Affect: pattern of noticeable traits that express emotion, which fluctuate.
Some types of Affect:
- blunted: emotional drop off
- flat: no expression, stereotypical male (especially when watching golf)
- inappropriate: discrepancy in visual and verbal expression
- labile: spontaneous, impulsive, erratic changes in expression (14 year old girl)
- restricted: decrease in expressed affect
Agitation: emotion expressed by therapists when
- A client no-shows
- A client drops an oh by the way bomb on the way out the door
- Mels parking spot is occupied
Amnesia: loss of memory
- anterograde – loss of memory that occurs after a traumatic event
(e.g.. creating a website)
- retrograde – loss of memory that occurs before an event
(e.g.. packing a suitcase)
Anxiety: tension, internal or external, due to anticipatory danger (e.g. shoe sale)
Attach: create emotional ties, secure emotional communication
Attention: ability to focus on specific stimuli (e.g. Vin Disel, Carmen Electra)
Boundaries: mutual understanding on lines within and between relationships.
Connect: to become united or linked
Content: words that are spoken
Defense Mechanisms: process in which we unconsciously protect ourselves from internal/external stressors or dangers
Delusion: a false belief based on incorrect knowledge about reality (e.g. world view developed during childhood)
Disorientation: confusion about time of day, place, or person (e.g. lack of sleep, intoxication)
Dissociation: disruption of normal consciousness. Often occurs during the holiday season, planning a wedding, and during graduate school.
Distractibility: inability to maintain attention, jumps from one topic to another without reason (when Mel or Harry are in manic mode)
Engage: participate in an activity or relationship
Flashback: a recurrence of memory, or feeling from an experience in the past (Remember the ’80s: hyper color, spandex, scrunch socks, and big hair)
Grandiosity: inflated evaluation of one’s worth (I’m perfect: if you don’t believe me, just ask ME!)
Process: application of content, non-verbals, and overall knowledge of individual.
Stuck: inability to move forward or digress in therapy (otherwise known as analysis paralysis)
State of the Union: personal description of how an individual perceives his or her present emotional state (therapist to clients in marital sessions: what’s the state of the union today?)
Good: Grateful Optimistic, Open-Minded, Determined
Fine: (therapist: How are you today? Client, exhibiting obvious discrepancy between content and process: FINE) Freaked-out, Insecure, Neurotic, Emotional
Stressor: any life event or life change that contributes to the onset of a mental disorder (e.g. house breaking a puppy)
