Most patients treated in psychiatric clinics and mental health facilities get supportive psychotherapy, which is administered during practically every doctor-patient interaction. However, there aren't many scholarly publications that discuss its foundations or how it operates.
The methods of psychoanalysis, which Freud started to develop in the latter part of the 19th century, formed the basis for all other psychotherapy modalities. The majority of Freud's patients were upper-class Vienna’s with strong egos, and the majority of their issues were intrapsychic. Contrarily, a large portion of the patients seen by psychiatrists and residents today have extra-psychic issues such poverty, social and political oppression, and power abuse in interpersonal relationships that pose a threat to their ability to cope. The preferred form of treatment for these patients is supportive therapy.
The goals of supportive psychotherapy might range from recovery to maintaining functioning and achieving the client's potential for happiness and health. The client is given assistance in learning to control their effect by turning it up or down to create a state that allows them to think. The regulation of sentiments is the primary issue.
Although supportive psychotherapy is not advised by NICE to be used as the initial therapy for the majority of mental health issues, it can be used to help a client get started with CBT techniques. It is also a useful strategy for crisis intervention and can be utilized effectively when other therapeutic strategies have failed.
Depending on the patient and their unique needs, supportive psychotherapy may have a variety of different objectives. But generally speaking, supportive psychotherapy's main goals are:
A supportive and compassionate setting where the patient feels heard, understood, and validated is what the therapist strives to achieve. This emotional support may lessen suffering and advance general well-being.
Supportive psychotherapy places a strong emphasis on assisting patients in creating and enhancing their coping skills. This may entail investigating and figuring out good coping mechanisms for stress, mood control, and overcoming obstacles in life.
Supportive psychotherapy focuses on the patient's strengths and validates their abilities in order to increase self-esteem and self-confidence. People may feel more in control and capable of overcoming challenges as a result of this.
Together, they search for workable answers while the therapist helps the patient recognize and comprehend their issues. This may entail investigating other viewpoints, coming up with fresh ideas for tactics, and assessing prospective results.
Supportive therapy may explore underlying emotions and thought processes, even though it often concentrates more on urgent problems and problem-solving. Gaining insight and self-awareness can help one understand themselves better, grow personally, and make positive adjustments.
Individuals receiving supportive psychotherapy may be given information about their symptoms, illnesses, or difficulties in life. As a result, people may have a deeper knowledge of their experiences, suffer less confusion, and be better equipped to decide what is best for their well-being.
A key objective of supportive psychotherapy is to build a solid therapeutic alliance between the patient and the therapist. An alliance built on mutual respect and cooperation enables honest exchange of ideas, the expression of worries, and the exploration of emotions.
Supportive Psychotherapy treatment strategies have been underrepresented in the literature and inadequately taught to therapists in training, despite the fact that they are more frequently used than expressive or insight-oriented techniques, particularly with hospitalized or chronically ill patients.
The objectives of supportive therapy are divided into two main categories. They emphasize the contrast between the supporting connection—which is to some extent present in all psychotherapy—and supportive treatment, and they look at the polarity of the link between expressive and supportive therapy. Finally, a few components and methods for doing supportive therapy are described, including communication style, respect, affirmation, counsel, self-disclosure, and interpretation.
It's important to remember that supportive psychotherapy is typically used for people who are having trouble coping with daily life or who require short-term support rather than intensive, long-term therapeutic interventions. Depending on the needs of the client and the therapist's therapeutic approach, the precise objectives and methods used may change.
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