31.

Discuss the factors which contribute to healing in psychotherapy.

There are several factors which contribute to the healing process. Some of these factors are as follows:

• The techniques adopted by the therapist and the implementation of the same with the client.
• The quality of therapeutic alliance — the regular availability of the therapist, and the warmth and empathy provided by the therapist has its importance.
• The quality of emotional unburdening (catharsis) has a significant impact on healing.
• Non-specific factors are associated with psychotherapy. These are patient variable and therapist variable.
• Patient variable refers to attributed to the client. e.g., clients motivation for change and expectation of improvement due to the treatment etc. Therapist variable refers to his/her good mental health, the absence of his/her unresolved emotional conflicts and expertise.

Alternative therapies are so called because they are alternative treatment possibilities to the conventional drug treatment or psychotherapy. There are many alternative therapies such as yoga, meditation, herbal remedies and so on.

1. Yoga is an ancient Indian technique detailed in the Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. Yoga, as it is commonly called today either refers to only the asanas or body positive component or to breathing practices or pranayama or to a combination of the two.
2. Meditation refers to the practice of focusing attention on the breath or an object or thought or a mantra.
3. Vipassana Meditation, also known as mindfulness-based meditation, has no fixed object or thought to hold the attention. The person possibly observes the various bodily sensation and thoughts that are passing through his awareness.
4. The rapid breathing techniques to induce hyperventilation as in Sudarshana Kriya Yoga (SKY) is found to be a beneficial, low-risk, low-cost, adjunct to the treatment of stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) depression, stress-related medical illness, substance abuse, and rehabilitation of criminal offenders.
5. Kundalini Yoga taught in the USA has found to be effective in treating mental disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder. It combines pranayama or breathing with the chanting of mantras.