Discuss Two Psychological Therapies for Depression.

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Discuss two psychological therapies of depression. (24 Marks) One psychological therapy of depression in Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy. This therapy was developed by Hobson, and focuses mainly on the relationship between the therapist and patient. When a comfortable relationship is established, past events that could be the cause of depression are relived and resolved to try and relieve the pressures that they may be putting on the individual. Hobson believes that because problems in our life are usually through interpersonal relationships, we should resolve these problems through a therapeutic relationship. The quality of the relationship is crucial for the effectiveness of the therapy. PIT consists of several interlinking components, of which include ‘explanatory rationale’ and ‘staying with feelings’. A potential strength of PIT is that it is just as effective if not more so than current treatments at improving depressive symptoms. Research support comes from Elkin, who found that when compared to CBT, PIT is just as effective at treating depression. This is a strength because PIT provides an alternative treatment to CBT, that is just as effective. We must therefore be more trusting of the PIT therapy for depression as it provides another treatment for people who struggled with CBT that is just as effective. Meaning that more people can have their symptoms improved, in theory. However, a weakness of Elkins findings is that just because PIT is as effective of CBT, does it make it an effective treatment? This is a weakness because CBT may not be effective in the first place, making them both equally as ineffective. Therefore we must be cautious in trusting this therapy of depression as it may be used based on those findings even though it potentially could be very ineffective. This could lead to very serious consequences which could be dangerous for the

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