"What is the biomedical approach as well as the psychodynamic, humanistic-existential, behavior, and cognitive approaches to psychotherapy. How do they work with and explain four essential characteristics:" AxiaCollege, UOP PSY210 Class)

Question

1. Systematic interaction between a client and a therapist
2. Based on psychological theory and research
3. Influences a client’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior
4. Used in treating disorders, adjustment problems, and to foster personal growth
I do not need answers for my home work, but need help understanding them. I read my Axia Homwwork, but still cannot get this to lock in my brain. Can anyone break this down for me.

Answer 1

Good lord, pyscho-babble at its best.
Because we have no idea how the mind works, how to cure it has several medicine men with patent cures. These are the cb (cognitive behaviour approach), the Humanistic-existential, psycodynamic (freud and followers), and finally, the pharmacy (biomedical approach). You can read about these, or most of them, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotherapy
or here:
http://www.strisik.com/therapy/approaches.htm

The pharmacy approach is gaining momentum, because it is cheaper. It is based on the premise that we really don't know much about the mind, but if a drug works, try it again.
Your list of 1-4 seems to indicate that your instructor thinks psychotherapy is of some value, as if feellings and thoughts can be understood.

Good luck.