来源：英语学习杂志 

 

瑞士心理学家荣格说：“心理治疗的主要目的，并不是使病人进入一种不可能的幸福状态，而是帮助他们树立一种面对苦难的、哲学式的耐心和坚定。”心理学对于很多人来说是个神秘的领域，心理医师也通常被人们赋予许多传奇的色彩。然而对于心理治疗，我们第一反应总是这样的场景——“说说你的童年，”治疗师看着躺在沙发上的你，缓缓吸一口雪茄……实际上，心理治疗可不都是这个样子。

 

By Samantha Popp

 

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When most people think of psychotherapy, they picture patients relaxing on a sofa and spilling all of their emotions. “Tell me about your childhood,” the therapist says, taking a drag of his cigar. In reality, therapy takes place in all kinds of settings.

 

 

When the campsite is set up and the fire is lit, the doctor is in. Wilderness therapy is a successful, and sometimes controversial, way to help troubled youth by teaching life and social skills on the hiking trail. Intensive group therapy and one-on-one sessions are coupled with outdoor activities like mountain climbing and fly-fishing to teach self-reliance and responsibility. Programs promise to reform even the most wayward of offenders, including juvenile delinquents and teens with depression, anger management issues, or eating disorders.

 

While wilderness therapy can be effective, certain methods have come under fire for using unethical, and sometimes downright abusive, techniques to help struggling youth. Wilderness programs are loosely regulated, so not all programs are staffed by qualified professionals. Upon closer examination, some “therapy” groups seemed to be just military-style boot camps with little mental health benefit.

 

Even legitimate wilderness therapy groups have been criticized for partnering with teen escort companies to forcibly remove unwilling participants from their homes to attend the program. While controversy and risk exist, wilderness therapy might be a creative way to teach life skills when other methods have failed.

 

Hypnotism might seem like a magic trick, but it actually has the power to help people break into their subconscious to get to the cause of their problems, like smoking or overeating. Hypnotherapy helps patients change unwanted behaviors with suggestions of new behavior patterns during guided meditation sessions.

 

Skilled hypnotherapists begin the process with a relaxation exercise to clear the mind and to release tension. (Think of the classic line, “You’re getting very sleepy.”) From there, the hypnotist expertly guides the patient through suggestions to solve the problem, like choosing healthier snacks or eating smaller portions to lose weight. The brain, much like a sponge in this moment, will supposedly start to incorporate those recommendations into new patterns of thought.

 

Phobias, extreme and irrational fears, can cause much anxiety and pain. But never fear; anxiety caused by spiders, dogs, and even elevators can all be alleviated through flooding, an intense form of exposure therapy that requires patients to face their fears.

 

Irrational fears are cured by exposing the patient to the fear-inducing object over a long period of time. For example, a person looking to get rid of his fear of dogs may start by just looking at photos of dogs under the supervision of a trained professional. Therapy continues with an “exposure” to dogs in person and eventually working up the courage to pet actual puppies . The slow pace of learning to manage fear has proven to have high success rates in gently treating anxiety, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

Flooding therapy works just like exposure therapy, except there is nothing slow about it. Patients will be asked to face full-on fear in the first visit. There is no gradual introduction to the feared object, and flooding can be quite intense. Dog-phobic individuals will be asked to play with puppies right away and elevator-hating people will spend their first flooding session riding the lift without breaks. Flooding therapy evokes a strong anxiety response that in theory, will exhaust the patient into letting go of the irrational fear.

 

However, critics say that intense exposures may not be therapeutic but instead traumatic to people already struggling with extreme fear. In some cases, flooding actually makes the phobia worse. There is no way to know if a patient will respond well to flooding therapy, so the general consensus is that slow and steady wins the race.

