I am a behavioral science student and we are recently discussing about Introduction to Behavior Change. We discussed about various treatment models and would like ask people here if what treatment models do they prefer and WHY?
- Classical Psychoanalysis/Psychoanalytic Therapy
- Adlerian Psychotherapy
- Object Relations Therapy
- Person-Centered Therapy
- Existential Therapy
- Gestalt Therapy
- Behavior Therapy
- Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
I like person-centered therapy for less serious mental health issues. I think everyone could benefit from it.
Great question 😁
For my own choice, I prefer the model of CBT for a few reasons over say psychoanalysis.
While it may be said that the social sciences, in general, suffer in terms of Popper's ideas of falsifiability, I think this is particularly true of say typical Freudian psychoanalysis which was also far too fatalistic for my liking. It was improved by Freud's daughter Anna and people like Jung, but for me, psychoanalysis never piqued my interest due to the inherent problems of falsifiability.
CCT or client-centered therapy with practitioners like Rogers also interested me. I think Rogers made some excellent points about empathic listening and allowing the client to direct therapy, as well as his sense of the patient themselves coming to a realisation themselves.
But my love of stoicism and stoic philosophy and the idea that controlling one's own mind in response to external circumstances allowed for therapeutic growth pushed me towards CBT. And CBT is what I would always endorse since there seems to be a growing and existing respectable literature on using it for a wide variety of issues such as depression and anxiety.
CBT seems to put the ultimate control back within the individual's power and which I love. One could pick up Aurelius or Epictetus and think they're reading a modern CBT manuscript with so much of what he says.
To be honest, I treat my preference for psychological schools like my music collection, best to be eclectic. There are diamonds in every school, but as I stated my predominant preference is for the cognitive approach. Recognising aberrant, or illogical thought processes and addressing them directly is an intuitive and effective approach.
What about you? Is there any paradigm or school you're more fond of?