The resistance in therapy are the behaviors, cognitions or emotions that the client presents and that are obstacles to change. This range of resistance is as wide as the number of people in therapy.
Although not everyone has such objections, there may be times when we detect that the client/patient appears stagnant, refuses to inform us of certain problems or does not perform the agreed tasks.
- Different psychological patterns and currents pay uneven attention to resistances.
- However.
- Someone should emphasize the need to resolve them.
- Give them the attention they deserve.
- Expose them in session.
- And confidently ask the client what difficulties they face.
Suitable for any type of therapy, there are techniques that can be useful for effectively breaking down in-session resistors; in this case, we will focus on those that come from positive psychology.
Positive psychology is a psychological current that focuses mainly on forces; not in what weakens us, but in the resources and potential we have.
Many believe she was born in 1998, promoted by the president of the American Association of Psychology (APA), Mr. Seligman.
The basis of positive psychology is to increase strength, growth and human development.
For example, the wellness model within this chain seeks the psychological well-being of individuals in aspects such as independence and autonomy, environments conducive to the satisfaction of desires and needs, the development of potential and vital goals.
Therefore, including the typical tasks of this chain, regardless of the methodological type of therapy, is described as useful not only for interrupting resistances, but also for enriching the individual’s change and improving their abilities.
In many pathologies, recurrent thoughts can be found that the client cannot stop.
When, in a cognitive-behavioral context, the interruption of thought with self-learning or free time does not seem effective, in the search for a cognitive restructuring achieving a more lasting change, there are techniques such as:
Many patients arrive at therapy completely drowned out by pathology, most find it difficult not to identify with the term, which usually happens with anxiety. People with anxiety disorders are often defined with this label, without letting go.
They think they’ve always had anxiety and that she’ll always accompany them. The depaltologization of anxiety and other disorders is important for him to take away his power, and for the person to discover other adjectives much more suitable to define:
By re-covering resistance to anxiety disorders, cognitive restructuring can sometimes prove difficult.
Therefore, the socratic debate about irrational thoughts can be combined with tasks that help the client find positive meanings to have problems, since their anticipation often causes a lot of discomfort in people with this disease:
People who are starting already medicated psychological treatment can attribute any positive changes to the drug itself.
Faced with this, since it is not possible to withdraw the drug at once and sometimes this is counterproductive, the objective is to publicize the full spectrum of positive changes that have occurred, in addition to combining it with a socratic debate that dismantles this idea. .
Charts can be used to collect supposedly exponential mood scores and, in turn, may also realize the signs of improvement and recovery that are overlooked in each session.
These types of tasks and techniques are offered in the range of options that the therapist can use to resolve resistances in therapy, it is not recommended to ignore them or give them proper attention.
Other positive interventions can be used, always with the ultimate goal of empowerment and depaltologization, fundamental pillars of positive psychology.