Treatments and Therapies for Mental Health: Psychodynamic, Somatic, and Behavioural Approaches

This article discusses the importance of mental health and the need for timely psychological treatment. It explains three approaches to treating mental health conditions: Psychodynamic, Somatic, and Behavioural. The article covers the procedures, aims, advantages, and ethical considerations of each approach.

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Mental disorders refer to impaired functioning of
important areas of brain. It is characterised by
alteration in behaviour, emotions and cognitive
activities of an individual. There are various
conditions that affects the mood, behaviour and
thinking of a person in an inappropriate manner.
Clinical depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia,
Mania, Bipolar disorder, Dementia, Attention-
deficit hyperactivity, Obsessive compulsive
disorder (OCD), Autism, Post traumatic stress
disorder (Davis, 2021). No clear causes of mental
disorder are understood till now. Symptoms shown
by individuals suffering from mental illness are
agitation, stress, low mood, negative and suicidal
thoughts, low esteem, loss of confidence,
psychosis, restlessness, etc. Mental health is
important to take seriously and concern
psychologist for treatment. Mental health can be
treated by undertaking many effective approaches
like: Psychodynamic, Behavioural, Humanistic,
Somatic, Cognitive approach.
Psychodynamic therapy proves to be very beneficial
for the client as patient have opportunity to get self-
ware about their behaviour and feelings. Patient attain
greater insight which may help the client to relive the
symptoms of depression. Therapy promotes the
development of internal psychological resources and
recognizing feeling and behavioural patterns, self-
examination, and self-reflection that help client to
manage depressive symptoms. Some of ethical aspects
related to this therapy are: the protection of privacy,
informed consent for complicated cases, hit or miss
technique used by poorly trained therapists, sexual
misconduct on patients through therapists, in case of
child-adolescent patient’s special considerations should
be followed.
This therapy involves the process of interaction and
communication with patient and analyse the root
cause of their mental illness. Through this therapy
patient allows to involve in open conversation with
therapist and generally these sessions are taken in
silent and privacy by therapist so that patient feel
free and comfortable to talk. Through ongoing
conversation; therapist talk about patient's past and
tragic experiences and help them to get out of the
trauma. Session appointments are given on weekly
basis or more often depends on the case and
criticality of mental health. Some of main features of
psychodynamic therapy are: clients are able to
explore range of emotions and feelings including
anger, sadness, loss of desire, etc. Therapist helps
clients to build up their internal and resources and
develop an understanding to deal with the problems
in present and future on the basis of past
experiences. Psychodynamic therapy helps in
identify defence mechanism used by the client
(Bögels and Emerson, 2019). Defence mechanisms
includes the reactions and behaviour observed to be
adopted by client to tackle the uncomfortable or
difficult part of the conversation.
Treatments and Therapies
Introduction Psychodynamic approach
Somatic Approach
This approach especially used to treat the mental
condition of post-traumatic stress and to give relief
from other effects of mental illness. This therapy is
uses to maintain a connection of person's body with
their mind in order to apply psychotherapy and
physical therapies during the course of treatment
(Feingold and et. al., 2019). The therapy based on the
ideology that traumatic experience result in causing
negative impact on individual's nervous system.
Somatic trauma healing therapy make person more
conscious about their body and help individuals to
learn somatic therapy techniques so that person will be
able to release physical stress.

It may include; dance therapy, breathing exercise,
grounding exercise, sensation awareness, massage. This
trauma therapy helps in addressing both psychological
and physical symptoms, including: Trauma, stress,
abuse, sexual functioning, depression, grief, anxiety,
addiction, etc. Key concepts of somatic therapy:
 Grounding: It is a body-based technique in
which person engage in their personal senses,
feel their feet on earth, ultimately experience
themselves as embodied in the present moment.
This leads to calm down their nervous system
and relieve stress.
 Movement and process: Somatic therapy focus
on indulging individual's capacity by make them
listen to their body in process of healing.
Titration: Through this somatic approach, therapists
observe response and sensations of an individual's body
like breathing changes, sudden change in tone,
shivering of arms and legs, stammering in voice, etc.
patient adapt these physical movements in order to
relieve stress from past traumatic experiences (Palmer
2022). A psychotherapist should have some qualities in
order to deal a mental patient with somatic approach
which fall under considerations of ethical aspects also:
Reflective understanding and intuitive awareness of
healthy human development, Knowledge of dealing
with different patterns of unresolved conflicts, should
be concerned about the way and pattern of touching.
Behavioural Approach
This psychotherapy framed to understand the behaviour and
attitude of individual and identify some specific behaviours of
the person that causing difficulty. Theory behind the
behavioural approach is that when a child born, mind is
completely in form of blank slate. Life experiences shared by
any individual decides the behaviour and attitude of a person.
Two types of conditions lead to development of behaviour:
Classical conditioning are the conditions in which involuntary
responses triggered by a stimulus (Riva Crugnola and et. al.,
2020). Operant conditioning involves using of punishment to
decrease a specific behaviour and reinforcement to increase
behaviour. Behavioural approach is effective for Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Some medical conditions that
mey be improved by using CBT are: Stress, Anxiety, Eating
disorders, Depression, Panic disorders, Substance use
disorders, Paranoia. Modifications in condition of irrational
phobias can be remove by working on fear responses. A
specific form of behaviour therapy known as aversion therapy
can be used to improve substance use and alcoholism. A
trained and expert therapist can resolve many types of
problematic behaviour within an individual. Behaviour
therapy supposed to be very effective in development of new
skills strengthen desired behaviours. Seven ethical
considerations that a behavioural therapist must consider are:
Complicated decision-making, Inappropriate parenting,
financial concerns, self-care concerns, Establish good and
healthy relationships with clients, Ethical concerns with
Employer (Marčinko nad et. al., 2020).
Conclusion
References
Bögels, S.M. and Emerson, L.M., 2019.
The mindful family: A systemic
approach to mindfulness, relational
functioning, and somatic and
mental health. Current opinion in
psychology, 28, pp.138-142.
Davis, S., 2021. Tracing somatic
therapies. The Lancet
Psychiatry, 8(4), pp.282-284.
Feingold and et. al., 2019. Recent
advances in cognitive behavioral
therapy for digestive disorders and
the role of applied positive
In given project; discussion regarding
mental illness and approaches to treat the
mental health conditions has been made.
From above discussion it can be
concluded that mental health is important
and timely psychological treatment and
appropriate sessions should be taken to
resolve the problem and reduce the
chances of complications. It explains
three approaches of treatment that are;
Psychodynamic approach, Somatic
approach, and Behavioural approach. It
involves the procedure, aim, and
advantages of selected approach along
with ethical considerations of each