Mental Disorders in today’s world

Recognize early

Conditions in which Psychotherapy helps

Some commonly used Psychotherapies

Psychotherapies developed by Dr S K Sharma

Life Management © therapy

Benefits of Psychotherapy

The Process of Psychotherapy

What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is the process of non medicinal intervention by trained therapist (psychotherapist) to treat people suffering from mental illness or psychological disorders of thoughts / feelings / behavior and to help people in improving mental control & functioning for a better life. In short it is the therapy which helps to achieve sound & positive mental health.

There are many methods / techniques which are used by psychotherapists today. (See types of psychotherapies) They have both diagnostic and therapeutic (curative) value. These therapies differ in origin, underlying principle, working methodology, professional training and usefulness in treating disorders.

Mental Disorders in today’s world

Mental disorders are fast becoming very common. The common causes, apart from biological causes, are setbacks in life, grief, poor coping skills, faulty upbringing, high pace & high demands of modern life, complex social structure, rapidly changing human values, lack of role models, poor support system, influence of media etc. The psychological disorders affect people’s ability to think, feel, act and relate in effective manner. They affect the happiness and progress in life. Their early detection and treatment is crucial to save person from long term suffering. (Also see Counseling for early intervention).

Recognize early

It is possible and helpful to recognize the changes early. Look for the following changes / symptoms in yourself or your loved ones.

• Changes in personality
• Problems of behavior
• Inability to function effectively.
• Persistent stress & inability to cope
• Extremes of mood and mood swings
• Unwanted strange / troublesome ideas / thoughts
• Inability to relate and have satisfactory relationships
• Persistent distressing feelings like sadness, anxiety etc
• Marked non specific changes in body functions like sleep or appetite
• Addictions and substance abuse like alcohol / drugs / sex / gambling etc
• Non specific physical complaints like weakness, bodyache, headache etc.

Conditions in which Psychotherapy helps

According to a recent survey for mental illness, approximately 26.2 percent of adults (over 1 in 4) are affected (or likely to be affected) by some type of mental illness.  Here are some of the common mental illnesses that psychotherapist work with:

• Anxiety disorders like stress, non specific anxiety, health anxiety, social anxiety etc.
• Behavior disorders like uncontrolled anger (IED), impulsive gambling / stealing / pyromania / sex & pornography.
• Childhood disorders like attention deficit disorders (ADHD), autism etc.
• Cognitive disorders like amnesia, delirium, dementia etc.
• Dissociative disorders like depersonalization, identity disorder etc.
• Eating disorder like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating etc.
• Factitious disorders like feigning sickness.
• Mental disorders due to medical condition and sickness
• Mental retardation and poor development, specific or general.
• Mood disorders like depression, mania, bipolar disorder etc.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Panic disorder like cue attacks, situational attacks, spontaneous attacks etc.
• Personality disorders like anti social /avoidant / paranoid personality
• Phobic disorders like phobia of animals, accidents, water, crowded place etc.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Psycho social disorders like isolation, problem with social group or occupation.
• Psychosomatic disorders like psychosomatic pain, conversion disorder, hypochondriasis, body dismorphic disorder etc.
• Schizophrenia with delusions, hallucinations etc
• Sexual & gender identity disorders like exhibitionism, fetishism, disorders of sexual desire / function, painful sex etc.
• Sleep disorders like insomnia, sleep walking, nightmares etc.
• Substance abuse (alcohol/drugs/nicotine)

Some commonly used Psychotherapies

• Adlerian Psychotherapy
• Behavior Therapy
• Cognitive Therapy
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy
• EMDR Therapy
• Emotional Freedom Therapy
• Emotionally Focused Therapy
• Existential Therapy
• Gestalt Therapy
• Hypnotherapy
• Integrative Therapy
• Interpersonal Psychotherapy
• Mind Body Therapy
• Neuro Linguistic Program Therapy
• Person Centred Therapy
• Primal Therapy
• Psychoanalysis
• Rational Emotive Therapy
• Spiritual Therapy
• Transactional Analysis
• Expressive therapy
• Narrative therapy
• Emotionally focused therapy

Psychotherapies developed by Dr S K Sharma

• Life Management Therapy

A comprehensive therapy for better management of life.

• InnerVoice Therapy

A therapy based on ‘Inner Voice’ for diagnosis and treatment of various psycho emotional disorders.

• MasterMind

A unique Mind Development Program to excel in life.

• Bliss Emotional Healing and Happiness Therapy

A therapy for emotional release, freedom from negativity, development of emotional intelligence and attainment of stable inner happiness.

• Symbiosis Dynamic Relational Therapy

A therapy for development of positive & healthy social relations.

• Healthy Sex Therapy

A program to develop healthy and strong sexuality.

• One to One Couple Hypnosis

A very special program for couples to attain true love and strong relationship.

• Three Step Self Hypnosis

Safe simple yet powerful self hypnosis to attain better personality, better performance & results, reduce anger & anxiety, remove conflicts & bad habits and improve relationships.

• Love Therapy

A therapy for development of ability to give and receive love. It helps in attainment of state of abundance, high spirits & joy.

• Real Life Yogic Psychotherapy

A therapy for development of ‘higher inner self’ and harmony between Yogic life and real, practical world.

• Clinical Psychotherapy for psychological diseases

A therapy utilizing different mental mechanism for treatment of various psychological diseases.

• Complete Psychotherapy

A comprehensive therapy for better mental health. It incorporates –

1. Core of reference
2. Consciousness
3. Cognition
4. Emotions
5. Behavior
6. Physical Feedback
7. Life Management

Life Management therapy

It is a holistic psychotherapy which aims to treat mental sickness and strengthen positive mental health for mental calmness and efficient mental functioning. It has following components.

• Free Consciousness of Self, Environment and Life Facts.
• Life Skills Training.
• Positive Living.

Life management therapy has short and long term strategies for both acute and chronic complaints. It removes distress & negativity and promotes mental control & effective mental function. The highlight of life management therapy is the fact that it does not stop at treating mental sickness but continue to promote positive mental health.Read More

MasterMind

It is a unique Mind Development Program for children & adults for development of mind.

• It helps in development of mind & brain.
• It improves functioning of mind like intelligence, concentration, memory, study & learning skills, creativity etc.
• It improves efficiency of mind and helps in multitasking.
• It improves self control & gives emotional stability. It prevents and helps in psycho-emotional complaints.
• It removes mental conflicts and complexes.
• It creates organized, calm, efficient, sharp and powerful mind.
• It helps in achieving confidence, success and in realizing best of self potential.

Benefits of Psychotherapy

• It decreases mental distress and helps in overcoming mental illness.
• It improves mental calmness, control and functioning.
• It improves job stability and helps in growth.
• It reduces socially unwanted behavior.
• It helps in getting freedom from addictions.
• It decreases dependence on psychiatric medicines.
• It reduces suffering and even treats psychosomatic diseases.
• It decreases discords and improves satisfaction in relationships.
• In addition to patient it improves the atmosphere of patient’s family.

