Psychotherapy Practices

Mindfulness is a way of directing attention rooted in the Eastern meditation tradition. It has recently been used frequently in the Western world, especially in the field of psychology. Mindfulness can be defined as focusing one's attention on the events or stimuli that are currently occurring in a non-judgmental and accepting way. Mindfulness allows us to be fully alive and awake in life. Mindfulness allows our thoughts and emotions to arise without judging or reacting to them. It helps us to alleviate our emotional and physical difficulties by decentralizing the thoughts that have become the center of our lives. Mindfulness is the most widely used and researched therapy method in the world of psychology among many different therapeutic methods. It can be applied in individual sessions as well as group therapies. The most common of these group therapies is "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Group Therapy". It is an 8-week program that has been proven to be effective in reducing daily stress, challenging thoughts and emotions. In our institution, this group therapy is carried out by expert psychotherapists.

Mindfulness group therapies were initially designed to reduce stress and treat pain disorders. However, later on, both individual and group programs were developed not only in these areas but also for other psychological conditions. The most recent of these is the mindfulness group therapy program developed for child and adolescent clients diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and their families. As with other group therapies, this program is 8 weeks long. The aim of this program is to increase the attention skills of child and adolescent clients with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, to reduce judgmental thoughts towards themselves, and to increase emotional and behavioral control. Considering the difficulties experienced not only by child and adolescent clients but also by their families, it is aimed to reduce the stress levels of parents and to increase their level of awareness in their attitudes towards their children. In our institution, this group therapy practice is carried out by expert psychotherapists.

Today, the importance of psychotherapy in mental health disorders is recognized. Impairments in the functionality of the person's work, social and private lives are among the reasons that bring them to the therapist. Cognitive and behavioral therapies are evidence-based, short-term, problem-oriented, here-and-now therapy methods that deal with the difficulties and problems experienced by the person.

Behavior is actions that can be observed and measured. Behavior therapy is the systematic application of learning theories for analysis and treatment of behavioral problems. It is a treatment approach that creates observable and measurable changes in a person's behavior using learning principles.

Thoughts play an important role in the formation of negative emotions experienced by the person. These thoughts arise very quickly and automatically, and therefore most of them are unspecific, unformed and unintentional. The person fully believes these thoughts and it is very difficult to prevent them from coming to mind. Mental health problems are seen as a result of the activation of deep-seated core beliefs and thoughts by a life event. Cognitive therapy aims to change the cognitive structures that cause the emergence and continuation of these problems in a more functional and appropriate way.

Today, cognitive and behavioral therapy is known as the most functional therapy method in psychopathologies such as depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias and behavioral problems.

Hypnotherapy is therapy through hypnosis. In other words, it is treatment through hypnosis. In the medical world, hypnotherapy is recognized as a method of psychotherapy. We all have countless hypnotic experiences as a natural part of our lives, including people who say they are not hypnotized. Therefore, when hypnosis is re-experienced as part of our natural life in a hypnotherapy setting and with the help of a hypnotherapist, this familiarity is better understood.
A conscious brain is more critical, it tends to analyze more when solving problems. It can show resistance. This can lead to indecision and difficulty in taking action. Under hypnosis, the unconscious mind, freed from this analyzing ability of the conscious mind, becomes more ready to receive suggestions and therapy takes place.

AREAS OF USE OF HYPNOTHERAPY

- Mood disorders (depression, bipolar),
- Anxiety disorders (uncontrollable anxiety, fear, panic, tension, distress),
- Somatoform (body-oriented) disorders,
- Eating Disorders,
- Obesity,
- Sleep disorders,
- Disorders in the sexual sphere,
- Obsessions (OCD),
- Psychosis (in remission),
- Tics,
- Stuttering,
- Nocturnal enuresis,
- Addictions (smoking, alcohol, drugs, gambling, internet, etc.),
- Phobias (various extreme fears),
- Traumas,
- Performance anxiety (exam stress, stage excitement),
- Performance enhancement in sport,
- Improving performance in education (reluctance to study, inability to sustain attention, boredom, memory, learning, recall),
Personal development:
- Insecurity, lack of self-confidence,
- Excessive excitement and fear in social situations,
- Inability to speak in public,
- Inability to make eye contact, thoughts that everyone is looking at me,
- Problems in relationships with the opposite sex,
- Lack of self-control, overreaction,
- Inability to express feelings and thoughts,
- Trembling, sweating, stuttering, flushing

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy technique invented by American psychologist Francine Shapiro in 1987. During the technique, bilateral stimulation (right and left side of the brain) is provided by eye movements, sounds or small touches on the body. During this stimulation, the client goes back to past memories, present events that triggered those memories, and positive experiences that he/she would like to have in the future. Eye movements significantly reduce the negative effects of desensitization on traumatic experiences.

