Rajini uses yoga and meditation to focus her attention. This is a form of which therapy?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Alternative
Option (1) Electro convulsive — Incorrect. Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is a biomedical therapy: a mild electric shock is given through electrodes to the brain to induce convulsions, by a psychiatrist and only when drugs fail. Yoga and meditation involve no such treatment of the body.
Option (2) Humanistic existential — Incorrect. Humanistic-existential therapies, such as existential therapy and client-centred therapy, help the client find meaning and grow through a warm, accepting relationship with the therapist. They are talking therapies, not practices of posture, breathing and attention.
Option (3) Cognitive — Incorrect. Cognitive therapies locate the cause of distress in irrational thoughts and beliefs and change them by questioning, as in Ellis’s RET. Rajini is not disputing her beliefs; she is training her attention.
Option (4) Alternative — Correct. Alternative therapies are so called because they are alternative treatment possibilities to the conventional drug treatment or psychotherapy; yoga, meditation, acupuncture and herbal remedies are among them. Meditation refers to the practice of focusing attention on breath, an object, a thought or a mantra, which is what Rajini does.
NCERT (2025-26): “Alternative Therapies … Alternative therapies are so called, because they are alternative treatment possibilities to the conventional drug treatment or psychotherapy. There are many alternative therapies such as yoga, meditation, acupuncture, herbal remedies and so on. In the past 25 years, yoga and meditation have gained popularity as treatment programmes for psychological distress. Yoga is an ancient Indian technique detailed in the Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Yoga as it is commonly called today either refers to only the asanas or body posture component or to breathing practices or pranayama, or to a combination of the two. Meditation refers to the practice of focusing attention on breath or on an object or thought or a mantra. Here attention is focused.…” |