[Symptom-centered psychotherapy in patients with functional voice disorders].

Abstract

As a disorder of an ego-function, functional voice disorders display a remarkable sensitivity and variability towards psychosocial factors and an often immediate connection with the underlying psychic conflict constellation. Being concentrated on their symptomatics, patients with functional voice disorders command a good capacity of observing their complaints and factors affecting them. Symptom-centered short-term psychotherapy makes use of the particular character of the voice symptom and of the patient's capacity in a focal treatment of the symptom. First, a symptom-focus is established on the basis of an analysis of speech conflict situations which contains essential psychosocial factors and is structured by a psychic conflict constellation. In the further course of psychotherapy, the symptom focus is used as a heuristic device in the treatment of material of the voice symptomatics. In working through present and past speech conflict constellations patients reach an understanding of the psychosocial conflict contained in the voice symptomatics and are enabled to develop alternatives for changing the maladaptive speech interaction patterns.