The Importance Of Client-Centered Therapy

One of the humanistic therapies is “client-centered therapy, which focuses on the person’s conscious self-perceptions, developed by Carl Rogers (1902-1987)” (Myers et al. 661). “[In this type of treatment], the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients’ growth” (Myers et al. 661). When the therapists keep their genuineness, acceptance, and empathy, the clients feel like they are unconditionally accepted and they “may deepen their self-understanding and self-acceptance” (Hill & Nakayama, 2000). The most important element that leads to the success of client-centered therapy is “unconditional positive regard,” which is a caring, accepting, non judgemental attitude

Drug therapy contributed to the decline of resident population of mental hospitals. Antidepressant drug is utilized in order to cure depression. “The antidepressants were named for their ability to lift people up from a state of depression, and this was their main use until recently. The label is a bit of a misnomer now that these drugs are increasingly being used to successfully treat anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder” (Wetherell et al., 2013). “Many of these drugs work by increasing the availability of neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine or serotonin, which elevate arousal and mood and appear scarce when a person experiences feelings of depression or anxiety. The most commonly prescribed drugs in this group, including Prozac and its cousins Zoloft and Paxil, work by blocking the reabsorption and removal of serotonin from synapses” (Myers et al. 683). Although it is certain that people with depression often get healed after a month of taking antidepressants, the doctors should not abuse antidepressants, since they have side effects and they prevent the patients from recovering the mental illnesses by themselves. “A controversial brain manipulation occurs through shock treatment, or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)” (Myers et

In addition, there are two other neural stimulation techniques- magnetic stimulation and deep-brain stimulation for treating depressed brain. “Depressed moods sometimes improve when repeated pulses surge through a magnetic coil held close to a person’s skull. The painless procedure- called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)- is performed on wide-awake patients over several weeks. Unlike ECT, the rTMS procedure produces no brain seizures, memory loss, or other serious side effects aside from possible headaches” (Myers et al. 686). On the other hand, deep-brain stimulation is used to the “patients whose depression has resisted both drugs that flood the body and ECT that jolts at least half the brain have benefited from an experimental treatment pinpointed at a brain depression center” (Myers et al. 686). “Neuroscientist Helen Mayberg and her colleagues (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009) have been focusing on a neural hub that bridges the thinking frontal lobes to the limbic system. This area, which is overactive in the brain of a depressed of temporarily sad person, calms when treated by ECT or antidepressants” (Myers et al.