Unit 11 Psychological perspectives Part 2
For the case study of Sarah, I will be referring to Cygnet Health centre [Cygnet Health 2022]. This setting
provides aid to those suffering from mental illness and provides a range of treatments for many
individuals. In Sarah’s case, she will be requiring treatment for her depression. The treatment that
Cygnet Health centre provides is Cognitive behavioural therapy. Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, is
a treatment from the cognitive perspective which consists of One-to-one sessions where the individual’s
negative thoughts are drawn out and talked about and the source of these thoughts is attempted to be
drawn out. For Sarah, this will mean her and a professional at the Health Centre discussing the negative
thoughts Sarah has about herself and about life and trying to find the root of them as well as nullify
them and help detach her from these thoughts. Over a period of many sessions, the professional will
aim to target Sarah’s negative thoughts and behaviours and figure out different coping methods and
outlets Sarah can use in order to combat these thoughts and behaviours and rid her of her depression.
As Sarah was abused during childhood, this may mean that during the therapy her childhood will be
delved into and talked about so that they can figure out if Sarah’s depression and negative thoughts
stem from childhood and if so, how can these issues be discussed and resolved to a point where they
are no longer causing Sarah to feel negatively towards herself or suicidal towards life. [NHS 2022].
Another treatment Cygnet Health Centre offers is the option for assisting drugs to be prescribed to
individuals. Through the Health Centre, patients can get a referral to receive medication to aid their
recovery. Alongside the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Sarah would receive at the Centre, Sarah could
be prescribed SSRIs or other antidepressants to increase her serotonin levels, balance her brain
chemicals and reduce the amount of negative thoughts she experiences. This is useful because if her
brain chemicals are in balance and aren’t causing her to have excess negativity in her mind, this will
make CBT a lot easier and far more helpful for Sarah and treating her depression. The use of drugs is a
treatment promoted by the biological perspective which believes that mental illness is a result of
chemicals in the brain being at an imbalance; thus, in treating Sarah’s condition, this perspective would
believe that Sarah’s depression is nothing more than her serotonin and other brain chemical levels being
out of balance and the way to combat this would be to manually balance them through the use of
pharmaceutical drugs.
For the case of Simon, I will be referring to Oxleas NHS Foundation trust. This setting offers help to a
range of individuals with different conditions, ranging from ocd to phobias and depression. [Oxleas NHS
Foundation Trust 2022]. Oxleas works alongside Greenwich time to talk to provide treatment and care
for individuals with mental health conditions and disorders. Oxleas Mental health unit also offers CBT as
a treatment option for it’s patients and would look to treat Simon’s phobia by looking at what negative
thoughts he has towards spiders and why he has them. He would receive one-to-one sessions with a
professional where they look at his current thoughts and feelings and discuss them in an attempt to
pinpoint where they originated from. There may be a reason for Simon’s fear that he has forgotten or
repressed which could be drawn out if talked about and around. For example, of Simon spoke about
spiders and him finding them scary, if the professional asks him why he may need to think deeper and
the reason can be discovered over a period of time where he is consistently asked to look back and
analyse the reasoning for his phobia. Once the original reason for his phobia is drawn out, Simon can
begin to understand his fear better and the professional can work with him to slowly reduce his fear and
anxiety towards spiders and deal with the actual reason for his feelings. [NHS 2022]. CBT is a treatment
of the cognitive perspective, however, the development of coping mechanisms and the analysis of
, things like repression are both part of the psychodynamic approach. This means that Oxleas NHS
Foundation Trust use these two approaches coincidingly to understand and treat mental health
conditions of patients. It is plausible to assume that, if it was used more in today’s society,
psychoanalysis would be another treatment offered by the mental health unit as it does take the
psychodynamic approach into consideration during it’s treatments.
One similarity between Sarah and Simon’s settings is that they both provide Cognitive Behavioural
Therapy as a treatment option. This form of therapy is highly useful for both individuals’ conditions and
would effectively look into their thoughts and feelings and use them to find effective solutions and
resolving strategies to combat their conditions. However, one difference between Simon and Sarah’s
settings is that at Oxleas NHS foundation trust they offer Simon’s CBT as part of a group therapy. This
helps to condition Simon out of his phobia of spiders by providing support through other individuals
with the same phobia as well as inspire him to get over his fear if he sees those around him making
progress. This significantly helps to improve his response to improve his response the CBT and thus
makes it more effective for treating his phobia. At Sarah’s setting, the CBT offered is only person-centred
and a group option is not available. This means that Sarah’s depression treatment would not benefit
from the influence of seeing her peers benefit and improve from their depression in a similar way to her
own. Having one-to-one CBT may also make her feel more alone or like there aren't other individuals
experiencing the same things as her which could end up having negative effects on her outlook on the
treatment and make her less responsive. one difference is that, unlike at Cygnet Health Centre, Oxleas
NHS Foundation Trust does not offer assisting drugs as a treatment for Simon’s Phobia. This is most
likely because the drug often used to treat anxiety disorders is benzodiazepine, which is a relaxant that
reduces adrenaline and other stress hormones/chemicals in the body in order to reduce tension and
anxiety levels. The use of this drug is not highly favoured or provided by settings in the UK which is
probably the reason why Simon’s setting does not offer it as a treatment. If Simon’s setting did offer the
prescription of benzodiazepine as an assisting treatment to the CBT or psychoanalysis Simon receives,
this would help to reduce Simon’s stress hormones in his body and thus make it easier for him to begin
to feel less stressed around the topic of spiders and help to condition him to no longer feel fear when
the topic of spiders is brought up. Another similarity is that neither of the settings provide behaviouralist
treatments such as reconditioning as a treatment option. Reconditioning would be effective for
disassociating Sarah from her negative thoughts and Simon from his anxiety and hostility towards
Spiders. Reconditioning would be very effective in the treatment of both Simon’s and Sarah’s conditions
as it involves taking the reason for the individual’s condition: Negative thoughts for Sarah and spiders for
Simon, and helping them to unlearn the behaviours associated with these. For example, Sarah has
learned to associate herself with negativity and Simon has learned to associate spiders with fear and
anxiety. Reconditioning would reprogramme the two individuals to no longer make these associations
and thus treat and eventually cure their conditions. However, as already previously stated,
unfortunately neither of their settings provide this as a treatment option.
Cygnet Health Centre uses a combination of both the cognitive approach and the biological approach to
treat their patients and improve the social functioning of those who choose to use their services and
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust uses the cognitive perspective with some psychodynamic.
The cognitive perspective is a strong approach which is considered highly reliable and trusted approach.
The cognitive perspective puts focus on the mind and this is important because a vast amount of social
functioning stems from a thought, perception or other cognitive occurrence. To understand why an
