This kind of psychological therapy helps through your thoughts ("cognitions") and actions ("behaviours"). It is particularly effective in reducing anxiety, and also useful with depression. Relationship problems are not central to this approach.

Behaviour Therapy
The first use of this therapy was for phobias. People with a specific fear tend to avoid the thing they fear. For example a fear of spiders can be controlled by not going into old buildings. A fear of medical procedures can be controlled by not going to hospital. This keeps the anxiety down, but means that the sufferer cannot go to these places. Joseph Wolpe showed that systematic desensitisation can allow the phobic person to approach the object in graded steps. The anxiety is manageable at every step, so the sufferer does not need to run away.

Behaviour therapy will help with obsessions, generalised anxiety, agoraphobia, tics and blushing, and many other conditions.

Cognitive Therapy
Aaron Beck developed this approach while working with patients with who were depressed. He noticed that people who are depressed tend to have unhelpful patterns of thinking. Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) can be
Catastrophic - "things are as bad as they could possibly be"
My fault - "it's raining - I should never have got out of bed"
Out of control - "the whole of society's gone this way"

In cognitive therapy you would confront unhelpful thoughts. This would relieve depression and allow you to think coping thoughts. Then you regain the energy to deal with problems.

Monitoring
Troublesome internal sensations - stomach in a knot, heart pounding, trembling - may occur in particular situations. It is helpful to recognise the connections between the inside and the outside. Sometimes it helps to keep a diary.

Skill practice
Many problems can be reduced by combining skilled behaviour and coping thoughts. Therapy of this kind usually involves practising a skill such as:

• Progressive Muscle Relaxation: anxiety can be reduced by practising this technique
• Assertion: "saying Yes" and "saying No" need to be rehearsed.Body language, such as height and voice, need practice and feedback.

Homework
The skills learned in the clinic need to be practised at home. After a couple of weeks of practice at home, it is usually possible to try the same skills in more difficult situations.


This kind of psychological therapy allows you to understand feelings and improve close relationships. The word "dynamic" describes the relationship between your conscious self and the pressures of impulses and conscience of which you are less aware.



In this psychological therapy the therapist does not give active direction, but gives reflection of your feelings and interpretation. An interpretation is a suggestion about a link between feelings in different relationships. Links between three types of relationships are:

Current - Past - Transference
The most important past relationships are those with your mother and father.
Brothers, grandparents and others may also be relevant.

Transference
This describes the feelings you develop to the therapist. These may include a longing to be understood, trust or mistrust, and gratitude or resentment. Such feelings may be related to the personality of the therapist, but are probably more to do with relationships with parents. The therapist will attempt to make these connections. The therapist will try not bring too much of his or her personality to the sessions, so that it is clear what takes places comes from within you.

Good and Bad feelings
The main problem with close relationships is how to deal with negative emotions. These may include irritation at the other person's habits in the bathroom or time-keeping, or your reluctance to make commitments. Therapy should help you express the negative feelings in your relationships in an acceptable way.

It will benefit you to try to attend all sessions at the agreed time. Appointments are usually for an "hour", of 50 minutes. This time is for you to use for your own benefit. Being late or early, or tending to overrun after 50 minutes, may be relevant ways of stating feelings. You should consider any feelings of reluctance to attend in terms of your past relationships.

Clients in dynamic therapy often find the first two or three sessions rewarding, but frustrations start to creep in. Pressure on your time and money may start to seem more important. At this time the urge to miss a session becomes stronger. It is important to attend and put this urge into words, rather than act on it by staying away.

A particular number of sessions is recommended. This therapy is most beneficial if you attend for that number, and do the homework. Dropping out after coming once or twice will not help you much. You may agree a definite number of sessions, e.g. 16, with your therapist. As the prospect of leaving therapy looms closer, feelings of anxiety or resentment about being abandoned. These feelings will compete with gratitude for the changes you have been able to make. Again it is important to attend and put this mixture of feelings into words.

Therapist