The Process of Psychotherapy

Apart from professional skills of therapist, psychotherapy (like counseling) works in an atmosphere of privacy, confidentiality, trust, respect and warmth. It is entirely confidential and it is not necessary for the patient to reveal his / her name, address and place of work. The initial sessions are about information gathering which are crucial for correct assessment and which form the basis of direction of psychotherapy. Patient’s can safely reveal his / her mental anguish and thoughts / feeling / behavior howsoever strange they may seem to be. On the basis of assessment the psychotherapy schedule is mutually decided. The schedule is need based and takes into consideration state of sickness, patient’s life and responsibilities and the effect of sickness on patient’s life and life of those related to him / her.  Through the use of different psychological techniques, patient understands his / her sickness, gains mental control & functioning and learns various strategies to keep mental health positive and strong. In terms of benefits and reduced suffering, psychotherapy is a very cost effective treatment option.

Contact Us for any further question or appointment.

Psychotherapy consists of a series of techniques for treating mental, emotional and some psychiatric disorders. It involves undergoing regular meetings or sessions with a psychotherapist During this process, a trained psychotherapist helps the client tackle a specific or general problem such as a particular mental illness or a source of life stress.
There are many specific types of psychotherapy, each with its own approach. The type of psychotherapy that’s right for you depends on your individual situation

Psychotherapy can be helpful in treating most mental health problems, including:

• Anxiety disorders,such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, panic disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Mood disorders,such as depression or bipolar disorder
• Addictions,such as alcoholism, drug dependence or compulsive gambling
• Eating disorders,such as anorexia or bulimia
• Personality disorders,such as borderline personality disorder or dependent personality disorder
• Schizophreniaor other disorders that cause detachment from reality (psychotic disorders)

Types of psychotherapy

There are many forms of psychotherapy. Some are:

• Psychodynamic therapy – it focuses on how life events, desires, and past and current relationships affect your feelings and the choices you make.
• Humanistic therapy – This approach emphasizes people’s capacity to make rational choices and develop to their maximum potential. Concern and respect for others are also important themes.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy – it can be used to alter difficult behaviors, such as smoking, procrastination, or phobias, and can also help address conditions such as depression and anxiety.
• Group therapy – it involves one or more therapists working with several people at the same time. This type of therapy is widely available at a variety of locations, including private therapeutic practices, hospitals, mental health clinics and community centers.

Psychotherapy is a form of treatment for emotional problems. Skilled therapists such as psychologists can work with individuals to pinpoint the life circumstances that contribute to their problems, and help them understand which aspects of those problems they may be able to solve or improve.

Talking with a qualified psychotherapist can support you through difficult times and help you create change in your life.

Psychotherapy can be used to treat a wide range of mental health conditions, including:

• Depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Abuse or trauma
• Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Long-term illnesses
• Relationship breakdown
• Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimiaand binge eating
• Drugs misuse

Psychotherapy can help you

• Understand your illness
• Define and reach wellness goals
• Overcome fears or insecurities
• Cope with stress
• Make sense of past traumatic experiences
• Separate your true personality from the mood swings caused by your illness
• Identify triggers that may worsen your symptoms
• Improve relationships with family and friends
• Establish a stable, dependable routine
• Develop a plan for coping with crises
• Understand why things bother you and what you can do about them
• End destructive habits such as drinking, using drugs, overspending or unhealthy sex.

If you have psychotherapy, you will meet your therapist regularly, usually once a week. However, in some cases, more frequent sessions may be needed.

Primary tools for communicating in online therapy include:

• E-mail – It offers the convenience of not having to leave home, the privacy of not being seen or heard and the added advantage that you can choose to write in your own time.
• Instant Messaging (IM) – Instant message software such as Skype and Windows Messenger makes it possible to participate in therapy without being seen or heard.
• Phone – Most common as it is everywhere available and provides direct connect.

Online psychotherapy has the advantages of being convenient to provider and client, user friendly, and utilizing the latest technological procedures to provide confidential. It is usually affordable. When a client does use the modality of e-therapy, it allows for a sense of privacy that may not be capable of attaining through traditional therapeutic means. Also, e-therapy allows the client the ability to get to their point much quicker than traditional therapy. The client does not have to deal with social and non-verbal cues, embarrassment, shyness, and other behavioral barriers that can sometimes impede progress in a traditional counseling atmosphere.

Online psychotherapy is suitable for those with problems like anxiety or depression, relationship issues, sexuality concerns, confidence, shyness, addiction, career problems or burnout or difficulties with life direction and purpose.

Psychotherapy is a very specialized treatment which requires substantial amount of skill, effort and energy on part of psychotherapist. In a very short time psychotherapist has to understand the unique mental functioning of the individual patient in context with his or her circumstances of life and has to design a suitable psychotherapy treatment protocol. All this requires in-depth education, training and experience. In addition, the psychotherapist must have himself or herself grown as a human being, must have integrated personality and must have understood the dynamics of mind and dynamics of life.  His treatment must be based on sound theoretical background of psychotherapy and also practical enough to be easily and effectively applicable in patients every day life.

After completing medical training from Delhi University Dr S K Sharma further obtained post graduate education in human psychology and psychotherapy. Since 1994, he has been helping people with psychoemotional complaints to regain positive mental health. His successful working on mind mechanism has resulted in sustained betterment in people’s life as they come up stronger with better mental harmony and mental abilities.

Understanding psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is not one therapy. It is a broad term used to refer to all such non medicinal therapies which are used to help people in achieving better mental health.  Commonly used psychotherapies are counseling psychotherapy, cognitive behavior psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, gestalt psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, integrative psychotherapy, play psychotherapy, family psychotherapy, narrative psychotherapy, hypnotherapy etc. There are three main aspects of psychotherapy. One is the person who is seeking help for some difficulty, second is the psychotherapist who is qualified and trained to undertake such therapy and thirdly which is the most important is the rapport, the bond or the relationship between the person and the psychotherapist. This relationship is based on trust, confidentiality and mutual regard. This provides the platform on which one can explore one’s deepest difficulties without any fear or inhibition.  Psychotherapist then uses his or her skills to explore solutions and develop better coping skills towards a positive mental health and efficiency.

Conditions successfully managed by Dr S K Sharma using psychotherapy:

• Addictions and Alcoholism
• Anger and violence
• Anxiety
• Behavioral problems
• Depression and Bipolar disorder
• Eating disorders
• Failures and disappointments in life
• Fear and Phobias
• Low self esteem and self confidence
• Marital or Family discords
• Obsessive compulsive disorder OCD
• Personality disorders
• Post traumatic stress disorder PTSD
• Problems from sexual abuse
• Relationship and Emotional crises
• Schizophrenia
• Sexual disorders
• Sleep disorders
• Stress
• Suicidal tendency

Dr S K Sharma helps you to :

• Control and correct involuntary thoughts, feelings and behavior
• Break old and ineffective habitual patterns of thinking and behavior
• Discover creative and effective ways of thinking and behavior
• Find new ways to cope and better coping skills to solve problem
• Unload emotional burden and get “unstuck” from past
• Heal old psychological wounds
• Improve communication skills
• Improve your self esteem self confidence
• Increase your ability to love yourself and love others

You may visit Ethos or opt for phone / online psychotherapy. Contact Us for details.

