Supportive Psychotherapy 101

An article in Psychiatric News on June 15 by Arnold Winston [his book] offers a quick review about the elements of supportive psychotherapy and why it has become the most widely used form of psychotherapy.

Definition of supportive psychotherapy: designed to reduce symptoms, improve self-esteem, and maximize adaptive capacities.

TECHNIQUES

• alliance building (expressions of interest, empathy, conversational style)
• esteem building (reassurance, normalizing, encouragement)
• skills building (advice, teaching, anticipatory guidance)
• reducing and preventing anxiety (normalizing, reframing, rationalizing)
• expanding awareness (clarification, confrontation, interpretation)
• strengthening defenses (as opposed to challenging them)
• other cognitive-behavioral (identification and examination of automatic thoughts, relaxation exercises, assertiveness training, exposure treatment)

QUALITIES

• supportive
• empathic
• nonthreatening

THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE

• affectionate bond between patient and therapist
• agreement on the task and goals of the therapy
• patient's capacity to perform therapeutic work
• therapist's empathic relatedness and involvement