Psychology

In outpatient consultation, the Psychology Service performs:

• Psychotherapy for children, adolescents and adults under different therapeutic approaches.
• Couples and Family Psychotherapy.
• Personality tests.
• Liaison psychiatry for transplants, palliative care, painmanagement, cochlear implant, myelomeningocele.
• Therapeutic groups (adolescent, psychosomatic disorders).

Formal aspects of the treatment such as the therapeutic approach, the modality, the type of intervention, the techniques used, the consultation frequency and a targeted or indefinite format are determined according to the patient’s psychosocial needs and the therapeutic objectives defined during the assessment stage. Fundación Valle del Lili’s Psychology Service has psychologists trained in the intervention of a wide variety of psychosocial problems, complying with the required formal aspects.

1. Therapeutic approach: It is the theoretical and technical framework on which the therapeutic approach is based, either cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis or systemic psychotherapy.
2. Modality: It is the way in which the intervention will be developed, and according to the therapeutic objectives, it could be either individual, group, family or couple therapy.
3. Type of intervention: Within the general classification, types of interventions are categorized according to the problem’s nature: crisis intervention or supportive psychotherapy, solution-focused brief psychotherapy, long-term psychotherapy for elucidation and/or psychoanalysis.
4. Techniques or strategies used: They refer to the characteristics of the therapist’s intervention, according to his/her objectives at each stage of the process, such as exploration, facilitation of catharsis and containment, confrontation, cognitive restructuring, modelling, behavioral techniques and interpretation.
5. Frequency of consultations: the frequency of interventions should also be planned according to the intervention’s objectives; it may be scheduled as a high-frequency weekly therapy or a mid- or low-frequency weekly therapy.
6. Definite or indefinite format.

1. Psychoeducational intervention with patients and relatives:

It is the first level of intervention before defining who will require psychotherapeutic intervention. The objectives are: promote adaptation to hospitalization, educate patients and their families about the disease and its treatment and the emotional responses to both; help in the development and strengthening of communication and problem-solving skills during hospitalization; encourage treatment adherence in both the patient and his/her relatives.

2. Individual psychotherapeutic intervention:

This a useful intervention to provoke changes in insights, feelings, attitudes and behaviors. In addition, with the help of a therapist, the patient will identify the internal and external factors generating emotional suffering, in order to intervene them and enhance his/her adaptation to circumstances of life (including his/her illness and hospitalization) and improve his/her overall functioning. On the other hand, the need for intervention, its frequency and objectives, will be determined by the treating therapist or multidisciplinary team, mostly according to each patient’s needs.

3. Family intervention:

While working with patients and their families, a Family Therapist intends to identify and modify patterns to favor recovery. Specific objectives of this intervention are: explore and identify non-adaptive patterns in their relationship worsening the disease in order to modify them; explore and identify adaptive patterns in their relationship fostering patient recovery to strengthen them; encourage the patient and his/her family to establish a therapeutic alliance with the multidisciplinary team, increasing their active involvement in treatment and intervening in case of systematic conflicts and communication failures between the healthcare personnel and the family – a patient who hinders his/her normal hospitalization process and therefore, affects the course of his/her treatment.

Over the years, Fundación Valle del Lili’s Psychology Service has shown a significant growth, and currently, 13 psychologists with varied postgraduate specialization training are part of the service, who work either in outpatient and/or hospitalization settings, according to their interests and availability.

Moreover, psychologists in the Service have the capacity to intervene a wide variety of psychosocial issues, complying with the required formal aspects.