Mental health treatment essay

Mental health is a crucial matter, although it is often overlooked. This mental health treatment essay expounds on five mental health therapies. Read on!

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the most common technique, and it treats a variety of mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and substance addiction. As a therapeutic practice, CBT helps a patient to discover the association between self-destructive mannerisms and negative feelings or thoughts. Therefore, cognitive behavioral therapy seeks to change the way a person thinks, hoping it will positively impact brain chemistry. From this psychotherapy, individuals are educated on how to become their therapists. They get to know how to cope with problematic emotions by changing their thinking. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy would help mothers who are under intense stress as they strive to balance raising children, maintaining their family, and keeping their careers. The therapy can be useful specifically for a single parent who is the only household breadwinner.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Under this approach, the emphasis is put on encouraging individuals to embrace their feelings and thoughts instead of fighting them and being resentful. Although acceptance and commitment therapy has a small database of support, its use is gradually growing1. Patients are taught to stop denying, avoiding, or struggling with their inner emotions. Clients are reminded that accept their deep feelings to avoid creating a barrier that could inhibit them from moving forward. Therapists that use acceptance and commitment therapy educate their clients on how to listen to their self-talk about problematic relationships, traumatic events, or other emotional issues. Acceptance and commitment therapy is appropriate for treating workplace depression and stress. The technique is suitable for workers as it helps them overcome personal problems that inhibit them from making progress.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy prevents relapse in persons with depressive disorders. The technique is effective at reducing symptoms of depression as well as the rate of depressive relapse2. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy uses ideologies of cognitive therapy such as mindfulness meditation to tutor people to intentionally pay attention to their feelings and thoughts without getting caught up with what could occur in the future or what could have been. Therefore, the technique gives clients clear ideas that help forego negative thoughts. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is appropriate for patients that have a history of chronic depression. It allows people who are at a high risk of depressive relapse to learn how to stay well in the long term.

Functional Family Therapy

Functional family therapy disrupts a family’s dysfunctional attributes and replaces them with positive and adaptive discernment. To increase family members’ motivation to change, a therapist has to work with the family to eliminate problematic behaviors and equip them with new skills and interaction patterns. Functional family therapy is appropriate for adolescents with various challenges with conduct and substance abuse. Troublesome teenagers are among the problematic and recalcitrant treatment populations3. Fortunately, such adolescents are tamed and convinced to revolt against delinquencies through functional family therapy.  

Assertive Community Treatment

Assertive community treatment is a community-based mental health care program for persons that have a mental illness that mess with their ability to become part of a community. A large population of citizens suffers a mental illness that prevents them from functioning in daily life, which leads them to seek aid in hospitals. The ACT aims to reduce reliance on hospitals; therefore, it provides mental health services in a community rather than a hospital. Assertive community treatment is appropriate for persons with high rates of substance abuse, a history of trauma, or a stigmatized mental illness. They reside in a densely populated area with fewer medical facilities.

Reference

1. Forman EM, Herbert JD, Moitra E, Yeomans PD, Geller PA. A randomized controlled effectiveness trial of acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive therapy for anxiety and depression. Behav Modif. 2007;31(6):772-799. doi:10.1177/0145445507302202
2. MacKenzie MB, Abbott KA, Kocovski NL. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in patients with depression: current perspectives. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2018;14:1599-1605. Published 2018 Jun 18. doi:10.2147/NDT.S160761
3. Alexander JF, Waldron HB, Robbins MS, Neeb AA. Functional Family Therapy for Adolescent Behavior Problems. American Psychological Association; 2013.