Carl Roger's humanistic therapy involves active listening (asking questions and reflecting on what the client says), empathy, unconditional positive regard (the therapist is always kind and respectful of the patient no matter what happens), and non-directiveness (the therapist tries to help the client reach a solution rather than telling them what to do). Mindfulness meditation is a technique more often associated with cognitive therapy.

Group therapy has many advantages, including social support, high levels of effectiveness, opportunities to practice social skills, and the realization that many people suffer from similar issues. In addition, group therapy is generally less expensive than individual therapy, which is another benefit. 

There are many types of group therapy, including family therapy, couples counseling, mindfulness group therapy (focusing on techniques such as meditation), AA, and cognitive therapy addiction groups (focusing on how unhelpful thought patterns lead to addiction). Self-help groups like AA are distinct from the other types of groups because they do not involve a certified therapist, instead relying on a leader, group dynamics, and religion.

Research shows that therapy is quite effective and the average therapy-treated client is better off than the average non-treated client. The placebo effect -someone getting better because they think they are being treated- is a concern with medication but hasn't been linked to the effectiveness of therapy.

The psychoanalytic concept of transference occurs when a therapist begins to play a significant role in the patient's life, and patient transfers (carries over) some of the feelings from a past relationship, often a parent-child one, into the relationship with their therapist. Transference can be positive (love), negative (hatred, jealousy), or ambivalent, and its occurence is seen as a sign of success by Freudian psychotherapists.  

According to Freud, resistance is when a client rejects the therapist's interpretations of the emotions and behavior and often tries to hide aspects of themselves from their therapist. Psychodynamic therapists believe that it is an unconscious process that indicates the therapist's success and means they are close to figuring the client out (but not that therapy is ready to end).

Aurelia's therapist is most certainly a humanistic therapist. That is to say, her therapist is trained as person-centered (also known as client-centered) clinician following the theory of Carl Rogers. According to this approach, the three primary components of effective therapy are unconditional positive regard, empathy, and authenticity. This approach, unlike the others, also stresses the role of human freedom (sometimes, this is referred to as free will).

Psychosurgery most often involved a prefrontal lobotomy, which involved taking out a part of or the whole prefrontal cortex. People hypothesized that the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for our conscious thought, went awry in the minds of mentally ill people and that taking it out would cure their mental illness. The results, however, were often tragic and mentally ill people would be left in a vegetative state.

“Dialectical behavioral therapy” uses the pillars of mindfulness, emotional regulations, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills to help individuals develop a more adaptive means of coping. It is particularly effective for clients with borderline personality disorder to assist them in managing their emotions and improving their interpersonal relationships.

Yalom's therapeutic factors include all of the choices except: joining. Yalom identified 11 factors that he believed influenced the process of change and recovery among therapy clients. Of these factors, “joining” was not included.