Anger is an emotional state that has a bad rap. It can be a sign of serious psychological diagnoses such as major depression or bipolar. People who have been experiencing anger for a long time may have lost the ability to see that there are different levels of anger and a professional will help you readdress this imbalance and recognize the difference between, for example, irritation and fury.
Psychotherapy is a valuable tool for people who need help controlling their anger. With psychotherapy, a person who struggles with anger can learn what lies at the root of their frustration and rage. It empowers a client to face uncertain and stressful circumstances with control and emotional balance that benefits their mental and physical health and the well-being of those around them.

Negative effects of anger

• It hurts your physical health. Chronic anger makes you more susceptible to heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol levels, a weakened immune system, insomnia, and high blood pressure.
• It causes lasting scars in the people you love most and gets in the way of your friendships and work relationships.
• It consumes huge amounts of mental energy and clouds your thinking, making it harder to concentrate, see the bigger picture, and enjoy life.
• It can also lead to stress, depression, and other mental health problems.

How to manage anger

• Simple relaxation tools, such as deep breathing and relaxing imagery, can help calm down angry feelings. Deep, slow breathing helps counteract rising tension
• Identify the negative thought patterns that trigger your temper
• Avoid people, places, and situations that bring out your worst
• In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to say something you’ll later regret. Take a few moments to collect your thoughts before saying anything
• As soon as you’re thinking clearly, express your frustration in an assertive but nonconfrontational way. State your concerns and needs clearly and directly, without hurting others or trying to control them.

The benefits of psychotherapy for anger

• You may feel happier and more confident
• It helps to improve relationships
• It enables you to learn specific skills to help you manage triggers for anger effectively.
• Gain  understanding which enables you to act more effectively in challenging situations
• It teaches you how to relax, how to stay calm and be peaceful when you feel a surge of anger.
• It helps you learn some problem-solving techniques.
• It fully embrace your life

Through anger psychotherapy you can experience a non-judgmental, honest clear and supportive approach which opens the door to experiencing yourself in a different way and using anger constructively, in a way which empowers you to live your life.

Anxiety is an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behavior, such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints and rumination. Anxiety disorders include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder (PD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder/social phobia, and specific phobias, such as fear of the outdoors (agoraphobia) or confined spaces (claustrophobia).

Anxiety disorders can severely impair a person’s functioning in work, family and social environments.

Two common forms of psychotherapy utilized for treatment of anxiety disorders are:

• Behavioral therapy – It examines how you behave and react in situations that trigger anxiety. The therapist will help the patient to combat undesirable behaviors which often come hand in hand with anxiety
• Cognitive therapy – It examines how negative thoughts, orcognitions, contribute to anxiety. The therapist helps the patient to adapt his or her problematic thought patterns into those which are healthier.

Other forms of psychotherapy, include emotion-based psychotherapy (EBT), psychodynamic therapy, or “talk” therapy, deal more with the roots of anxiety and usually, although not always, require longer treatments. They include interpersonal therapy, supportive psychotherapy, attention intervention, and psychoanalysis.

Treatment needs to be tailored to the needs of the patient and to the type of disorder, or disorders, from which the individual suffers. The psychotherapist and patient should work together to assess whether a treatment plan seems to be on track. Anxiety disorders are chronic and recurrence is common, even after successful short-term therapy. Some patients with anxiety disorders may require long-term or intensive therapy of at least a year or more.

There are processes and techniques to improve decision-making and the quality of decisions. Decision making techniques can be separated into two broad categories:

• Group decision making techniques
• Individual decision making techniques

The method used depends on the nature of the decision to be made and how complex it is.  The method described below follows seven stages.

The stages are:

1. Listing all possible solutions/options.
2. Setting a time scale and deciding who is responsible for the decision.
3. Information gathering.
4. Weighing up the risks involved.
5. Deciding on values, or in other words what is important.
6. Weighing up the pros and cons of each course of action.
7. Making the decision.

When trying to make a good decision, a person must weight the positives and negatives of each option, and consider all the alternatives. The decision maker(s) may face a problem when they try to rank alternatives in terms of how attractive they are when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Time and emotion also play a role in the quality of decision making – the more time, the more deliberate the decision making process. Secondly, the more that is at stake, emotion will come into play, rising as the decision making timeline is reached.

Psychotherapy is often the first form of treatment recommended for depression. The role of psychotherapy in treating clinical depression is to help the person develop good coping strategies for dealing with everyday stressors.

Benefits of Psychotherapy for depression

• It can help reduce stress in your life.
• It can give you a new perspective on problems with family, friends, or co-workers.
• It can make it easier to stick to your treatment.
• Regain a sense of control and pleasure in life.
• Helps to learn how to cope with side effects from depression medication.
• You learn ways to talk to other people about your condition.
• It helps catch early signs that your depression is getting worse.

Types of Therapy for Depression

• Individual therapy– This therapy involves only the patient and the therapist. You can discuss new strategies to manage stress and to prevent your depression from worsening or coming back.
• Group therapy– 2 or more patients may participate in therapy at the same time. Patients are able to share experiences and learn that others feel the same way, and have had the same experiences.
• Marital/couples – This type of therapy helps spouses and partners understand why their loved one has depression, what changes in communication and behaviors can help, and what they can do to cope.
• Family therapy – Because family is a key part of the team that helps people with depression get better, it is sometimes helpful for family members to understand what their loved one is going through, how they themselves can cope, and what they can do to help.
• Interpersonal therapy– It focuses on how your relationships with other people play a role in your depression. It focuses on practical issues.

Who Are The Victims?

Domestic violence can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender. It can happen to couples who are married, living together or who are dating. In general, anyone can be a victim of domestic violence. Male, female, young, old, Asian, African-American, Jewish, Catholic, rich, poor, highly educated or not, everyone is a potential victim. Some people have a higher risk than others. It affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. Men are sometimes abused by partners, but domestic violence is most often directed toward women. Domestic violence can happen in heterosexual or same sex relationships.

Domestic violence is not limited to obvious physical violence. Domestic violence can also mean endangerment, criminal coercion, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, trespassing, harassment, and stalking. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes:

• Physical Abuse: Hitting, slapping, shoving, grabbing, pinching, biting, hair pulling, etc are types of physical abuse.
• Sexual Abuse: Coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact or behavior without consent is sexual abuse.
• Emotional Abuse: Undermining an individual’s sense of self-worth and/or self-esteem is abusive.
• Economic Abuse: making or attempting to make an individual financially dependent by maintaining total control over financial resources, withholding one’s access to money, or forbidding one’s attendance at school or employment.
• Psychological Abuse: Elements of psychological abuse include – but are not limited to – causing fear by intimidation; threatening physical harm to self, partner, children, or partner’s family or friends; destruction of pets and property; and forcing isolation from family, friends, or school and/or work.

Domestic violence is a major public-health problem. It affects millions of people and often results in physical and emotional injuries and even deaths.

Eating disorders are serious health conditions that can be both physically and emotionally destructive. Certain psychological factors predispose people to developing eating disorders. Most people with eating disorders suffer from low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness, and intense dissatisfaction with the way they look.