 

Dragons, pigs, and puppies can help you learn to deal with an overbearing boss, an annoying neighbor, or a troublesome child. Puppets play an important role in therapy by helping patients express emotions and practice difficult conversations in the safe company of a stuffed animal. As they practice being assertive with a toothy tiger puppet, patients might feel freer to stand up for themselves outside of therapy. Puppets make it easier for patients, especially children, to practice expressing difficult emotions, discuss abuse, or practice social skills in a playful way.

 

Puppets create a safe distance between the therapist and patient, so it feels more comfortable speaking through the puppet. Trained therapists can creatively mirror the child’s problems, which makes introducing difficult topics easier. The therapist interviews the puppet, rather than the patient, which gives the patient license to say whatever they feel. Puppets, and other forms of play therapy, have proven to be excellent ways to teach autistic children social skills or to practice imaginative thought.

 

Imagine the patience and knowledge it takes to grow a tiny seed into a strong tree. In horticulture therapy, therapists combine their love for nature with their expertise in mental health to teach those skills. Much like equine therapy uses the horse to teach skills, horticulture therapists use plants to convey different lessons and skills. Working in prisons, hospitals, and nursing homes, therapists initiate conversation while gardening or crafting pinecone bird feeders.

 

As groups work together to plant flowers or grow gardens, therapists lead conversations on confidence and teamwork. Horticulture therapy is especially useful for people with disabilities. Activities can be designed for people in wheelchairs or with other special needs. Anyone can delight in the happiness of watching a flower grow. It can be a great source of pride to watch a planted seed grow and be instrumental in its care. By connecting with nature, patients find calmness to bring into their own lives.

 

Vocabulary

 

1. psychotherapy: 心理疗法。

 

2. spill: 说出。

 

3. drag: 吸入一口烟。

 

4. campsite: 营地。

 

5. trail: 系列活动。

 

6. session: （从事某项活动的）一段时间；be coupled with: 与……结合；fly-fishing: 假蝇钓鱼（广泛流行于欧美的溪流钓法，用仿生饵模仿飞蝇、蚊虫等有翅类昆虫落水，以刺激掠食性鱼类捕食）；self-reliance: 自立。

 

7. 这些活动能够改造最为任性的犯事者，比如少年犯和患有抑郁症、情绪管理问题或饮食失调的青少年。wayward: 难管教的，任性的；juvenile delinquent: 少年犯。

 

8. come under fire: 受到批评；unethical: 不道德的；downright: 完全地，彻底地；abusive: 施虐的。

 

9. regulate: 管理；staff: v. 配备人手。

 

10. boot camp: 新兵训练营。

 

11. 即使是合法的荒野治疗团队也受到过指责，称他们与青少年护送机构一起，强制那些不愿意参加活动的人离开家去参与这些活动。legitimate: 合法的，正当的；escort: 护送。

 

12. hypnotism: 催眠术；subconscious: 潜意识。

 

13. meditation: 冥想。

 

14. expertly: 熟练地，巧妙地；portion: （食物的）一份。

 

15. sponge : 海绵；incorporate: 纳入，吸收；recommendation: 建议。

 

16. phobias: 恐惧症；irrational fear: 非理性恐惧。

 

17. alleviate: 减轻，缓解。

 

18. supervision: 监督，管理。

 

19. puppy: 幼犬。

 

20. post-traumatic stress disorder: （由于战伤、恐怖等原因引起的）创伤后精神紧张性障碍。

 

21. consensus: 一致意见，共同看法。

 

22. overbearing: 专横的，傲慢的。

 

23. company: 陪伴；stuffed animal: 毛绒玩具。

 

24. assertive: 自信的，果断的；stand up for: 支持，拥护。

 

25. autistic: 自闭的。

 

26. expertise: 专门知识。

 

27. equine therapy: 马背疗法，心理疗法之一，指通过骑马或者马儿的陪伴来进行心理治疗。

 

28. initiate: 使开始，发起；craft: 制作；pinecone: 松果。

 

29. instrumental: 起作用的，有帮助的。