| Psychotherapy | Any psychological techmique used to facilitate positive changes in a person's personality, behavior, or adjustment |
| Demonology | In medieval Europe, the study of demons and the treatment of persons "possessed" by demons |
| Psychoanalysis | A Freudian therapy that emphasizes the use of free association, dream interpretation, resistances, and transference to uncover unconscious conflicts |
| Client-Centered (person-centered) Therapy | A nondirective therapy based on insights gained from conscious thoughts and feelings; emphasizes accepting one's true self |
| Unconditional Positive Regard | An unqualified, unshakable acceptance of another person |
| Empathy | A capacity for taking another's point of view; the ability to feel what another is feeling |
| Authenticity | In Carl Rogers' terms, the ability of a therapist to be genuine and honest about his or her own feelings |
| Reflection | In client-centered therapy, the process of rephrasing or repeating thoughts and feelings expressed by clients so they can be come aware of what they are saying |
| Existential Therapy | An insight therapy that focuses on the elemental problems of existence, such as death, meaning, choice, and responsibility; emphasizes making courageous life choices |
| Logo-Therapy | A form of existential therapy that emphasizes the need to find and maintain meaning in one's life |
| Gestalt Therapy | An approach that focuses on immediate experience and awareness to help clients rebuild thinking, feeling, and acting into connected wholes; emphasizes the integration of fragmented experiences |
| Behavior Therapy | Any therapy designed to actively change behavior |
| Behavior Modification | The application of learning principles to change human behavior, especially maladaptive behavior |
| Aversion Therapy | Suppressing an undesirable response by associating it with aversive (painful or uncomfortable) stimuli |
| Hierarchy | A rank-ordered series of higher and lower amounts, levels, degrees, or steps |
| Reciprocal Inhibition | The presence of one emotional state can inhibit the occurrence of another, such as joy prevent fear or anxiety inhibiting pleasure |
| Systematic Desensitization | A reduction in fear, anxiety, or aversion brought about by planned exposure to aversive stimuli |
| Tension-Release Method | A procedure for systematically achieving deep relaxation of the body |
| Vicarious Desensitization | A reduction in fear or anxiety that takes place vicariously ("secondhand") when a client watches models perform the feared behavior |
| Virtual Reality Exposure | Use of computer-generated images to present fear stimuli. The virtual environment responds to a viewer's head movements and other inputs |
| Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) | A technique for reducing fear or anxiety; based on holding upsetting thoughts in mind while rapidly moving the eyes from side to side |
| Token Economy | A therapeutic program in which desirable behaviors are reinforced with tokens that can be exchanged for goods, services, activities, and privileges |
| Cognitive Therapy | A therapy directed at changing the maladaptive thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that underlie emotional and behavioral problems |
| Selective Perception | Perceiving only certain stimuli among a larger array of possibilities |
| Over-Generalization | Blowing a single event out of proportion by extending it to a large number of unrelated situations |
| All-or-Nothing Thinking | Classifying objects or events as absolutely right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable, and so forth |
| Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) | An approach that states that irrational beliefs cause many emotional problems and that such beliefs must be changed or abandoned |
| Group Therapy | Psychotherapy conducted in a group setting to make therapeutic use of group dynamics |
| Psychodrama | A therapy in which clients act out personal conflicts and feelings in the presence of others who play supporting roles |
| Role Reversal | Taking the role of another person to learn how one's own behavior appears from the other person's view |
| Mirror Technique | Observing another person re-enact one's own behavior, like a character in a play; designed to help persons see themselves more clearly |
| Family Therapy | A technique in which all family members participate, both individually and as a group, to change destructive relationships and communication patterns |
| Sensitivity Group | A group experience consisting of exercises designed to increase self-awareness and sensitivity to others |
| Encounter Group | A group experience that emphasizes intensely honest interchanges among participants regarding feelings and reactions to one another |
| Large-Group Awareness Training | Any number of programs (many of them commercialized) that claim to increase self-awareness and facilitate constructive personal change |
| Antidepressants | Mood-elevating drugs |
| Antipsychotics | Drugs that, in addition to having tranquilizing effects, also tend to reduce hallucinations and delusional thinking. (a.k.a. major Tranquilizers) |
| Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) | A treatment for severe depression, consisting of an electric shock passed directly through the brain, which induces a convulsion |
| Psychosurgery | Any surgical alteration of the brain designed to bring about desirable behavioral or emotional changes |
| Mental Hospitalization | Placing a person in a protected, theraputic environment staffed by mental health professionals |
| Partial Hospitalization | An approach in which patients receive treatment at a hospital during the day, but return home at night |
| Deinstitutionalization | Reduced use of full-time commitment to mental institutions to treat mental disorders |
| Halfway House | A community-based facility for individuals making the transition from an institution (mental hospital, prison, and so forth) to independent living |
| Community mental Health Center | A facility offering a wide range of mental health services, such as prevention, counseling, consultation, and crisis intervention |
| Crisis Intervention | Skilled management of a psychological emergency |