Psychotherapy as treatment for eating disorders will most often be delivered by a psychologist however; psychiatrists, psychotherapists, counselors, and social workers may use aspects of these approaches in their treatment of eating disorders. the psychologist identified important issues that need attention and developed a treatment plan. It helps the patient replace destructive thoughts and behaviors with more positive ones.

To ensure lasting improvement, patients and psychologists must work together to explore the psychological issues underlying the eating disorder. Psychotherapy may need to focus on improving patients’ personal relationships. And it may involve helping patients get beyond an event or situation that triggered the disorder in the first place.

Many different types of psychotherapy have demonstrated effectiveness in treating eating and food issues. Some of them are:

• Cognitive analytic therapy – it can gain insight into how eating disorder fits into their experience of life and their early relationships.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – it aims to adjust unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior in people with eating disorders.
• Interpersonal psychotherapy – it focuses on a person’s relational skills and how they contribute to their eating disorder
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) – it is based on an emotion regulation model of eating disorders.
• Ego-oriented individual therapy – it focuses on building coping skills and developing the identity and autonomy of the adolescent with the eating disorder.

Gambling consists of making a bet on the outcome of some event. Gambling has been a popular source of entertainment for many centuries and across many cultures. Gambler is someone who is unable to resist his or her impulses to gamble. This leads to severe personal and, or, social consequences. The urge to gamble becomes so great that tension can only be relieved by more gambling. The main symptom of this is denial and the major characteristic is loss of control. There is also a tendency to take bigger and bigger risks as time goes by.

People may go on to develop mental illnesses as a result of their gambling, most commonly depression as they lose control of their finances, relationships fail etc., which can put them into the next classification.

Depression and a deterioration of physical and emotional health are general signs and symptoms of a gambling. The gambler becomes moody, withdrawn and irritable and preoccupied with gambling, winnings of the past and getting hold of more money with which to gamble.

Here are some suggestions to keep gambling from becoming a problem in your life:

• Allocate money for necessities first
• Budget your income
• Never use more than 2% of your income for gambling
• Avoid temptation – do not go to casinos or associate with gamblers
• When you gamble, do not carry with you more money than you can afford to lose
• Never borrow money to gamble
• Don’t lend money to a gambler

The more significant the loss, the more intense is the grief. However, even subtle losses can lead to grief. For example, you might experience grief after moving away from home, graduating from college, changing jobs, selling your family home, or retiring from a career you loved.

The five stages of grief:

• Denial – In the denial stage we refuse to believe what has happened. We try in our mind to tell ourselves that life is as it was before our loss
• Anger – The anger can manifest itself in many ways. We can blame others for our loss. We can become easily agitated having emotional outbursts
• Bargaining – Bargaining can be with ourselves or if you are religious with your god. Often we will offer something to try to take away the reality of what has happened.
• Depression – Depression is a very likely outcome for all people that grieve for a loss. There can even be thoughts of suicide.
• Acceptance – it is the final stage of grief. It is when you realize that life has to go on. You can here accept your loss. You should now be able to regain your energy and goals for the future.

Some people have found the stages to be a helpful way to think about grief; others have not. Grief counselors and researchers point out that the stages describe grief as a passive process. In the decades since Kübler-Ross’s work, people who work with the bereaved have learned that grief is an active process. Many people find it empowering to know that they are resilient. They take comfort in actively processing their feelings and memories and creating ways to honor and celebrate their loved one.

Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. The emotion of happiness is not caused simply by entertaining your obstacles. Happiness is not merely a life lived by accumulating moments of pleasure. On the contrary, happiness is a long lasting enduring enjoyment of life; it is being in love with living. It is your reward for achieving a good character and personal rational values in life. Some important values are a productive career, romance, friendship and hobbies.

Benefits of happiness

• Happy people manage their money well.
• Happy people spend their money on life experiences instead of material items.
• Happiness is good for our relationships
• Happiness is good for our health
• Happy people think about the past fondly.
• Happy people live in a great community.
• Happy people are more creative and are better able to see the big picture
• Happy people “catch” the emotions of others.

Once you learn to have confidence in your own mind and once you discover the virtues that make it possible for you to achieve your values and that make your life worth living, then you will experience the result – an earned pride and a genuine self-esteem and of course happiness.

Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one’s capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning,emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving. In the popular sense, intelligence is often defined as the general mental ability to learn and apply knowledge to manipulate your environment, as well as the ability to reason and have abstract thought.

Measuring Intelligence

The measurement of intelligence is dogged by controversy and disagreement. While there are a number of different methods for measuring intelligence, the standard and most widely accepted method is by measuring a person’s ‘intelligence quotient’ or IQ. Based on a series of tests which assess various types of abilities such a mathematical, spatial, verbal, logic and memory. The results from such tests done on a group that is representative of the wider popular shows the classic ‘bell-shape’ distribution, meaning that most people are of average intelligence with a few at the extreme ends of the scale.

Successfully intelligent people discern their strengths and weaknesses, and then figure out how to capitalize on their strengths, and to compensate for or remediate their weaknesses. Successfully intelligent individuals succeed in part because they achieve a functional balance among a “triarchy” of abilities:

Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public, as well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical settings. Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in animals and in plants. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of intelligence in machines.

Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the aspects of raising a child aside from the biological relationship. Parenting is to be positive always. If parents adapt positive parenting styles, the reaction will be positively responding, mature and responsible kids.

Tips for positive psychology of parenting

Parenting is perhaps one of the most difficult responsibilities most adults face.  Here are some of the tips for good parenting.

• Be optimistic – Losing hope and becoming angry for even minor mistakes of children and trivial failures is the wrong way of parenting. Constantly train the kids and be optimistic to expect the results in the long run.
• Positive emotions – Control negative emotions like anger, violence etc when dealing with kids. Be graceful to children when communicating.
• Communication – Listening and talking is the key to a healthy connection between you and your children. Focus on your child’s feelings rather than your own during your conversation.
• Respect your children – Children have feelings and their feelings are easily hurt. Saying ‘sorry’, ‘please’, ‘thank you’, and ‘excuse me’ work wonders on building our children’s self-esteem.
• Empowering children – empower children with positive attitudes and essential values of life. Academic skills and knowledge, artistic skills, problem solving abilities, arguing, defending and protecting self dignity etc… are few of the aspects where parents need to empower kids with valuable real life lessons.

Improve your parenting and provide your children with the tools they need to succeed so that they can enjoy a strong sense of well being and contentment throughout life.

Shyness is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness especially when a person is in proximity to other people. This commonly occurs in new situations or with unfamiliar people. Shy people often desperately want to connect with others, but don’t know how or can’t tolerate the anxiety that comes with human interaction. If you are shy you will tend to avoid talking or interacting with people as much as possible so as not to get embarrassed or say something that people may not like.

Shyness is most likely to occur during unfamiliar situations, though in severe cases it may hinder an individual in his or her most familiar situations and relationships as well. Shy people avoid the objects of their apprehension in order to keep from feeling uncomfortable and inept; thus, the situations remain unfamiliar and the shyness perpetuates itself. Shyness may fade with time; e.g., a child who is shy towards strangers may eventually lose this trait when older and become more socially adept.

