Page 5 - LN 4_Therapuetic Approaches

➢ Kundalini Yoga taught in the USA has been found to be effective in treatment of
mental disorders.
~ The Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California, San Diego, USA has
found that Kundalini Yoga is effective in the treatment of obsessive compulsive
disorder.
~ Kundalini Yoga combines pranayama or breathing techniques with chanting of
mantras.

Rehabilitation of the mentally ill

➢ The treatment of psychological disorders has two components,
1. Reduction of symptoms, eg. milder disorders such as generalised anxiety,
reactive depression or phobia.
2. Improving the level of functioning or quality of life, e.g. severe mental
disorders such as schizophrenia.
➢ Rehabilitation is required to help patients who suffer from negative symptoms
such as disinterest and lack of motivation to do work or to interact with people
become self-sufficient.
✓ The aim of rehabilitation is to empower the patient to become a productive
member of society to the extent possible.
✓ In rehabilitation, the patients are given occupational therapy, social skills
training, and vocational therapy.

a) In occupational therapy, the patients are taught skills such as candle
making, paper bag making and weaving to help them to form a work
discipline.
b) Social skills training helps the patients to develop interpersonal skills
through role play, imitation and instruction. The objective is to teach the
patient to function in a social group.
c) Cognitive retraining is given to improve the basic cognitive functions of
attention, memory and executive functions.
d) After the patient improves sufficiently, vocational training is given wherein
the patient is helped to gain skills necessary to undertake productive
employment.