Definition
Psychotherapy is defined as a method of treating mental illness and can be practiced by psychotherapists as well as alternative practitioners. This requires special psychotherapeutic training, which can be completed as a psychologist or psychiatrist. Psychotherapy covers a very broad field and works with different techniques.
Introduction
Psychotherapy is a form of therapy recognized by the health insurance company, which aims to cure mentally ill patients or give them efficient ways to live with their illness. Psychotherapy can be practiced by psychotherapists as well as alternative practitioners. This requires a special psychotherapeutic training, which can be completed as a psychologist or psychiatrist.
Psychotherapy covers a very broad field and works with different techniques. However, psychotherapy became famous through Sigmund Freud and his form of psychotherapy, hypnosis. Some forms of psychotherapy are, for example, analytical psychotherapy, psychotherapy based on depth psychology and focal therapy.
The main aim is to understand what is the cause of the patient’s mental illness and, based on this research into the causes, to gain a self-knowledge of how to deal with the illness better after the patient is aware of what the trigger for the illness was. An example of this could be when a patient slips into depression. Because he wanted to be successful at work, he neglected his social environment and activities more and more.
Once a patient has identified this cause of depression, he can then change his lifestyle and focus more on things that make him happier. Another form of psychotherapy, however, is behavior therapy. This is less about finding the cause of the mental illness.
It is about how the patient can deal with the existing symptoms and how he can change his behavior to the extent that he can live well with the mental illness. Psychotherapy also includes couple or family therapy, where married couples can seek advice. All in all, psychotherapy is a very diversified subject, which also explains why special training is needed to be able to apply the various forms of therapy. In most cases, psychotherapy is paid for by the health insurance companies, as it is a recognized form of therapy for various psychiatric illnesses. Which form of psychotherapy is best suited for the patient depends not only on the patient’s mental illness, but also on the personality and willingness to treat the patient.