Symptoms of shyness

• Blushing
• Sweating
• Upset stomach
• Tendency to withdraw from social interactions

Shy people think more than all other people. They analyze everything that happens, keep thinking about the comments they hear and over think everything.

Shyness can be treated. The following is a list of tips that can help you overcome shyness:

• Build your self confidence
• Control your self talk
• Get rid of inferiority
• Practice talking to people that you don’t know well
• Seek psychotherapy

• Lack of judgment
• Problems with memory
• Worrying all of the time
• Inability to concentrate
• Negative thinking
• Trouble thinking clearly

Psychological stress also has a physical impact on your body. Headaches are common for people under a lot of stress. People often feel muscle tension and stiffness, nausea, insomnia, chest pain and rapid heartbeats, hives, loss of sex drive, and frequent colds.

Stress can be reduced and even eliminated before it becomes a chronic problem. There are many things you can do for natural stress relief. The two primary ways to relieve your stress include:

• Exercise – Exercise is known to make anyone feel better after they have a good workout.
• Eat healthy – It is important to eat healthy and get all of the supplements your body needs in order to have proper stress relief.

Psychological stress may also have evolved from a real event that caused an emotional disturbance in the past. Counseling and psychotherapy can help people to accept the initial stressful event and rationalize the subsequent stress inducing thoughts.

Behavioral therapy is a treatment that helps change potentially self-destructing behaviors. Behavior therapy does not involve one specific method but it has a wide range of techniques that can be used to treat a person’s psychological problems. An important feature of behavioral therapy is its focus on current problems and behavior, and on attempts to remove behavior the patient finds troublesome.

When it comes to treating specific behavioral issues, behavioral therapy can often be more effective than other approaches. Phobias, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder are examples of problems that respond well to behavioral treatments.

The two basic principles that contribute to behavioral therapy are:

Classical Conditioning – Classical conditioning happens when a neutral stimulus comes right before another stimulus that triggers a reflexive response. The idea is that if the neutral stimulus and whatever other stimulus that triggers a response is paired together often enough that the neutral stimulus will produce the reflexive response. Examples include:

• Systematic Desensitization
• Aversion Therapy
• Flooding

Operant Conditioning – Operant conditioning has to do with rewards and punishments and how they can either strengthen or weaken certain behaviors. Examples include:

• Token Economies
• Contingency Management
• Modeling

Behavioral therapy is a treatment that helps change potentially self-destructing behaviors.

Psychotherapy refers to a variety of techniques and methods used to help children and adolescents who are experiencing difficulties with their emotions or behavior.

Child psychotherapists treat a variety of normal adjustment issues such as dealing with anxiety of a move, a new sibling, loss of a family member, fears, nightmares, peer difficulties, social skill problems, school avoidance or school performance, sibling rivalry, self-esteem issues or dealing with dating, parent-child issues and adolescent conflict.

Psychotherapy is often used in combination with other treatments (medication, behavior management, or work with the school). The relationship that develops between the therapist and the patient is very important. The child or adolescent must feel comfortable, safe and understood. This type of trusting environment makes it much easier for the child to express his/her thoughts and feelings and to use the therapy in a helpful way.

Goals of child and adolescent psychotherapy often depend on the nature of the presenting problem.  The goal is to carefully evaluate and diagnose children’s psychiatric problems and to develop treatment plans to alleviate the suffering these conditions can inflict on the children and their families.

Psychotherapy can help in many ways. One such therapy is called cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy, also known as CBT, describes the process where you work with a psychotherapist in several sessions with the objective to change your way of thinking, turning negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Cognitive behavioral therapy is common practice for treating adolescents, particularly those having anxiety issues and depression. CBT is a great way to acquiring techniques for dealing with stressful situations that teens may come across.

How CBT works

Cognitive Behavior Therapy works by helping you make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into smaller parts. It helps you stop these negative cycles. It aims to break down factors that are making you feel bad, anxious or scared so that they are more manageable. It can show you how to change these negative patterns to improve the way you feel. The main focus of CBT is that thoughts, feelings and behaviours combine to influence a person’s quality of life. It aims to teach people that it is possible to have control over their thoughts, feelings and behaviours

CBT focuses on changing unhelpful or unhealthy thoughts and behaviours. It is a combination of two therapies:

• Cognitive therapy – The aim of cognitive therapy is to change the way the person thinks about the issue that’s causing concern.
• Behaviour therapy – The aim of behavior therapy is to teach the person techniques or skills to alter their behaviour

The belief of both these techniques is that healthy thoughts lead to healthy feelings and behaviours. They can help you manage your problems them in a more positive way.

The Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, is the psychological acupressure technique.  It is a powerful and rapidly emerging technique for the transformation of your stresses, traumas, blocks and many other emotional challenges, as well as helping with the areas of performance and achieving your goals. It works by releasing blockages within the energy system which are the source of emotional intensity and discomfort.

EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments. It involves the use of fingertips rather than needles to tap on the end points of energy meridians that are situated just beneath the surface of the skin. The treatment is non-invasive and works on the ethos of making change as simple and as pain free as possible.

Benefits of emotional freedom therapy

• Remove Negative Emotions
• Reduce Food Cravings
• Reduce or Eliminate Pain
• Implement Positive Goals
• No drugs or equipment needed
• Usually rapid, long lasting relief from symptoms

Emotional freedom techniques restores awareness and trust in the natural healing abilities of our mind and body, providing ground-breaking opportunities to achieving physical and emotional well-being in a faster time frame.

Emotionally focused therapy (EFT) is a short-term (8-20 sessions) structured psychotherapy approach to working with individuals, couples and families. EFT is being used with many different kinds of couples in private practice, university training centres and hospital clinics and many different cultural groups throughout the world. EFT therapy is a method of treatment that works uniquely with the operation and function of the emotions within the context of the human experience.

EFT has been proven effective for individuals suffering from moderate depression, the effects of childhood deprivation or abuse, and a variety of general “problems of living”, including interpersonal problems.  also has demonstrated effectiveness for distressed couples..

EFT works on the basic principle that people must first arrive at a place before they can leave it. Therefore, in EFT an important goal is to arrive at the live experience of a maladaptive emotion (e.g., fear and shame) in order to transform it. The transformation comes from the client accessing a new primary adaptive emotional state in the session.

Goals of Emotionally Focused Therapy

• To expand and re-organize key emotional responses – the music of the attachment dance.
• To create a shift in partners’ interactional positions and initiate new cycles of interaction.
• To foster the creation of a secure bond between partners.

Emotionally focused therapy is aimed at providing the correct guidance and perspective thereby showing clients how to properly control, handle and dictate their emotional input.

Existential therapy is not about pathologising and considering people to be sick but struggling with the very problem of living and making sense of their particular circumstances. It does not focus on personality differences and approaches in trying to understand a client’s behavior. In fact, existential psychotherapists are not there to understand their clients – they assist their clients in understanding their own worlds and use themselves as an instrument to reveal that to clients.

