{"title":"Affect-Focused and Exposure-Focused Psychotherapies.","authors":"John C Markowitz, Barbara L Milrod","doi":"10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20230012","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The authors discuss the two broad domains of affect-focused and exposure-focused psychotherapies, defining the characteristics and potential advantages and disadvantages of each. The two domains differ in their theoretical approaches, structures, and techniques. Exposure-focused therapies have come to dominate research and practice, leading to the relative neglect of affect-focused therapies. When the two approaches have been examined in well-conducted clinical trials, they generally appear to be equally beneficial for treating common mood, anxiety, and trauma disorders, although further research may better define differential therapeutics. The authors argue for better training in affect awareness and tolerance across psychotherapies and use a brief case vignette to illustrate several aspects of these different approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":46822,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20230012","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/22 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The authors discuss the two broad domains of affect-focused and exposure-focused psychotherapies, defining the characteristics and potential advantages and disadvantages of each. The two domains differ in their theoretical approaches, structures, and techniques. Exposure-focused therapies have come to dominate research and practice, leading to the relative neglect of affect-focused therapies. When the two approaches have been examined in well-conducted clinical trials, they generally appear to be equally beneficial for treating common mood, anxiety, and trauma disorders, although further research may better define differential therapeutics. The authors argue for better training in affect awareness and tolerance across psychotherapies and use a brief case vignette to illustrate several aspects of these different approaches.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1939, the American Journal of Psychotherapy (AJP) has long been a leader in the publication of eclectic articles for all psychotherapists. Transtheoretic in reach (offering information for psychotherapists across all theoretical foundations), the goal of AJP is to present an overview of the psychotherapies, subsuming a host of schools, techniques, and psychological modalities within the larger domain of clinical practice under broad themes including dynamic, behavioral, spiritual, and experiential.