Information Processing ensures that the traumatic memory is stored in the mind in a coherent way. During this process, the client may experience gaining insight, experiencing a change in memories, or making new connections.

AREAS OF USE

Acute trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Phobia, Panic Disorder
People working under intense stress
People experiencing intense grief and mourning due to the loss of a loved one
Symptoms related to traumas experienced by children and adolescents
Victims of sexual assault
Victims of natural or man-made disasters
People who have suffered accidents, surgery, or burns, and who suffer emotional and physical discomfort as a result
People with family, marital and sexual problems
Reducing the risk of addiction relapse
It is used to improve the performance of individuals who suffer from performance anxiety or who experience deficiencies in school, work, art and sports.

One of the schools of therapy used to understand human beings is psychodynamic psychotherapy. Briefly, in psychodynamic therapies, first of all, the processes that create distress, anxiety, fear, unhappiness in the individual's life and the feelings, thoughts and behaviors that create conflict in their relationships with their environment are reinterpreted and realized in depth with the therapist within the historical development of the individual. The processes that are realized are reinterpreted within the therapeutic relationship, and with the insightful development gained, the individual's conflicts that cause discomfort to the individual are transformed in a functional and healthy way, and it is aimed that the individual can fulfill his/her own desires and wishes in a way that is appropriate for his/her life.
Psychodynamic therapies work with psychoanalytic concepts such as childhood experiences and development, unconscious determinants behind behavior and affect, transference, defenses, object relations, resistance to therapeutic work, dreams and repetitive life experiences. Although psychodynamic therapies use similar concepts to psychoanalytic therapies in treatment, the work is done face-to-face rather than on a couch as in psychoanalytic therapies. Although the frequency of sessions and the duration of the work are determined together with the client, the frequency of sessions is usually once a week, regression is not allowed as much as in psychoanalytic therapies and the therapist uses more active interpretation in the here and now principle.

Motivational interviewing is a technique for bringing about change. Change is a difficult process for all of us. Sometimes we strive to bring about change and sometimes we strive to sustain it. The most difficult situations in our life process are usually those in which we are in change. Motivational interviewing aims to support, enable and sustain change.

Motivation is the gasoline of change. The higher the quality, efficiency and sustainability of our motivational resources, the more likely we are to achieve our goals. Motivational interviewing helps people to achieve their change goals by working on our motivations, which are the basis of change. It is usually applied in areas where we need to choose between instant gratification and long-term benefit. An example of such a situation is when an individual who has the goal of losing weight (long-term benefit) by changing his/her eating habits chooses not to eat sweets (instant gratification).

Speech and language therapy is the management and treatment of voice, language, speech and swallowing disorders in children and adults. The intervention program is carried out by experts in the field. In cases such as delayed speech and language, aphasia, brain damage, language therapy programs can be created for language problems and language skill activities. Articulation/vocalization phonological disorder therapy programs can be created to intervene in speech sounds for inability to produce certain sounds, correct production and acquisition of speech sounds. Intervention programs can be applied for rapid disordered speech and stuttering related to the fluency of speech. Therapy programs can be created in the intervention of formations that cause hoarseness such as polyps, nodules, and various voice problems. It also includes the implementation of therapy programs for nutritional problems and swallowing difficulties.

Briefly the conditions that require Speech and Language Therapy; articulation disorder, i.e. not being able to say some sounds or saying them incorrectly, voice problems such as hoarseness and cracking while speaking, delayed speech (for example, a child who is three years old does not speak or speaks in very short sentences), stuttering and rapid disordered speech, aphasia, Speech and language disorders caused by traumatic brain injuries such as cerebral hemorrhage and accidents such as dysarthria, swallowing and swallowing problems, speech and language disorders caused by Down syndrome, autism, speech and language problems due to anomalies such as cleft lip and palate, speech and language disorders due to hearing impairment. The therapy covers the detailed diagnosis of these conditions, the creation and effective execution of the intervention process.

Existential therapy is a school of therapy that began in Europe in the years following the Second World War and became widespread in the United States following forced migration. It defines a school of therapy inspired by Martin Heidegger's existentialist philosophy. Ludwig Binswanger, Viktor E. Frankl, Rollo May, Otto Rank and Irvin Yalom are the main pioneers of existential psychotherapy. It is possible to find commonalities between existentialism and Eastern philosophies.

Man is the only living being who knows that he was born and that he will die one day, and this fact makes him worry about whether he is living a meaningful life. Existential therapy prioritizes the perception and experience of the "I". The main problem that existential therapy is concerned with is the perception of one's own "I" and the way one lives one's responsibility for one's own existence and the meaning of existence.

