Clinical Psychology (Essay Sample)

Clinical Psychology; Name: Institution:  In answering the above question, one must understand the contributions of the contemporary psychology that is fascinated by human relationships and behavior. The aims of clinical psychology are noble, which is to use principles of psychology as well as our understanding of the human behavior in promoting quality of life, health, and finally happiness. Looking at the patient who wants more time in psychotherapy and is challenging my competencies, as a psychologist, I must use new skills in tackling the issue in order to develop better applications and make the patient understand the treatment processes. The typical therapy session is often 45 – 50 minutes, and therapy interventions might take less time. The standard starting and ending times as well as the session length provide a means for patients and therapists to observe emotional reactions (Plante, 2005). Psychotherapy is imbalance because it allows the clients to talk more, but its goal is to meet the needs of the client. Therefore, in the therapy room there is always a power differential between the therapist and client. Patients understand that this arena involves the specialized knowledge of the therapist. The therapist is required to explain to the patient the ground rules, psychotherapy framework, and assure them that they are acting for the best interest of the client (Bonanno & Burton, 2013). Opening up during psychotherapy can stir up primitive portions of the patients’ mind, which can eventually lead to personal transformation. Psychotherapists must be ready to encounter primitive thinking from their clients. The temporary impulses make them loose the ability to make wise choices or analyze situations (Dimminich & Bonanno, 2013). Clinical psychology parallels the complex human emotion and behavior. Therefore, I must integrate efforts to understand my patient’s biological, social, and psychological factors. Most importantly is the understanding of the patient’s culture, ethnicity, and gender and his or her place in the society. This will help to know if the patient’s problems are related to technology, economics, ethics, or culture, before making any decision about treatment. This will particularly bring in the types of personality disorders my patient is having. First, I would identify the patterns of personality traits that the patient has to be able to assist effectively in their therapy. Dependent Personality disorders fall under odd or eccentric, dramatic, erratic, or emotional and lastly anxious and fearful. While going through the three aspects it is easy to identify the cluster that the patient falls. Therefore, I would rigorously assess the patient and select a new mode of treatment, which I would evaluate to determine its outcome on the patient (Plante, 2005). People respond to various situations, particularly stressful incidents in different ways. It depends on the event and regulatory strategies they choose. Psychology provides models for people to cope and respond to challenging events. I would therefore emphasize consistently on changing the situational context. More advance interactions with the patient would increase the patient’s flexibility in regulating and coping with emotion. As a clinical psychotherapy, I would use eclectic strategy, since it incorporates various perspectives in addition to clinical approaches in my treatments. Flexibility in adapting the patient’s behavior across various stressor situations is more important than using a single strategy. Using the concept of defense mechanism by Freud, an approach to the situation would be centered on the presumed need to contain or thwart immature and instinctual impulses. From this perspective, self-regulatory strategies would fix any habits that could have been inherently adapted by the patient (Bonanno & Burton, 2013). Clinical psychology is a science as well as an art, since the science informs the art and vice versa, my findings regarding the patient will assist in applying the best methods and treatments that suit his or her special needs. The patient’s perspectives will contribute the important elements that can help me understand his or her behavior in wanting more session time. These perspectives will ultimately provide the biological, social, and psychological factors that would be necessary in making intervention strategies. The strategies must better address the patient’s complex needs, as interactive causal factors contribute too many human problems. Thus, many factors could be contributing to the behavior of this patient; therefore, selection of factors should be utilized to help in alleviating these concerns (Plante, 2005). In the context of the patient needing more time while challenging my competencies as a psychotherapist, a key influence in this situation is the variability in the efficacy of regulatory strategies. The patient’s feelings of loss contribute to various fluctuating sets of situational demands. In order to accommodate these conflicting demands, I need a dual process model to help the patient cope with the situation. More so, though the long sessions of therapy may in the end be cost effective for the patient, the insurance company may refuse to reimburse such sessions. Therefore, I would commit to spend time with the patient after negotiating with his insurance company to avoid delays in treatment and bureaucratic details (Dimminich & Bonanno, 2013). An adjustment is necessary, thus the patient need moderation of context, nature, duration and controllability of the stressing agent. More so, a crucial role is in the choice of regulatory strategy to be used in the context. However, it can be done by the temporal unfolding of the patient’s emotions thus the regulation process. Regulatory choices tend to be moderated by motivational and cognitive factors like strategy complexity and long-term goals. These can be used to change the attitudes and emotions...