Falk LEICHSENRING, Frank LEWEKE, Susanne KLEIN & Christiane STEINERT
Clinic of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany

Abstract
Background: The Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures proposed rigorous criteria to define empirically supported psychotherapies. According to these criteria, 2 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) showing efficacy are required for a treatment to be designated as ‘efficacious’ and 1 RCT for a designation as ‘possibly efficacious’. Applying these criteria modified by Chambless and Hollon, this article presents an update on the evidence for psychodynamic therapy (PDT) in specific mental disorders.
Methods: A systematic search was performed using the criteria by Chambless and Hollon for study selection, as follows: (1) RCT of PDT in adults, (2) use of reliable and valid measures for diagnosis and outcome, (3) use of treatment manuals or manual-like guidelines, (4) adult population treated for specific problems and (5) PDT superior to no treatment, placebo or alternative treatment or equivalent to an established treatment.

Nicoleta SASU
Psychologist and psychotherapist, Bistrita, Romania

Abstract
Domain literature suggests that the cyclical nature of psychological trauma may lead, on a long term, to long term effects on the individuals and those around them. This paper sets out to examine the opportunity of using positive psychotherapy in approaching the effects of potentially traumatic events. Although trauma therapy is a less explored approach of positive psychotherapy, a review suggests that positive psychotherapy could bring a significant contribution when working with people exposed to potentially psychotraumatizing events, even in the phase of crisis intervention

Keywords:
psychological trauma, posttraumatic stress, positive psychotherapy, the balance model in psychotrauma therapy, conflicts, soldiers.

Mirela D. MOTRONEA

Viaţa omului este presărată de situaţii în care dorinţele și tendinţele individului trebuie să aștepte, să ocolească sau să renunţe. De cele mai multe ori motivele sale nu sunt conștiente, motiv pentru care consecinţele apar sub forma sentimentelor de ură, anxietate, angoasă, agresivitate sau simptome care la prima vedere nu au o motivaţie. Teama excesivă de o evaluare negativă contribuie la amplificarea anxietăţii într-o serie de situaţii sociale. Din păcate, evitarea si eludarea nu fac decât să consolideze temerile subiacente și contribuie la generalizarea fricii asupra unui număr din ce în ce mai mare de situaţii. Fobia este cea mai frecventă formă a tulburării de anxietate, devenind astfel, a treia tulburare psihiatrică, ca frecvenţă în S.U.A. Privind în asamblu efectele generate de această boală și reacţia omului în context social, ne-a determinat să ne orientăm spre această temă.

Mariana Minodora CHELEMEN, Oana Elena BOT & Adriana Camelia CIURDAR
Centrul POSITUM Timişoara, România

Cu un caracter dinamic, mizând pe valorile umaniste, psihoterapia pozitivă se dezvoltă în jurul conceptului de transculturalitate. Este o metodă psihoterapeutică care sprijină diferenţele culturale, tratându-le nu ca nişte separatisme, ci ca pe componentele unui corpus omogen. Altfel spus, psihoterapia pozitivă respectă identitatea etnică şi culturală, însă fără a încuraja exclusivismul şi dominaţia, ci mai degrabă printr-o unitate în diversitate. Prin această metodă se urmăreşte reducerea asperităţilor, îmbinarea unicităţilor religioase, lingvistice, etnice, încât acestea să formeze un mixaj cultural. Un astfel de mixaj, un „melting pot”, în limbajul antropologiei americane este promotorul toleranţei, constituind în acelaşi timp pilonul de susţinere al comunităţilor plurietnice.

Anna HUYSSE-GAYTANDJIEVA & Ivanka BONTCHEVA

Abstract
The aim of this study is to bring more understanding to the problems that immigrants face and to develop a therapeutic approach based on Positive Psychotherapy (PP). Three groups of immigrants were formed, based on the main reasons why people migrate: work, contact and future. By the means of qualitative analysis, the problematic aspects of these groups were highlighted. The developed therapeutic approach is presented by going through the process of psychological intervention to discuss the psychodynamic of the person’s problems with some of the most often used tools in PP. This includes the following therapy steps: observation, inventory, situational encouragement, verbalisation, and broadening of the goals. The results show both similarities and differences between the groups. In 75% of the cases, the duration of the therapy reached 23 sessions. In 66.7% of the cases, the symptoms disappeared completely and in the rest of the cases, they diminished dramatically. Due to the fact that Positive Psychotherapy (PP) presents a trans-cultural framework in which different methods can work and cooperate together, the research presented in this paper can be of interest to psychotherapists, counsellors, and psychiatrists regardless of their psychotherapy training. Furthermore, some ideas on application for purposes of prevention are presented.

Keywords:
positive psychotherapy, trans-cultural adaptation problems, qualitative

Christian HENRICHS
Private Psychotherapeutic Practice and International Lecturing, Cologne, Germany

Abstract
The emphasis of Positive Psychotherapy on culture is a specific contribution to psychodynamic psychotherapy and to contemporary psychological reasoning and in tervention in general. In this article, it is argued that a consistent psycho-cultural perspective as introduced by the founder of Positive Psychotherapy, the Persian-German psychiatrist and psychotherapist Nossrat Peseschkian (1933-2010), is beneficial for humanity’s psychological needs in the time of globalization. Also elementary concepts and the style of intervention in Positive Psychotherapy are described.

Keywords
Positive Psychotherapy; Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy; Psychodynamic Psychotherapy; Humanistic Psychotherapy; Short-Term Therapy; Globalization

Ivanka BONCHEVA
Department Psychiatry and Medical Psychology,
Medical University – Varna, Bulgaria

Abstract
The psychoneuroimmunology, the new brain science and the endocrinology today show a lot of results, with which symptoms are better to understand. The psychotherapeutic practice shows the ways to influence them by encoding the levels of bounding between the physical symptom and the psychological condition. The aim of the study was to show the encoding of the psychosomatic arc within a real psychotherapeutic contact. 59 psychotherapeutic cases are followed. 33 of them were with somatoform disorders and 26 with chronic psychosomatic diseases. Every patient has minimum 12 psychotherapeutic sessions. The treatment is provided on the base of the 5 levels model of the positive psychotherapy.

We ascertain the following:

1. The most significant moment in the arise of such symptomatic is the gained past experience – “vital concepts”; “coping strategies”;
2. Unlocking moment for the arise of the affection is the fixed emotion – fear, aggression or depression, specific for the particular morbid pictures;
3. Showing the connection between symptom and fixed emotion by the technique “positive interpretation”, which unlocks the process of changing

This shows that the psychotherapeutic help is possible only if the patient rethink the psychosomatic arc. Showing the connections between the content of the unconscious, the fixed emotion in behavioral models and the symptom gives the impetus to change.

Keywords:
Psychosomatic arc; connection between unconscious – fixed emotion – symptoms; positive psychotherapy