One of the main problems of modern man is alienation. The number of people experiencing disconnection, disassociation, alienation and emotional deprivation is increasing. The number of moments when we can realize the "I" and be free is quite small.

The existential psychotherapist tries to understand the person who comes for treatment within their own world. In existential therapy, understanding comes before technique. While traditional approaches emphasize what the therapist "should" do specifically, existential therapy focuses on the content of the process, on understanding and living one's existence. The important thing is to be fully aware of "what" we are experiencing. When we are fully aware of what we are experiencing, "meaning" emerges spontaneously and unwanted emotions become manageable.

Schema Therapy is a method that focuses on understanding and, of course, changing the reflections of early experiences in adulthood. It is a particularly suitable method for changing the effects of difficult personality traits and severe life events, but it is also used to combat other psychological difficulties. Schema Therapy is used effectively in different areas such as child, adolescent, individual, group and couple therapies.

In Schema Therapy, in addition to working on the distressing thoughts brought by the person, it is the distressing emotions that are worked on in the foreground, because it is obvious that distressing patterns ("Does it always find me?!") continue to exist, usually due to problematic emotional experiences in the past. The aim is to support individuals to understand that the emotional and behavioral patterns that they have difficulty changing are the result of dysfunctional conditions in childhood/youth. During the therapy process, the main goal is to restructure the perspectives that make life difficult with more realistic ones, to work emotion-focused (restructuring the negative emotion) to change the emotion that does not go parallel to it even if the perspective changes, and to replace the negative behavior patterns guided by all these negative perspectives and emotions with compatible ones, so to speak, to put the tangled life in order and to prevent the recurrence of troubling thoughts.

Individual therapies are very important in addiction treatment. The first aim of addiction therapy is to help the person gain insight into addiction and develop a sense of loss. In the therapies, the factors that lead the person to substance use should be identified and the patient should stay away from the people, situations, places or triggers. The person is helped to restructure their life. They should be helped to recognize and recognize their cravings and to learn and develop ways of coping with them.

In the treatment of addiction, individual psychotherapies are very necessary and effective in order for the person to gain insight into the psychological factors that cause relapses and to cope with possible risky situations. In order to prevent the intense emotional states that push the person to substance use, the problematic thought structure and behavior patterns should be identified and evaluated, and more functional responses that can be used instead of these should be determined together with the patient. The focus should be on improving the person's coping skills with stress and developing problem solving skills. Recognizing and coping with emotions is also important to prevent shifts. Therefore, emotion management should also be worked on in the interviews.

In addiction treatment, motivation is essential for sustained recovery. For this reason, individual therapies aim to enable the patient to enjoy life without resorting to alcohol and drugs by activating the patient's resources in cooperation with the therapist and the patient. The patient is encouraged to build a new life outside the alcohol-substance axis, to acquire new pursuits and to live his/her life in a more planned and programmed way.

Sexual therapies are a treatment approach that includes different techniques used by psychologists and psychiatrists with special training in this field to solve the problems of individuals and couples who have problems in their sexual lives. While problems in the sexual area can seriously reduce the quality of life of individuals, they also have a great impact on mental health. On the other hand, sexual problems may have emerged as a result of other existing problems. Physical factors such as cardiovascular diseases, hormonal irregularities, genetic diseases and psychological factors such as lack of education, prejudices, substance abuse, depression and relationship conflicts can cause problems in sexual life. Therefore, it is important to approach the problems experienced from a multidisciplinary perspective. When the cause of the problem is identified, support is sought from the relevant branches when necessary, while discussions are held in therapies to solve the problem. In individual and couple interviews, CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) techniques are used as well as supportive techniques such as Biofeedback.

- Premature Ejaculation (premature ejaculation)
- Anorgasmia (inability to orgasm)
- Erectile Dysfunction (erectile dysfunction)
- Dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse)
- Vaginismus
- Arousal disorders
- Sexual reluctance is the most common sexual problem.

Group Therapies are a process in which 8-12 members take part in a group with many different techniques, but always from the "here and now", where many experiences are experienced and the person embarks on an inner journey with a group. There are many types of Group Therapies: Interaction Groups where many emotions, thoughts and experiences are handled from the "here and now"; Art Psychotherapies (Painting, literature, music, cinema, poetry...) that make use of the power of art that facilitates access to our inner world.); Schizophrenia, Bipolar, OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), Anxiety Disorders, Panic Disorders, Agoraphobia, Social Phobia groups; Communication groups to increase social skills; groups where people with traumatic experiences and pain share their pain; and support and training groups for the families of all these groups. In these groups, members can participate in common complaint groups or mixed groups (in which complaints are differentiated) as the Group Therapist and the patient's psychiatrist deem most appropriate for the patient. These Group Therapies in the outpatient clinic are held once a week at the same time. In addition, Group Therapies are held three days a week in our clinics where we serve our inpatients.

