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All-or-nothing thinking
Classifying objects or events as absolutely right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable, and so forth.
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Antidepressants
Mood-elevating drugs.
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Antipsychotics
Drugs that, in addition to having tranquilizing effects, also tend to reduce hallucinations and delusional thinking. (Also calledmajor tranquilizers.)
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Anxiolytics
Drugs (such as Valium) that produce relaxation or reduce anxiety
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Authenticity
In Carl Rogers’s terms, the ability of a therapist to be genuine and honest about his or her own feelings.
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Aversion therapy
Suppressing an undesirable response by associating it with aversive (painful or uncomfortable) stimuli.
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Behavior modification
The application of learning principles to change human behavior, especially maladaptive behavior.
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Behavior therapy
Any therapy designed to actively change behavior.
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Brief psychodynamic therapy
A modern therapy based on psychoanalytic theory but designed to produce insights more quickly
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Client-centered (or person-centered) therapy
A nondirective therapy based on insights gained from conscious thoughts and feelings; emphasizes accepting one’s true self.
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Cognitive therapy
A therapy directed at changing the maladaptive thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that underlie emotional and behavioral problems.
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Community mental health center
A facility offering a wide range of mental health services, such as prevention, counseling, consultation, and crisis intervention.
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Covert reinforcement
Using positive imagery to reinforce desired behavior.
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Covert sensitization
Use of aversive imagery to reduce the occurrence of an undesired response.
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Crisis intervention
Skilled management of a psychological emergency.
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Culturally skilled therapist
A therapist who has the awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary to treat clients from diverse cultural backgrounds.
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Deinstitutionalization
Reduced use of full-time commitment to mental institutions to treat mental disorders.
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Demonology
In medieval Europe, the study of demons and the treatment of persons “possessed” by demons.
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Dream symbols
Images in dreams whose personal or emotional meanings differ from their literal meanings.
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Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
A treatment for severe depression, consisting of an electric shock passed directly through the brain, which induces a convulsion.
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Empathy
A capacity for taking another’s point of view; the ability to feel what another is feeling.
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Encounter group
A group experience that emphasizes intensely honest interchanges among participants regarding feelings and reactions to one another.
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Existential therapy
An insight therapy that focuses on the elemental problems of existence, such as death, meaning, choice, and responsibility; emphasizes making courageous life choices.
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Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
A technique for reducing fear or anxiety; based on holding upsetting thoughts in mind while rapidly moving the eyes from side to side.
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Family therapy
Technique in which all family members participate, both individually and as a group, to change destructive relationships and communication patterns.
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Free association
In psychoanalysis, the technique of having a client say anything that comes to mind, regardless of how embarrassing or unimportant it may seem.
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Gestalt therapy
An approach that focuses on immediate experience and awareness to help clients rebuild thinking, feeling, and acting into connected wholes; emphasizes the integration of fragmented experiences.
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Group therapy
Psychotherapy conducted in a group setting to make therapeutic use of group dynamics.
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Half-way house
A community-based facility for individuals making the transition from an institution (mental hospital, prison, and so forth) to independent living.
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Hierarchy
A rank-ordered series of higher and lower amounts, levels, degrees, or steps.
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Large-group awareness training
Any of a number of programs (many of them commercialized) that claim to increase selfawareness and facilitate constructive personal change.
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Latent dream content
The hidden or symbolic meaning of a dream, as revealed by dream interpretation and analysis.
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Manifest dream content
The surface, “visible” content of a dream; dream images as they are remembered by the dreamer.
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Mental hospitalization
Placing a person in a protected, therapeutic environment staffed by mental health professionals.
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Mirror technique
Observing another person re-enact one’s own behavior, like a character in a play; designed to help persons see themselves more clearly.
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Overgeneralization
Blowing a single event out of proportion by extending it to a large number of unrelated situations.
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Paraprofessional
An individual who works in a near-professional capacity under the supervision of a more highly trained person.
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Partial hospitalization
An approach in which patients receive treatment at a hospital during the day, but return home at night.
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Peer counselor
A nonprofessional person who has learned basic counseling skills.
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Pharmacotherapy
The use of drugs to alleviate the symptoms of emotional disturbance.
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Psychoanalysis
A Freudian therapy that emphasizes the use of free association, dream interpretation, resistances, and transference to uncover unconscious conflicts.
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Psychodrama
A therapy in which clients act out personal conflicts and feelings in the presence of others who play supporting roles.
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Psychosurgery
Any surgical alteration of the brain designed to bring about desirable behavioral or emotional changes.
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Psychotherapy
Any psychological technique used to facilitate positive changes in a person’s personality, behavior, or adjustment.
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Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
An approach that states that irrational beliefs cause many emotional problems and that such beliefs must be changed or abandoned.
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Reciprocal inhibition
The presence of one emotional state can inhibit the occurrence of another, such as joy preventing fear or anxiety inhibiting pleasure.
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Reflection
In client-centered therapy, the process of rephrasing or repeating thoughts and feelings expressed by clients so they can become aware of what they are saying.
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Resistance
A blockage in the flow of free association; topics the client resists thinking or talking about.
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Role reversal
Taking the role of another person to learn how one’s own behavior appears from the other person’s perspective.
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Selective perception
Perceiving only certain stimuli among a larger array of possibilities.
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Self-help group
A group of people who share a particular type of problem and provide mutual support to one another.
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Sensitivity group
A group experience consisting of exercises designed to increase self-awareness and sensitivity to others.
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Somatic therapy
Any bodily therapy, such as drug therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, or psychosurgery.
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Systematic desensitization
A reduction in fear, anxiety, or aversion brought about by planned exposure to aversive stimuli.
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Tension-release method
A procedure for systematically achieving deep relaxation of the body.
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Therapeutic alliance
A caring relationship that unites a therapist and a client in working to solve the client’s problems.
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Therapy placebo effect
Improvement caused not by the actual process of therapy but by a client’s expectation that therapy will help.
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Thought stopping
Use of aversive stimuli to interrupt or prevent upsetting thoughts.
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Token economy
A therapeutic program in which desirable behaviors are reinforced with tokens that can be exchanged for goods, services, activities, and privileges.
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Transference
The tendency of patients to transfer feelings to a therapist that correspond to those the patient had for important persons in his or her past.
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Unconditional positive regard
An unqualified, unshakable acceptance of another person.
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Vicarious desensitization
A reduction in fear or anxiety that takes place vicariously (“secondhand”) when a client watches models perform the feared behavior.
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Virtual reality exposure
Use of computergenerated images to present fear stimuli. The virtual environment responds to a viewer’s head movements and other inputs.
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