Psychotherapy is a general term which refers to a therapeutic communication between a mental health professional and a mental
health patient through scheduled sessions. These sessions help the patient become more familiar with their feelings, thoughts, and behavioural patterns when interacting with their environment and the people around them. They help the patient understand the reasons behind unhelpful, disruptive and destructive patterns and also help them learn to change these patterns. The emphasis of psychotherapy is mostly on the conscious part of the mind and some of its goals are to help the patient manage stress, reduce anxiety and depression,
cope and adapt better with the environment, and realize self growth in general. Some of the more prevalent types of psychotherapy are: Schema Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT), Client/Person-Centered Therapy (CCT/PCT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy(ACT), Gestalt Therapy, and Existential Therapy, and Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is the oldest form of psychotherapy and was first created by Sigmund Freud and was further developed and modified by other prominent psychologists since, which has created many different approaches towards psychoanalysis. The psychoanalyst uses a technique called free association in interacting with patients during sessions to explore the unconscious mind and its effect on the emotions, behaviours, and relationships of the patient. The psychoanalyst tries to bring the mentally disruptive parts of the unconscious mind to consciousness. In general, psychoanalysis deals with the exploration of the unconscious mind. This exploration helps the patients understand their unconscious mind better and in turn understand the reasons behind unhelpful and disruptive behaviours and relationships and try to correct them. Aside from learning theory, it is essential for psychoanalysts to go through psychoanalysis with a qualified professional. This is not necessarily true about other forms of psychotherapy. Different approaches to psychotherapy include, Object Relation, Interpersonal Relational, Intersubjective, Ego Psychology, and Self Psychology.
