methods, such as muscle relaxation training, biofeedback, meditation, imagery and paced breathing.

Relaxation training is often used in behaviour therapy as a means to reduce anxiety, tension and stress.

Training patients to relax generally involves providing a rationale, demonstrating exercises and practicing relaxation in treatment sessions.

It also can be used in facilitating communication during a therapy session with a client who may be too tense or anxious to communicate effectively with the therapist.

The objective of relaxation training is to make the person physically relaxed and mentally alert.

Sex Therapy

Sex is one of the most private aspects of an individual’s life and problems in it are often hidden or ignored due to fear or embarrassment.

No matter how hard one tries to fight it, it can’t be solved without the help of an expert.

Sexual problems are common in the modern world and can have many causes including physical, psychological or situational reasons.

One of the potential causes may be anxiety which may inhibit normal sexual arousal, resulting in dysfunction.

Sex Therapy utilizes techniques to reduce anxiety such as progressive relaxation and systematic desensitization, resulting in enhanced sexual arousal.

The goal of sex therapy is to improve sexual functioning, interpersonal relationships and correct wrong notions a person might have regarding sexual intercourse.

It involves discussion about possible solutions and encourages individuals to work on difficulties in their relationship such as a poor communication or and being comfortable with self and partner’s bodies.

This is carried out in a safe and private environment in the presence of a trained professional.

Stress Management Therapy

Stress is a normal part of life.

It is good in small quantities as it can motivate you and help you become more productive.

However, too much stress or a strong response to stress can be dangerous.

Stress can arise from any situation that makes you feel frustrated, annoyed or anxious.

Everyone looks at situations differently and has different coping skills.

For this reason, no two people will respond in the same way to a given situation.

The final objective is to lead a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun.

Once you know your potential stressors, you can either (a) change the situation – by avoiding or altering the situation or (b) change your reaction – by accepting or adapting to the stressors.

Focus on what makes you feel calm and controlled.

By having a positive attitude, you can diminish stress in your life by nurturing yourself.

Supportive Psychotherapy

Supportive psychotherapy is a dyadic treatment that uses direct measures improve symptoms and maintain, restore, or improve self-esteem, ego function, and adaptive skills. This therapy is based on encouragement, optimism and support.

Through supportive therapy one might be able to resume one’s daily’s activities and use his ability to cope with them.

The aim of this therapy is also to reduce and prevent anxiety along with increasing a person’s awareness of his illness or his problem.