About Perth Clinic
The Therapy
Modern treatment of psychiatric illness is about meeting individual needs. Patients are assessed and a treatment plan is tailored to meet their individual needs within a framework of tried and tested approaches.
The psychotherapy models used enhance self-responsibility and the active involvement of patients in their recovery.
Therapy Groups
Group approaches to therapy have proven to be very useful in the treatment of psychiatric problems. The group process can assist those that feel isolated and alone as they slowly realise that others too feel the way they do. The group support and encouragement, together with the skills acquired through the therapist assists the patient to a faster recovery.
Individual sessions are provided as necessary to help the patient adjust to the process and identify the relevant problem areas they need to address.
Therapy aims to provide patients with an opportunity to develop skills and resources to deal more effectively and confidently with their problems. All therapy streams encourage self-responsibility in the recovery process so that the person begins to feel more in-control of their life and themselves.
Each therapy group is designed to meet certain goals and needs and each program is flexible enough to cover the broadest range of issues for the majority of patients.
Perth Clinic offers a range of therapy streams to cater for all types of people and problems. There are many interrelated therapy streams that allows a patient to easily move between groups to tailor their treatment to better-meet their needs. Which group is to be attended is decided by the psychiatrist in conjunction with the therapy team and requirements of the person.
"Open" group system
"Open groups allow people to freely move between therapy streams as needed. This means that new people can join in or leave at any point. It is this feature that offers the flexibility of moving to the most suitable group for a patient at any time and is one of the key reasons for the success of our service.
"Closed" group system
Closed groups have a beginning and an end with no new group members joining once the program has started. These groups are very structured and have a set number of topical areas that are covered within the set time frame. There is some flexibility to meet the group members' individual needs, however this can be limited at times.
Group Size
Most groups aim to have a maximum of eight group members at any one time. Some groups are larger depending on their purpose.
Why Groups
Groups are an effective and fast way to conduct a lot of therapy in a little time. This is very important in our fast paced world where people do not want to withdraw for long from their normal daily activities
Participants can at times have difficulty seeing the nature of their own problem: because it is too close to them, they become blind to it. By seeing others struggle with similar issues it helps participants gain insight into their own problems in a caring and non-threatening way.
When people are under a lot of stress, they tend to use old, well-entrenched techniques to resolve problems. It is at such times that people loose their creative ability to look at the problem in a different way and to try out new strategies to solve it. Often the old techniques only add further to the problem, rather than helping. By working in a group, participants can learn from each other about different ways to look at the problem and discover a bigger repertoire of coping strategies.
Much effort is invested in developing a supportive environment where participants feel safe to try out new strategies and to get feedback and input from other members and from the therapists. This is also a great opportunity to practice newly learned interpersonal communication and assertion skills.
I don't like the idea of a group!
At first, many people reject the idea of participating in a group. The fear of self-disclosure, finding yourself in an embarrassing situation or just the anxiety of sharing with strangers seems overwhelming. This is a normal first reaction.
Most people would agree that after a couple of days in the group, they are pleased to have stuck through their initial apprehensions and that they can see real benefits in this process.
Group approaches to therapy have proven to be very useful in the treatment of psychiatric problems. The group process can assist those that feel isolated and alone as they slowly realise that others too feel the way they do. The group support and encouragement, together with the skills acquired through the therapist assists the patient to a faster recovery.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
This well established treatment approach is based on the link between negative or irrational patterns of thinking and the feelings of anxiety, stress depression and difficulties in coping. Learning skills to become aware of these thought patterns and how to dispute them is a basis of this therapy. This therapy model has an excellent reputation worldwide and our own research on treatment outcomes confirms it's effectiveness in the treatment of psychological problems.
This therapy model has an excellent reputation worldwide and our own research on treatment outcomes confirms it's effectiveness in the treatment of psychological problems.
What does 'Cognitive' mean?
Cognition is a broad term which, refers to the way a person interprets situations, as well as thoughts, images and attitudes. Basically, the way a person thinks about or interprets an event affects their mood and their behaviour. A person can altar the way he or she feels and behaves by altering the way they interpret the situation. This does not mean thinking positively. Instead, it refers to the person closely examining his interpretation, to see if it is based in reality or is a self-defeating way of looking at life.
Along with this, the person learns how to expose their belief systems and old unconscious rules that they live by and that govern the way they think and behave. Some of these beliefs and rules may no longer be appropriate and are in need of change for the health and wellbeing of the person. CBT shows you how to do this.
As an example, a very stressed and anxious person walking down the corridor at work sees one of his managers who passes without smiling. He immediately thinks he must have done something wrong or perhaps he isn't working hard enough. This reinforces his belief that he is not good at his job and that he must work harder, which causes him to become even more stressed and anxious, which in turn reduces his ability to perform well. There is no evidence for this belief - there are many different interpretations. For instance, the manager may be pre-occupied, worrying about a meeting with their own boss, or thinking about a problem at home.
During therapy, much focus is placed upon learning to challenge such negative, irrational and self-defeating thoughts. Participants are urged to complete homework tasks, which get them to catch themselves jumping automatically to such irrational interpretations and to use new challenging techniques to arrive at more healthy and adaptive ways of thinking
What is the 'Behavioural' component?
For many problems, the most powerful way of changing beliefs and interpretations is to 'act' against them, and to action new beliefs. The emphasis is therefore on helping participants to change the way they think and behave by behaving in ways that support the new belief..
Behavioural strategies are also important to help people suffering depression. These people often begin to withdraw from activities that once were sources of pleasure as they often become lethargic and exhausted. By encouraging the person to slowly recommence pleasurable and self-nurturing activities, slowly their mood begins to improve.
Participants are given behavioural tasks to complete which encourage this phase of the change process. These tasks are carefully designed to encourage the person to stretch themselves slightly beyond their comfort-zone, but not too hard so that they end up feeling they have failed. Such tasks are developed in collaboration between the therapists and the person concerned. Participants are never forced to undertake anything that seems too difficult.
Interpersonal therapy
Perth Clinic is leading the way in the use of interpersonal Therapy as a group and individual treatment model in Australia. This therapy is offered to patients whose predominant problems are within the relationship and interpersonal domain.
Interpersonal therapy addresses issues including problems with social functioning, poor communication skills, difficulties adjusting to change or loss, conflict resolution and family issues. The family and systemic based treatment approaches have a wide range of application for those whose early learning environment included dysfunctional communication patterns that significantly interfere with effective adult communication
This model aims to help patients identify their strengths as well as targeting aspects of symptoms that are problematic and interfere with successful relationships. Treatment includes educating the patient about their illness and it's impact on relationships, elicit and clarify the patients own relationship difficulties and helping patients develop and practice new skills.