PSYC 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16.2: Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia, Hypochondriasis

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Benjamin Giguere

Document Summary

Psychological therapy is a set of processes for resolving personal, emotional, behavioural, and social problems and improving well- being. In psychological approaches, techniques for resolving problems rely heavily upon communication between client and therapist. Psychologists have long believed that self-knowledge and understanding can lead to positive changes in behaviour. Insight therapies is a general term referring to therapy that involves dialogue between client and therapist for the purposes of gaining awareness and understanding of psychological problems and conflicts. The formal beginning of insight therapy came with the development of psychoanalysis by sigmund freud and its evolution into psychodynamic therapies, forms of insight therapy that emphasize the need to discover and resolve unconscious conflicts. Freud hypothesized that much of our consciousness occurs at the unconscious level, outside of our conscious awareness. Freud thought that the process of bringing material from the unconscious into consciousness allowed clients to gain insight into their problems and the past experiences from which they stem.