--Original published at Bogo's Blog

In my opinion, all kinds of therapy have their positives and negatives. Each one is noteworthy in their own special way and picking which is better in order is not an easy task. The one I would rank as the superior of the others would be Cognitive Therapy. As a teenager in college, I understand very well that people can be negatives sometimes. Most especially, when things are not going very well for them. People in these positions can be very negative and self-deprecating at times. Cognitive Therapy helps with this by aiding them in changing their negative mindsets. Building of the previous point, I believe the Humanistic Therapy would be the second most effective because the therapists focus on the positive growth in the client rather than focusing on the person’s . This type of therapy attempts to aid the client develop stronger, healthier sense of self, as well as access and understand their feelings to help gain a sense of meaning in their life. My third choice is Behavioral Therapy, because it is very beneficial for children of younger ages since this type of therapy assesses the behavior of an individual as well as the environment they are growing in. For younger children this kind of therapy can alert the parents to how harmful behaviors are rewarded unintentionally and show them how to correct this. In fourth choice is Psychodynamic Therapy, this kind of therapy references past stressors and helps the client get over them. Psychodynamic therapists dive into past memories and try to find the root of the clients pain. Depending on the person this is a very effective way to release pent up pain and sadness.

--Original published at Ben's PSY105 Blog

Michelle Obama’s work on the Change Direction movement helped propel the movement in the right direction. By generating a positive network around the movement, it will be able to spread at an exponential rate. The movement is based around people looking out for one another and noticing signs of mental health issues. The strengths of the movement lie in the people who are taking part. The movement is only as strong as its members. If there is a large group of people helping, the movement will be powerful. The biggest weakness, however, is the American society. Too many people are focused on nothing but themselves. If we want this movement to be effective, people will have to look out for others, which is not a common thing here.

The movement strives to educate on the importance of mental health. People need to be more open about their mental struggles. The movement aims to get people to open up to those around them. College students will try to pay attention to the movement, but most will ultimately give up. There is not enough time in the day for a college student. They generally will spend their time trying to get work done, eating, studying, and sleeping if they are lucky. Especially around this point in the semester, students are constantly busy and under stress, so they don’t have time to worry about their health, physical or mental. As long as they are able to make it to class, they will regardless of how they feel. If the college wanted to get people to pay attention to a movement similar to the Change Direction movement, their best bet would be to try to have it in the beginning of the semester. If they did this, students would be able to keep the information in mind when the semester winds down and everyone is struggling.

--Original published at Kaity Takes on Psychology

I have to admit – I have been to therapy before. It is no longer a big deal, after all, many of my friends and family have been there, too. Since my visits, I can honestly say I have learned a lot about coping strategies and have felt more confident about myself. The textbook lists a series of psychotherapy methods – psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioral, and cognitive.

Each method has it’s own perks, but I believe the best approach is cognitive therapy. We often think negatively of ourselves for things we cannot control. Believing, for example, you are unhappy and unintelligent for failing a test seems within reason for stressed or depressed students. However, cognitive therapists seek to change our mindset about these problems by helping a client “restructure their thinking in stressful situations” (Page 580). I have been able to gain more confidence and control over myself by changing my thought processes during times of great stress and anxiety, so I think the cognitive method is the one I like best.

My second choice for therapy methods is psychodynamic therapy, because oftentimes our biggest problems are rooted in the past and continuously hold us back from being happy. Many people credit their childhood as the time where they began to feel certain negative thoughts about themselves, and psychodynamic therapists aim to uncover why their clients are struggling. I think this is a very good way to help alleviate the levels of stress an individual carries around, and can even lead to acceptance and personal growth.

Behavioral therapy seems like a good fit for individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Through methods such as classical conditioning, exposure therapy, counterconditioning, and systematic desensitization; individuals are able to feel more comfortable going through their daily lives. Learned behaviors can be swapped out for more constructive behaviors through behavioral therapy.

Finally, the humanistic approach of psychotherapy. In my opinion, all of these methods can work depending on the client and their needs for certain forms of therapy. I believe the humanistic approach (shout out to Carl Rogers) would be most helpful on clients with newer stress. Therapists promote growth in the client rather than trying to assess the individual’s past trauma. The humanistic approach tries to assist individuals by, much like psychodynamic therapy, use insight therapies to help their clients

In conclusion, I believe all patients of therapists should look into the different forms of therapy, because not every approach will work for everyone. We all seek some type of reassurance and help when we look into attending therapy, but it is our own responsibility to find what works best for us

--Original published at Victoria's Psych Blog

To be honest, I have never heard of Change Direction campaign. That is the first weakness of the campaign. If I had never heard of it, it is not getting enough attention. But, having congressmen and psychologists involved is a very good thing. Congress has a lot of followers, so it is vital that they provide correct information to the public. It is also good that Michelle Obama is involved as well because she has a lot of pull with previous campaigns focused on health issues. Another strength of the campaign is they provide information to resources to get help for illnesses. That is huge because not everyone is aware of how to get help, especially those with unsupportive parents. I think college students should be involved in the campaign, but I am not sure they would. The point of the campaign is to destigmatize mental health illnesses and treat them like physical health issues. At Etown, I have found that a lot of students are not quite there yet. I think Etown needs to broadcast more mental health awareness, especially now that May is mental health awareness month. Etown should encourage students to say their mental health journey. I would be glad to share mine because it shows that there are more mental health options. A step I think Etown should take to broadcast symptoms of mental illnesses is to put it in a SWAG emails, canvas notifications and posters. I feel that the “toilet talks” they do are ineffective because they are not always changed right away. Broadcasting symptoms on multiple platforms are important because not all college kids are checking emails, canvas, Jays app, posters etc. Multiple platforms will reach more students.

