People turn to mental therapy in their attempt of solving some psychological problems and they either can go alone to a therapist, either as a couple, family or a group. Through the psychotherapeutic interaction with a trained professional, they can address a very large types and number of problems, as long as they fit in the expertise area of the therapist they go to.
One of the main focuses of mental therapy is to improve the well-being state of a certain individual, as well as to increase his or her perception about this state of his or her. In order to do that, the psychotherapist turns to a various set of techniques in the attempt of finding the best approach. These techniques range from simple communication expressed through dialogue, to relationship building and behavior amendments and they aim at bringing or improving the mental health, be it for an individual or for a group.
Mental therapy can be practiced legally by a various numbers of professional specialized in areas like psychiatry, psychiatric social work, clinical psychology, mental health counseling, counseling psychology, family and marriage counseling, school counseling, art therapy, play therapy, dance therapy, clinical social work, drama therapy, psychiatric nursing, occupational therapy and psychoanalysis. For all these professions the requirements vary, but unlike some countries that are more legally restrictive in this direction, the practice of psychotherapy in Europe is not restricted only to psychologists or psychiatrists. The main requirements in this case are a graduated school and experience due to supervised work in a clinic.
The psychological treatment is aiming at patients with mental illnesses and bases its theory on the idea that every mental illness or disorder is a cause of the way the subject perceives things and the manner in which he or she reacts, as a consequence of the way of perceiving. Therefore, such a treatment helps the patients work on and change the way they perceive specific things, in order to improve their overall functioning.
One of the psychological therapies is the cognitive behavioral therapy and it studies in detail the way the thoughts and behavior patterns of the patient work both separately and together. By sitting and discussing intensely, the patient and the therapist work out new ways of thinking that can bring improvements and this method is usually employed to treat disorders like anxiety and, in some cases, even more severe psychological disorders like schizophrenia.
Similar to method like the cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy aims at improving the patient’s social relationships, which further impact on his thoughts and behavior.
Unlike the two above, the dialectical behavior therapy rather aims at patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. Overall functional improvement is the target of this therapy, as well.
A different approach on mental illnesses and disorder is the medication based treatments. However, these are employed in the more severe states of the patients and are mostly based on drugs like antidepressants, antipsychotic and mood stabilizing medications. They all are very efficient in cases of phobias, depressions, panic and eating disorders.