Psychological interventions in managing well-being

Pages: 380-384
Avneesh Agrawal (Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Deemed University, Lucknow Uttar Pradesh)

An intervention is an influencing force or act that occurs in order to modify a given state of affairs specifically persuading an individual while they need help. In the context of behavioral health, an intervention may be any outside process that has the effect of modifying an individual’s behavior, cognition or emotional state. Intervention Strategies are specific techniques or procedures used by a therapist to bring about a desired change in the thinking or behavior of a client. There are several Interventions in the form of therapies: Psycho-therapy / talk therapy, Behavioral Therapy, Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Family Therapy, Group Therapy, Movement, art and music Therapy, Drug Therapy, Electro-convulsive Therapy (ECT), Psycho-social Treatments, Psycho-education, Self-help groups and support groups. Social Support System / Network and Support Group assists in Managing Well-being. Support System is one that provides assistance and encouragement to individuals with physical or emotional disabilities in order that they may better cope. There are various benefits of a social support network. The people who share their lives with others will live longer, have fewer illnesses, and enjoy an enhanced quality of life. A strong social support system can act as a buffer between stressor and the difficult situations in life. A support group is different from a social support network. In social support network informal social support is usually provided by friends, relatives, or peers. While formal assistance is provided by group of professionals such as psychiatrists, Psychologists, clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors and mental health counselors, Certified alcohol and drug abuse counselors, Nurse psychotherapists, marital and family therapists, religious counselors etc. The best-fit Supportive Strategic Intervention in Managing Well-being is the one that is most likely to be followed, ‘goals must be the client’s goals, strategies must be the client’s strategies, and action plans must be the client’s plans” (Egan, 1990, p.49). Assagioli’ (1965) includes a wide range of techniques for personal ‘psycho-synthesis’. Grof (1985) coined the term ‘Transpersonal Intervention Strategies’. The transpersonal Strategic model is one in which the ego can be transcended, and the emphasis is not on “curing” rather giving guidance and encouragement to grow. Jung introduced two main intervention strategies termed as the dream analysis and free association. ‘Active Imagination’ is a technique to confront the unconscious while awake. It is a form of meditation using controlled imagery and it resembles with self-hypnosis. Hutchins’ (1984) proposes thinking-feeling-acting (TFA) as Intervention Strategy. It is assumed that in TFA model people tend to have either a thinking orientation, or a feeling orientation, or an acting orientation. Psychological intervention applied by support group through supportive strategic interventions in managing well-being as per requirement and need of needful.