--Original published at Voltage Blog

By providing a global organization and movement for mental health, it will help bring a greater awareness to friends and family of people who suffer from it. Change Direction is a great idea that I think will be able to help people be more self-aware and help others notice the signs of someone in need of help. The site offers a decent variety of options to explore, including being able to find help for yourself or someone else. The greatest strength about the overall campaign is that it will help people become more familiar with what kind of an impact a mental illness can cause on someone. By having this knowledge, people will be able to notice if someone is suffering from an illness quicker and hopefully before it escalates too far. The biggest struggle about this campaign is that I feel like it does not have enough strength behind it. It has some great points and many ways to help the affected, but if someone with an illness looks at it, they might not have the strength themselves to reach out. They could easily just close out of the website instead of exploring it. I also have not seen many ads or such about Change Direction lately. Having more publicity would also benefit the campaign greatly. Some college students will be all for this campaign and go all out for it, but the majority of students will probably ignore it. I think that they will notice it, but will not take action. College students will prioritize getting a good education and succeeding in life over their own health. They will do this because if they deal with their mental illness, then they will see themselves as falling behind and possibly stupid. I think if Etown had something to bring awareness to mental illness, they should hold multiple seminars for each class and make it a requirement for the students to attend them. This will incentivize people who lack the motivation to do activities and others to learn about how much of an impact a mental illness can cause.

--Original published at Grace's College Blog

Cognitive: I think this would be most helpful to me because therapists teach you new ways to adapt your thinking. You change the way you talk to yourself. Many times people are way too hard on themselves for things that are not a big deal. Cognitive therapy can be very helpful for that. The textbook talks about a dual cognitive-behavioral therapy. I think this might be the best one. It allows you to talk about how you feel and adjust your way of thinking to be more positive and changing negative behaviors with it. If their is a current behavior that makes you think negative thoughts about yourself, they work on changing the behavior and in turn the negative thoughts do not happen.

Humanistic: I prefer this approach to psychodynamic therapy because it focuses on the future and not dwelling on issues in the past. Of course it is important to talk about them, but we shouldn’t focus only on those because it is impossible to change them. I like that therapists are focused more on listening rather than forming judgments. Therapists act more as a compassionate friend that is there to listen. Although it does have an unconditional positive regard. I think it is important to tell the client when they are causing problems for themselves or others.

Behavioral: I think behavioral therapy is the most helpful for things like phobias and when people have anxiety in certain places. It can be helpful to people with traumatic disorders. I think exposure therapy like this is very helpful to people who experience high anxiety rather than talking to a therapist. Most times that is not where they experience the high anxiety so the therapist might not be able to get a good sense of what actually happens. Although it might not be as helpful for mood disorders or personality disorders. I don’t think this therapy is as universal for all disorders.

Psychodynamic: This therapy could be helpful and a variation of it is still used today. With talk therapy, of course you are going to talk about any sort of underlying or childhood issues that might be causing problems to this day. I think it is important to feel that you can speak freely to a therapist. Although in the techniques described in the textbook it seems silly that you can just say whatever, people could make you think they have a problem they made up. Talk therapy can be very helpful to people who feel they do not have another confidential place to speak freely about their issues. Although I think Freud’s methods are too focused on childhood issues. We talked about in class about therapists creating childhood trauma that people did not actually have. I think their can be issues with miscommunication.

--Original published at Ally'sCollegeBlog

I have never had therapy, but being a college student, it might be helpful. If I were to get therapy I would want a behavioral psychological approach. I think this approach would help with my anxiety and understanding my emotions. I would not use this for someone who is more cut and dry. I think behavioral psychology is more interpretive and about more abstract concepts. The next one would be cognitive because of how similar it is to behavioral. It is all about mental processes which I am interested in. I think this would help me be more aware of myself and more understanding/ less harsh on myself. The only negative side of this approach is that it is strictly mental processes which is not the only part in psychology. The next would be humanistic because it focuses on the entire body, not just the mind. This can be negative though, because you may not need to focus on everything, you may want something more targeted. Lastly I would use psycho dynamic. I feel like this one resembles a lot of Freudian beliefs ( because he was part of that movement) and I do not agree with many of them. This is a very interesting approach but I do not think it focuses on the right areas. I think it is important to understand where your emotions are coming from, but using the Oedipus Complex, does not sound accurate at all.