The main feature that distinguishes Group Therapies from individual therapy is that a group of people are together; in this group representing the society, "a person who is a social being" observes himself/herself and meets the aspects of himself/herself that he/she is not aware of, and in a sense, creates the opportunity to develop communication skills in a safer space. In this sense, Group Therapies are very useful not only for people who have received a psychiatric diagnosis and are undergoing treatment, but also for people who desire to discover themselves, to know themselves in the company of an inner journey and travelers.

Group Therapies are a process in which 8-12 members take part in a group with many different techniques, but always from the "here and now", where many experiences are experienced and the person embarks on an inner journey with a group. There are many types of Group Therapies: Interaction Groups where many emotions, thoughts and experiences are handled from the "here and now"; Art Psychotherapies (Painting, literature, music, cinema, poetry...) that make use of the power of art that facilitates access to our inner world.); Schizophrenia, Bipolar, OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), Anxiety Disorders, Panic Disorders, Agoraphobia, Social Phobia groups; Communication groups to increase social skills; groups where people with traumatic experiences and pain share their pain; and support and training groups for the families of all these groups. In these groups, members can participate in common complaint groups or mixed groups (in which complaints are differentiated) as the Group Therapist and the patient's psychiatrist deem most appropriate for the patient. These Group Therapies in the outpatient clinic are held once a week at the same time. In addition, Group Therapies are held three days a week in our clinics where we serve our inpatients.

The main feature that distinguishes Group Therapies from individual therapy is that a group of people are together; in this group representing the society, "a person who is a social being" observes himself/herself and meets the aspects of himself/herself that he/she is not aware of, and in a sense, creates the opportunity to develop communication skills in a safer space. In this sense, Group Therapies are very useful not only for people who have received a psychiatric diagnosis and are undergoing treatment, but also for people who desire to discover themselves, to know themselves in the company of an inner journey and travelers.

Freud defined psychoanalysis under three main headings: it is a method used to understand human psychological processes, a treatment technique based on this method, and a discipline used to evaluate the data generated by this method. As can be understood from this definition, psychoanalysis is a system that aims not only to treat human beings but also to understand them.

In the process of psychoanalysis, the individual's unconscious experiences or memories are recalled and the connection between them and the inner world is reconsidered. In this process, the individual (the analyzer) is expected to say everything that comes to his/her mind as it comes to his/her mind without censoring, judgment and logic filtering. This is called "free association". In addition, all internal processes such as dreams and fantasies are also asked to be told to the psychoanalyst. Along with this, the individual (the analyzer) starts to become aware of the defenses he/she has created to keep his/her experiences or memories in the unconscious. With these realizations, the problem that brought the person to psychoanalysis has become clearer and is ready to be solved.

When Can I Apply for Psychoanalysis?

An individual can apply for psychoanalysis when he/she has difficulties in his/her life, when he/she experiences recurrent problems in his/her relationships, when symptoms negatively affect his/her life or when he/she wants to understand and make sense of his/her own psyche.

What kind of technique is psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis sessions are conducted in 45-minute sessions, 3 to 5 sessions per week, with the analyzer lying on the couch and the psychoanalyst out of the analyzer's line of sight. The frequency of these sessions is not related to the fact that the analyzer is very ill or in a serious condition. The nature of psychoanalysis requires working with the psychoanalyst at this intensity in order to realize the interrelationship of all unconscious and psychic processes.

Who Can Do Psychoanalysis?

In order to be able to do psychoanalysis, the mental health professional must have completed their own individual psychoanalysis and completed the psychoanalytic training (psychoanalysis formation) required to become a psychoanalyst.

Supportive psychotherapy is a psychotherapy in which a psychiatric diagnostic assessment is required and the therapist's interventions are planned and designed specifically for the client. Supportive psychotherapy is based on psychodynamic principles. However, the psychotherapist using this type of therapy applies a holistic approach, taking into account the needs of the patient.

The aims of supportive psychotherapy are to improve existing symptoms, to reduce the risk of recurrence of the problem and to ensure coping, to increase ego functions and adaptation skills; to support the individual to cope with current problems.

Supportive psychotherapy is the most commonly used type of psychotherapy in cases of depression, phobias, anxiety disorders, psychosomatic disorders, suicide, grief, marital problems, schizophrenia, substance abuse and personality disorders. It is also used during periods of medical conditions.

In short, supportive psychotherapy aims to strengthen the client's ability to cope with stressors. It ensures that psychological needs are recognized and met.