What Is Therapy?

By Author: Jennifer Baxt
Total Articles: 200
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Before understanding what therapy is about, one must first understand what the word means. As is the case with many medical terms, therapy was derived from a Greek term and is the attempt of treating a problem a patient is diagnosed with. In plain and simple terms, therapy means treatment. Treatment can take the form of certain prescriptions or exercises, depending on the problem.

What are the specific forms that therapy can take? Believe it or not, there are so many types of therapy a person could easily write a book on it. There are therapies that deal with both mental and physical issues. Therapies that deal with the psychological aspect include art therapy, behavioral therapy, cognitive analytical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, and occupational therapy.

Art therapy is what some patients may participate in to find a better understanding of their self and who they truly are. Behavioral therapy is often used in cases where people suffer from phobias. In this case, the medical professional will help the patient change how they feel about certain things by changing what the patient normally ...
... does. Cognitive analytical therapy is where the professional helps the patient work out what happened in the past and help the patient to start moving forward in their lives without being held back by a past incident. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on the negative thoughts and how they can affect the patient. The professional then helps the patient find a way to pick out those thoughts and focus on them in order to bring out more positive thinking. Counseling is what many people will go through in order to work out their difficulties and emotions. Occupational therapy is where the professional will get the patient involved in some useful activity that works on building the patient's self confidence, and then work through what is causing them difficulties.

Therapies that deal with the physical aspect include geriatric therapy, neurological therapy, orthopedic therapy, and pediatric therapy. Geriatric therapy deals more with older people as they go through the normal aging process. As these people age, they can develop problems such as arthritis or cancer that can often be helped by geriatric therapy. It can help an older person increase their mobility and reduce any pain they might be suffering. Neurological therapy is often used on people who have suffered a brain or spinal injury, or suffer from diseases such as Alzheimer's. Orthopedic therapy deals with people who have received an injury to any of their bone structure, or for helping people who have been through orthopedic surgery. Pediatric therapy is what is used to detect early signs of health problems. Pediatric therapy also focuses on helping children who suffer from a number of different disorders such as spinal bifida and cerebral palsy.

Depending on the problem, there is probably a specific type of therapy for it. While the therapies mentioned above don't really mention medication, some therapeutic programs do combine the therapy with a prescription to help the patient through treatment. These are only a few of the vast number of different therapies out there. It changes from patient to patient as a result of their particular situation and condition, as well as who the professional is and what they feel would be in the patient's best interest. New therapies also continue to be developed every day as more is found out about diseases and sicknesses that affect the human population.