Benefits of Existential Therapy

• It encourages the person to evaluate their values, beliefs and situation
• It acknowledge their limitations as well as the possibilities for their lives
• It emphasizes the individual’s inherent worth and dignity.
• It helps to find meaning and purpose in their lives
• It develop more effective ways of communicating
• It empowers the individual to make choices and take responsibility for his actions.

Existential therapy can be highly effective for youth and adults who are struggling to make healthy life choices.

Some common types of expressive therapy include:

• Art therapy
• Dance therapy
• Drama therapy
• Psychodrama
• Music therapy
• Writing therapy
• Therapeutic Recreation
• Horticultural therapy

All these expressive therapists share the belief that through creative expression and the tapping of the imagination, a person can examine the body, feelings, emotions and his or her thought process. They can give you a richer vocabulary to work, play and grow a life you love living.

Expressive Arts specializes in working with people who are afraid of doing art or need to unblock or reconnect to artful expression in their lives. it is the practice of using imagery, storytelling, dance, music, drama, poetry, movement, horticulture, dream work, and visual arts together, in an integrated way, to foster human growth, development, and healing

It is a family-focused and individualized approach that is unique to each client and his or her family’s needs. It deepens and transcends traditional talk therapy by acknowledging that each client’s process is unique. While on one hand a client might like talk therapy, another might prefer to use journaling, movement, art, or a combination of different experiences during therapy.

Family therapy is a type of psychological counseling (psychotherapy) done to help family members improve communication and resolve conflicts. It is designed to address specific issues that affect the psychological health of the family, such as major life transitions or mental health conditions.

Family therapy addresses the problems people present within the context of their relationships with significant persons in their lives and their social networks. It enables family members, couples and others who care about each other to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, to understand each other’s experiences and views, appreciate each other’s needs, build on strengths and make useful changes in their relationships and their lives.

Family therapy is often used to address

• Step-family issues
• Divorce or separation
• Sibling issues
• Child discipline issues
• Eating disorderof a family member
• Adoption concerns
• Multi-generational family concerns

The Benefits of Family Therapy

• It deepens family connections
• It promotes understanding and collaboration among family members
• Teaches ways to handle conflicts and changes within the family differently
• Assists in identifying conflicts and anxieties and helps the family develop strategies to resolve them.
• It also helps reduce symptoms such aseating disorders or alcohol use problems
• It enables people to talk, together or individually, often about difficult or distressing issues, in ways that respect their experiences, invite engagement and support recovery

Gestalt therapy is an exploration rather than an attempt to control a person’s behavior,
feelings, or thoughts. The only goal is growth and autonomy through an increase in
awareness. It teaches people to become aware of significant sensations within themselves and their environment so that they respond fully and reasonably to situations. The focus is on the “here and now” rather than on past experiences.

One method utilized in Gestalt therapy is the empty-chair technique. The chair serves an important function.   When the client sits opposite an empty chair and then mentally places into that chair someone significant, who has caused them pain or trouble. Thus, the “empty chair technique” stimulates your thinking, highlighting your emotions and attitudes.

During this therapy the client is encouraged to bring out hidden feelings. It can give rise to emotional scenes, and the previously buried emotions which need to be handled carefully.

The objective of Gestalt therapy is to enable the client to become more fully and creatively alive and to become free from the blocks and unfinished business that may diminish satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth, and to experiment with new ways of being.

During your first visit, you will be asked about your medical history and what condition you would like to address. The hypnotherapist may explain to you what hypnotherapy is and how it works. You will then be directed through relaxation techniques, using a series of mental images and suggestions intended to change behaviors and relieve symptoms. For example, people who have panic attacks may be given the suggestion that, in the future, they will be able to relax whenever they want. The hypnotherapist will also teach you the basics of self hypnosis and give you an audiotape to use at home so you can reinforce what you learn during the session.

Benefits of hypnotherapy

• Manage stress
• Quit smoking
• Accelerate healing
• Control pain
• Improve sleep
• Overcome phobias, fear, anxiety
• Develop self- esteem
• Increase motivation
• Enhance memory
• Healing physical, mental or sexual abuse
• Losing weight

During hypnosis, your body relaxes and your thoughts become more focused. Hypnosis can actually teach people how to master their own states of awareness. It can affect their own bodily functions and psychological responses.

Integrative Therapies offers a multidisciplinary approach to patient care in a friendly and comfortable environment. Integrative therapy is not seeking to change the person. It seeks to recall all the wholesome and healthy parts of the self and re-integrate them into the functional self. This is a uniquely individual process and, rather than changing you, it seeks to make you more you.

Benefits of Integrative Therapy

• It helps identify the causes of current concerns
• It helps to identify factors that perpetuate problems, and also help patients become aware of fears or hurts that limit their psychological freedom.

Practitioners in this field embrace an attitude towards the practice of psychotherapy that affirms the inherent value of each individual. It is a unifying psychotherapy that responds appropriately and effectively to the person at the emotional, behavioural, cognitive and physiological levels of functioning. The aim of integrative psychotherapy is to facilitate wholeness so that the quality of the person’s being and functioning in life is maximized with due regard for each individual’s own personal limited and external constraints.

IPT is a type of time-limited psychotherapeutic depression treatment which focuses on recent life stressors of losses, changes or conflicts in current relationships that underlie distress. Examples of the types of interpersonal problems for which this treatment approach can be helpful include disputes with significant others, grief and loss, and social role transitions, such as retirement or divorce.

Techniques of interpersonal therapy include:

• Identification of Emotion— helping the person identifies what their emotion is and where it is coming from.
• Expression of Emotion— this involves helping the person express their emotions in a healthy way.
• Dealing with Emotional Baggage— often, people bring unresolved issues from past relationships to their present relationships. By looking at how these past relationships affect their present mood and behavior, they are in a better position to be objective in their present relationships.

The primary goal of this therapy is to improve communication skills and increase self-esteem during a short period of time. It usually lasts three to four months and works well for depression caused by loss and grief, relationship conflicts, major life events, social isolation, or role transitions.

Mind-body therapies are treatments that are meant to help the mind’s ability to affect the functions and symptoms of the body. They are designed to enhance the mind’s positive impact on the body.

Types of Mind-Body Therapies

Mind-body therapies use various approaches. Some of them are:

• Biofeedback
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Creative and expressive arts therapies (art, music, or dance)
• Dialectical behavioral therapy
• Guided imagery and self-hypnosis
• Heart-centered practices
• Massage
• Meditation
• Mindfulness
• Prayer
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Support groups
• Tai chi
• Yoga

How does mind-body therapy works

When you are physically or emotionally stressed, your body releases stress hormones that can affect all your systems and organs. For example, stress related to hostility and anxiety can result in disruptions in heart and immune function. Similarly, depression and distress may diminish the body’s natural capacity to heal. The goal of mind-body techniques is to get the body and mind to relax and to reduce the levels of stress hormones in the body, so that your immune system is better able to fight off illness. Mind-Body Therapy enables you to cease the stress process, creating an empowered mind and body that become resilient to the effects of daily life. It enable you control of the autonomic nervous system to decrease the stress response. Many mind-body therapies focus on becoming more conscious of mental states.

