Psychiatr. praxi 2015; 16(3e): e36-e52

Freedom and psychotherapy

Mgr. et Mgr. Jana Vyskočilová¹, prof. MUDr. Ján Praško Pavlov, CSc.², MUDr. Aleš Grambal², MUDr. Daniela Jelenová², MUDr. Andrea Cinculová²

¹ Fakulta humanitních studií, Univerzita Karlova Praha

² Klinika psychiatrie, Lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc

The problems of the client, who comes to the therapy, may be related to his/her freedom of choice. Lack of freedom may contributeto onset and maintenance of the problems. Psychotherapy can be understood as a process of client management to actively increasingthe independence, mainly from destructive habits, self-limiting attitudes, compulsive acts and other symptoms. In CBT terms,the freedom is always relative. The idea of absolute freedom is caused by cognitive distortion – black and white vision. CBT does notdiscuss the general freedom, but decision-making in particular situations in client’s life. The therapist helps the client to understandthe mistakes in thinking and to learn more realistic way to articulate their experiences. The change in attitudes is then implementedby training of freer behavior and experiments with it in everyday life.

Keywords: freedom, philosophical concepts, psychotherapy, therapeutic relationship, cognitive behavioral therapy

Published: August 1, 2015  Show citation