Discussion: Legal Considerations of Psychotherapy

Week 1: Foundations of Psychotherapy
Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.

—Sigmund Freud

While working with a patient in the late 1800s, Sigmund Freud discovered the health benefits of talking about emotions and illnesses. When Freud introduced his “talking cure” (fundamental psychotherapy), his efforts were met with considerable skepticism. However, as more and more psychiatrists learned that Freud’s methods brought about change in patients who suffered from a variety of mental health issues, his methods were adopted and refined. Today, psychotherapy is recognized as a viable treatment for a wide variety of mental health issues—many of which are examined throughout this course—and it is used in a variety of settings, such as individual, group, and family therapy.

This week, you explore the foundations of psychotherapy and consider its biological basis. You also examine the influence of culture, religion, and socioeconomics on psychotherapy treatments. Finally, you consider how legal and ethical considerations vary across psychotherapy settings.

Learning Objectives
Students will:

• Evaluate whether psychotherapy treatments have a biological basis
• Analyze influences of culture, religion, and socioeconomics on personal perspectives of psychotherapy treatments
• Compare legal and ethical considerations among individual, family, and group modalities of therapy
• Explain how differences in legal and ethical considerations among individual, family, and group therapy modalities impact therapeutic approaches, seek nursing assignment help.