Narrative therapy seeks to be a respectful, non-blaming approach to counseling and community work, which centers people as the experts in their own lives. It views problems as separate from people and assumes people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives.

The narrative therapist focuses upon narrative in the therapy. The narrative therapist is a collaborator with the client in the process of developing richer (or “thicker”) narratives. In this process, narrative therapists ask questions to generate experientially vivid descriptions of life events that are not currently included in the plot of the problematic story

Narrative therapy works by helping people ‘deconstruct’ unproductive stories in order to ‘reconstruct’ positive ones. In the process of re-storing experiences, especially where unhappy emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety and depression dominate, new and more empowering events can restore lives.

Narrative Therapy can:

Improve Personal and Family Relationships

• Provides an environment for respect and value to flourish.
• Create positive interactions
• Transform negative communication or responses into more accepting, non-judgmental and meaningful exchanges.

In Narrative therapy a person’s beliefs, skills, principles, and knowledge in the end help them regain their life from a problem.

NLP techniques provide new ways of dealing with emotional problems such as low self esteem, anxiety, lack of confidence, destructive relationship patterns and are successful in effective bereavement counselling. It is suitable for business professionals, teachers, sales people, counselors and therapists.

Advantages of Neuro Linguistic Program Therapy

• Improves management skills
• Improves Communication
• Increase motivational and leadership skills
• Develop the right attitude and behavior in dealing with illnesses or other medical condition.
• Improve the personality for better interpersonal relations with co-workers or with family members.
• Help people to improve and attain success in any area of their lives.

Neuro Linguistic Program Therapy is designed to provide expedited results and to provide comprehension to a person’s behavior and cognitive patterns.

Psychoanalysis is a treatment approach based on the observation that individuals are often unaware of many of the factors that determine their emotions and behaviour.

Psychoanalysis, as a treatment method, is based on concepts concerning unconscious mental processes originally developed by Sigmund Freud and further developed by a considerable number of experienced psychoanalysts who have followed.

The aim of the practice of psychoanalysis is to assist clients in achieving a greater self awareness of hidden emotions and patterns of thinking that could be influencing current behaviors and other emotional processes. It is commonly believed that most behavior comes from the subconscious or unconscious mind. Since behavior is determined by subconscious thought, the analyst attempts to reach the patient with concepts such as free word association. This helps to bring out things that may be hidden from the conscious mind. The objective is to allow individuals to continue to speak in a comfortable and non-judgmental environment where hidden thoughts and emotions are gradually brought to the conscious awareness.

Psychoanalysis is commonly used to treat

• Depression
• Anxiety disorders

Psychoanalysis is an effective treatment for many people with moderate to severe difficulties and who have had unsuccessful attempts with briefer therapies. Many people come to analysis because of a pattern of repeated failures in work or in love. Others recognize self destructive patterns of behavior they are unable to change. Others need analysis because the way they are their character substantially limits their choices and their.

Psychoanalysis can take years of regular therapy sessions. If you are suffering with a great deal of emotional distress and have no clue as to why, you may benefit from psychological therapy.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a form of psychotherapy and a philosophy of living. It was one of the very first types of cognitive therapies. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is based on the concept that emotions and behaviours result from cognitive processes; and that it is possible for human beings to modify such processes to achieve different ways of feeling and behaving. REBT was originally called ‘Rational Therapy’, soon changed to ‘Rational-Emotive Therapy’ and again in the early 1990’s to ‘Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy’.

REBT has been successfully used to help people with a range of clinical and non-clinical problems,

• Depression
• Anxiety disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobias, generalized anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, etc.
• Eating disorders, addictions, impulse control disorders
• Anger management, antisocial behaviour, personality disorders
• Sexual abuse recovery
• Adjustment to chronic health problem, physical disability, or mental disorder
• Pain management
• General stress management
• Child or adolescent behaviour disorders
• Relationship and family problems
• Personal growth
• Workplace effectiveness

The Basic Steps in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

• Identifying the underlying irrational thought patterns and beliefs
• Challenging the irrational beliefs
• Gaining Insight and Recognizing Irrational Thought Patterns

The goal of REBT is to help people change their irrational beliefs into rational beliefs. Changing beliefs is the real work of therapy and is achieved by the therapist disputing the client’s irrational beliefs.

Spiritual Psychotherapy is a kind of therapy to deal with life issues through the perspective of your spiritual world. it reveals the basic rule that how you relate to yourself is how you relate to others.  Therefore, how others are relating to you and how you feel about it, offers a good reflection of how you really are relating to yourself. It helps you attune to and release bound emotional pain from the body, energy system and causal level of consciousness.

Benefits of Spiritual Psychotherapy

• Release guilt, shame, humiliation, disappointment, resentment, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness and grief.
• Resolve inner conflicts; find personal integration and inner peace.
• Develop Self-Love, forgiveness, compassion and acceptance, as well as inner strength and personal empowerment.
• Heal relationship, sexuality and intimacy issues and learn to develop healthy relationships.
• Find deep meaning & spiritual perspective during times of crisis, change & life transition.
• Create the life and relationships your heart most deeply desires.
• Live your life as a Sacred and Meaningful Journey

Therapists may inquire about a client’s spiritual beliefs and encourage clients to connect with their spiritual communities. They may also point out areas where spiritual beliefs, practices or relationships seem to be causing, not relieving unnecessary suffering, or seem to contradict a value, goal or belief the client has expressed.

Technique of Transactional Analysis

Transactional analysis utilizes the ‘parent adult child’ theory and is applied throughout many fields, including medical, therapeutic, communications, business management, clinical, organizational, behavioral and personal.

• The Parent, which consists of what a person does and tells others to do because they were told it was the right way by authority figures, such as their parents, teachers, and government.
• The Adult, which consists of thoughts and behaviors resulting from reason, careful consideration, and the intellect.
• The Child, which consists of purely emotional thoughts and behaviors, such as anger and humor.

 Uses of Transactional Analysis

Transactional analysis is used by counselors and clinicians who strive to address the present problems. It is also used widely in the educational arena and provides a vessel through which educational principles and philosophy can be transformed into the daily lives of students. It can be used in any field where there is a need for understanding of individuals, relationships and communication.

Antisocial personality is a type of chronic mental condition in which a person’s ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional and destructive. Someone with antisocial personality disorder will typically be manipulative, reckless and not care for other people’s feelings. People with antisocial personality disorder typically have no regard for right and wrong and often disregard the rights, wishes and feelings of others.

Symptoms

• Have difficulty sustaining long-term relationships
• Not be able to control their anger
• Break the law repeatedly
• Not show guilt or remorse
• Often be angry or arrogant
• Being irritable and aggressive
• Disregard the safety of self and others

People with antisocial personality disorder typically have no regard for right and wrong and often disregard the rights, wishes and feelings of others. Someone with antisocial personality disorder will typically have an antisocial or alcoholic parent, and will have grown up with harsh, inconsistent parenting.

