Check point: Psychotherapies Essay

Psychotherapy is a psychological technique that can bring about positive changes in personality, behavior, or personal adjustment (Coon & Mitterer,2013). There are many therapies that help people learn how to be more positive and helps a person adjust the way they behave or look at themselves. The Three types of psychotherapies that this paper will summarize by discussing the main tenets of each therapy, their effectiveness in treating psychological disorders, and their strengths are existence therapy, cognitive therapy, and Rational-emotive behavior therapy. Existence therapy focuses on the problems of existence, such as meaning, choice, and responsibility, it also promotes self-knowledge, as well as emphasizes free will, the human ability to make choices(). This type of therapy is effective in treating depression and feeling like ones has no self-worth, or meaning in life. When existential therapy is successful, it brings about a renewed sense of purpose and a reappraisal of what’s important in life. Some clients even experience an emotional rebirth, as if they had survived a close brush with death (Coon & Mitterer,2013). The next one is cognitive therapy, this type of therapy focuses on helping clients change thinking patterns that lead to troublesome emotions or behaviors. The aim is to teach clients how to cope with anger, depression, shyness, stress, and similar problems. This type of therapy is as effective as taking drugs when treating many cases of depression. It helps a person adopt new thinking patterns which often helps to reduce the chances of being depressed again, drugs do not have this effect (Coon & Mitterer,2013). The last one that will be discussed in this paper is also in the cognitive therapy family it’s known as the Ration-Emotive Behavior therapy or REBT for short. This therapy attempts to change irrational beliefs that cause  emotional problems. According to psychologist people become unhappy and develop self-defeating habits because they have unrealistic or faulty beliefs. In order to fight depression psychologists attacks a person’s logic, challenge their thinking, and confront them with evidence contrary to their beliefs (Coon & Mitterer,2013). In the end REBT is supposed to help a person realize that they bring themselves down be thinking irrationally. Psychologists may ask the patient questions like, â€Å"Where is the evidence that you are a loser just because you didn’t do well this one time?† Once challenged by this question the patient will learn to understand that the more rational belief about one’s self is, mistakes happen, and the best thing one can do is learn from the mistake. Reference Page Coon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. (2013). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.