Volume 30, Issue 1, 2021
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.2094
Clinical Psychological Interventions in Populations with Socioeconomic Vulnerability
Abstract
New scenarios regarding vulnerable populations bring about new questions for mental health and, consequently, major challenges for their clinical approach. Faced with these needs, the present study aims at evaluating the efficacy of focused psychotherapy, where Viktor Frankl´s and Héctor Fiorini´s theoretical frameworks are integrated. The research is based on a sample that consists of some 330 clinical records of patients who underwent treatment between 2014 and 2019, at a Psychological Orientation Center located in a shanty town in Buenos Aires. The issues to be addressed (foci) were identified at the beginning of each individual treatment. Participants were assessed before and after treatment with the House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) graphic projective technique and, in addition, a few case studies were analyzed by interviewing the patients and therapists to make a qualitative outcome assessment. The results, measured using the Wilcoxon test, revealed that there were significant improvements in various issues raised throughout the treatments. The revision of the H-T-P technique revealed that patients presented favorable changes in issues such as interpersonal relationships, self-esteem and ego strength. The case studies reinforced these outcomes. The findings of this research suggest that the integration of Logotherapy and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy could be an effective and an innovative approach to address the current issues affecting socioeconomically vulnerable populations
Keywords
Logotherapy, focused psychotherapies, vulnerability