This behaviour becomes most extreme and challenging during the late teens and early 20s, and may improve by the time the person reaches their 40s. It is very difficult to treat. A mental health provider can question individuals who are over 18 years about past and current behaviors. This will help detect signs and symptoms that could support a diagnosis of ASPD. The main treatment is psychotherapy, which involves talking to a trained therapist about feelings that the person has about themself and other people, particularly family and those close to them.

Borderline Personality is a mental disorder.  It is a serious emotional condition, typically with a tendency towards unstable and turbulent emotions, heightened anger, feelings of emptiness, and fears of being left alone. This disorder occurs in most by early adulthood.

The main feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions. People with borderline personality disorder are also usually very impulsive.

Symptoms include:

• Persistent impulsiveness
• Deep feelings of insecurity
• Confused, contradictory feelings
• Anxiety or mood disorders
• Causing deliberate pain by cutting, burning or hitting oneself
• Binge eating or starving; abusing alcohol and other drugs

The exact causes of BPD remain unknown, although the roles of both environmental and biological factors are thought to play a role in people who develop this illness.

It is diagnosed by mental health professionals following a comprehensive psychiatric interview that may include talking with a person’s previous clinicians, reviews of prior records, a medical evaluation, and when appropriate, interviews with friends and family.

The most effective treatment usually involves a combination of, psychological therapy, medication and support. Psychological therapies that have been found to be effective in the treatment of BPD are Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). During IPT, a person learns new and effective ways to relate to significant people in their lives. DBT helps people learn to handle their emotions better and re-learn the way they typically respond to situations and other people.

Dependent personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people depend too much on others to meet their emotional and physical needs.  This personality disorder is a long-term (chronic) condition in which people depend on others to meet their emotional and physical needs, with only a minority achieving normal levels of independence. Individuals with Dependent Personality Disorder are often characterized by pessimism and self-doubt, tend to belittle their abilities and assets, and may constantly refer to themselves as “stupid.”

Symptoms 

• Inability to make decisions, even everyday decisions like what to wear, without the advice and reassurance of others.
• Feelings of helplessness when alone
• An inability to disagree with others
• Avoidance of disagreeing with others for fear of losing support or approval.
• Inability to start projects or tasks because of a lack of self-confidence.
• Oversensitivity to criticism.
• Urgently seeks another relationshipas a source of care and support when a close relationship ends
• Willingness to tolerate mistreatment and abuse from others.
• Having problems expressing disagreements with others

Like most personality disorders, dependent personality disorder typically will decrease in intensity with age, with many people experiencing few of the most extreme symptoms by the time they are in the 40s or 50s.

Talk therapy is considered to be the most effective treatment. The aim is to help people with this condition make more independent choices in life. Medicines may help treat other mental health conditions, such as anxiety or depression that occur along with this disorder. This type of therapy helps individuals develop new ways of thinking, behaving, and communicating.

Narcissistic personality is a personality disorder in which a person is excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity, mentally unable to see the destructive damage they are causing to themselves and to others in the process. People with this disorder often believe they are of primary importance in everybody’s life or to anyone they meet.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder involves arrogant behavior, a lack of empathy for other people, and a need for admiration-all of which must be consistently evident at work and in relationships. People who are narcissistic are frequently described as cocky, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. People with narcissistic personality disorder are not interested in the feelings of others – they lack empathy; they are unable to feel or appreciate feelings which are not their own. When you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may be little or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may have a sense of entitlement. And when you don’t receive the special treatment to which you feel entitled, you may become very impatient or angry.

Many people with narcissistic personality disorder don’t seek out treatment. A diagnosis for narcissistic personality disorder is made by a mental health professional comparing your symptoms and life history with those listed here. They will make a determination whether your symptoms meet the criteria necessary for a personality disorder diagnosis.

Treatment of narcissistic personality disorder typically involves long-term psychotherapy with a therapist that has experience in treating this kind of personality disorder. Medications may also be prescribed to help with specific troubling and debilitating symptoms.

Paranoid personality is a mental health condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of distrust and suspicion of others. Individuals with Paranoid Personality Disorder are generally difficult to get along with and often have problems with close relationships. They lack trust in others, they have an excessive need to be self-sufficient and a strong sense of autonomy.

Symptoms of paranoid personality

• Doubt the commitment, loyalty, or trustworthiness of others
• Are generally cold and distant in their relationships with others, and might become controlling and jealous
• Concern that other people have hidden motives
• Expectation that they will be exploited (used) by others
• Inability to work together with others
• Perceives attacks on his or her character or reputation that are not apparent to others

Paranoid personality disorder is more prevalent in males than females. Like most personality disorders, paranoid personality disorder typically will decrease in intensity with age, with many people experiencing few of the most extreme symptoms by the time they are in the 40s or 50s.

Treatment

People with Paranoid personality often do not seek treatment on their own because they do not see themselves as having a problem. The distrust of others felt by people with PPD also poses a challenge for health care professionals because trust is an important factor of psychotherapy (a form of counseling). As a result, many people with paranoid personality do not follow their treatment plan. When treatment is sought, psychotherapy is the treatment of choice for PPD. Treatment likely will focus on increasing general coping skills, as well as on improving social interaction, communication, and self-esteem.

Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness, and apathy. It affects more males than females. If you have schizoid personality disorder, you may be seen as a loner, and you may lack the desire or skill to form close personal relationships.

Symptoms

• Prefer being alone and usually choose solitary activities
• Prize independence and have few close friendships
• Feel confused about how to respond to normal social cues and generally have little to say
• Feel little if any desire for sexual relationships
• Feel unable to experience pleasure
• Come off as dull, indifferent or emotionally cold
• Feel unmotivated and tend to underperform at school or work

The disorder manifests itself by early adulthood through social and emotional detachments that prevent people from having close relationships. People with it are able to function in everyday life, but will not develop meaningful relationships with others.

Many people with schizoid personality disorder don’t seek out treatment. A diagnosis for schizoid personality disorder is made by a mental health professional comparing your symptoms and life history. They will make a determination whether your symptoms meet the criteria necessary for a personality disorder diagnosis.

Treatment of schizoid personality disorder typically involves long-term psychotherapy with a therapist that has experience in treating this kind of personality disorder. Medications may also be prescribed to help with specific troubling and debilitating symptoms.

Symptoms

• Being a loner and lacking close friends outside of the immediate family
• Discomfort in social situations
• Peculiar, eccentric or unusual thinking, beliefs or behavior
• Dressing in peculiar ways
• Belief in special powers, such as telepathy
• Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar
• Suspicious or paranoid ideas, hypersensitivity, and constant doubts about the loyalty and fidelity of others
• Flat emotions, or limited or inappropriate emotional responses
• Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self

Schizotypal personality disorder typically is diagnosed in early adulthood and likely to endure, though symptoms may improve with age. Medications and therapy also may help. Psychotherapy, also called talk therapy, may help people with schizotypal personality disorder begin to trust others by building a trusting relationship with a therapist. Psychotherapy may include, for example, learning specific social skills and behaviors (behavior therapy) or identifying and changing distorted thought patterns (cognitive therapy). Treatment can be more effective when family members are involved (family therapy). Seeking professional counseling as a group may help reduce fighting or emotional distance and improve trust in the home.