Mental Health Therapies and Characteristics

Introduction

Mental health' properly describes a sense of well-being: the capacity to live in a resourceful and fulfilling manner, having the resilience to deal with the challenges and obstacles which life presents. Mental health 'problems' or 'difficulties' are terms that can be used to describe temporary reactions to a painful event, stress or external pressures, or systems of drug or alcohol use, lack of sleep or physical illness; this terminology may also be used to describe long-term psychiatric conditions which may have siginificant effects on an individual's functioning.

Mental health is more than just the absence of mental illness. It includes how you feel about yourself and how you adjust to life events. However, the National Mental Health Association cites 10 characteristics of people who are mentally healthy.

Therapies

Couples Counseling and Family Therapy: These two similar approaches to therapy involve discussions and problem-solving sessions facilitated by a therapist-sometimes with the couple or entire family group, sometimes with individuals. Such therapy can help couples and family members improve their understanding of, and the way they respond to, one another. This type of therapy can resolve patterns of behavior that might lead to more severe mental illness. Family therapy can help educate the individuals about the nature of mental disorders and teach them skills to cope better with the effects of having a family member with a mental illness-such as how to deal with feelings of anger or guilt.

Cognitive therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy: Based on the fact that the way we feel is partly dependent on the way we think about events (cognition). It also stresses the importance of behaving in ways which challenge negative thoughts – for example being active to challenge feelings of hopelessness. Although it may sound like common sense, CBT is more than just positive thinking. Research suggests that it can be effective for people with both severe and moderate depression.

Psychotherapy-is the general term for an interaction in which a trained professional, usually a therapist or analyst, tries to help a patient by following a certain psychological theory or school of thought, to address problems based on emotional suffering, behavioral problems, or a disorder. Through a bond of trust that is developed between therapist and patient, the patient can achieve goals in therapy, such as the elimination of negative behavior and an improvement in well-being.

Body-mind therapy combines the strengths of “talk” therapy with bodywork, such as touch, postural alignment, or exercises to increase body awareness. Also known as mind-body or somatic therapy, it helps people “become deeply aware of their bodily sensations as well as their emotions, images and behavior. Clients become more conscious of how they breathe, move, speak, and where they experience feelings in their bodies.” This increased awareness about how the body holds physical stress and emotional injury informs and directs the therapy process, allowing clients to work through patterns of limitation that are not often resolved on the level of the mind alone.

Characteristics

They feel good about themselves.
They do not become overwhelmed by emotions, such as fear, anger, love, jealousy, guilt, or anxiety.
They feel comfortable with other people.
The ability to enjoy life
Flexibility
Self-actualization
They have lasting and satisfying personal relationships.
They feel comfortable within himself about them.
They like people and trusts them and expects them to like and trust him.
They face their problems; shape their environment.
They do not fear the future, but plan ahead, setting realistic goals.