Psychodynamic therapy worksheet
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
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What is the theory behind this Psychodynamic therapy worksheet?
Psychodynamic therapy is an integrated form of therapy that focuses on internal emotional processes and their interpretation. Psychodynamic therapist tries to help the client to have insight into themselves by focusing on their emotions, thoughts and beliefs. One of the internal processes includes defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are psychological tactics an individual uses unconsciously to protect oneself from unacceptable thoughts and feelings.
How will the worksheet help?
The purpose of this worksheet is to help the therapist in figuring out the defense mechanisms their clients are using. Figuring this out is crucial in the therapeutic process as it will aid in getting to know the resistance and conflicting behaviors.
How to use this worksheet?
Read the following checklist while assessing your client during therapy. It contains the description of five most common defense mechanisms. Mark (✓) whenever the client displays the behavior matching the description of a specific defense mechanism.
