Emotions and psychotherapies

Psychotherapy is seen as a serie of cognitive emotional interactions between the patient and the therapist. The emotional impact of this interaction forms the basis of the patient therapist relationship, which provides the principal reinforcement in certain phases of therapy. The actual method of intervention depends on the training and the preference of the therapist, the condition of the patient, and the state of therapy. The emotional tone of the patient therapist relationship may vary from patient to patient, and also in the same patient during various states of therapy. Therapists generally aim to reduce anxiety and to clarify conditions, but often they have to temporarily provoke anxiety and disorganize their patients to modify the relationship and/or to induce a change of maladaptive attitudes. This paper outlines various techniques of interaction as they apply to psychotherapy in general, and their relative importance in various psychotherapies.