BBC 6 Minute English 2018 Its good to talk

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see learning English to find out more

visit our website from BBC learning

english.com welcome to six minute

English where we bring you a thoughtful

topic and six items of vocabulary I’m

Rob and I’m Neil so I was watching an

old Woody Allen movie last night okay

he’s the anxious middle-aged guy from

New York who talks about his problems

all the time as the one he was paying

for psychoanalysis and that’s a type of

talk therapy that was popular in the

1970s do you know what therapy means Rob

yes therapy means a type of treatment

for a problem or illness and talk

therapy is a treatment for psychological

problems which means problems of the

mind in case he was struggling with a

another long Greek word Neel trained

therapists work with you on ways to

understand your thoughts feelings and

behavior hey Rob I’m an expert on long

Greek words psychology is the noun by

the way and the prefix psycho in front

of any word means to do with the mind

for example the horror movie psycho

which is all about the disturbed mind of

the main character Norman Bates where

disturbed means not thinking or behaving

in a normal way because you have

psychological problems Norman Bates

would have found talk therapy helpful

the only thing hmm I’m not sure really

anyway let’s have a quiz question shall

we now Neil can you tell me who invented

the first talk therapy was it a Boris

Karloff be Carl Jung or C Sigmund Freud

I’m going to go for Sigmund Freud okay

interesting answer we’ll find that later

whether it was the right one or not now

moving on what do you think is the most

common psychological problem today Neal

it’s depression and depression a feeling

of unhappiness that can affect your

thoughts behavior and feelings is the

most common psychological problem

affecting people throughout the world

mmm how depressing and that’s the

adjective it makes me feel depressed

just thinking about it and depressed is

the adjective we use to

of how we are feeling then feel

depressed Rob let’s listen to professor

Brent Roberts from the University of

Illinois to find out more about the

benefits of talk therapy seeing a

therapist does result in marked changes

in psychological functioning Soviet

people get less depressed and they get

less anxious and it seems to be

regardless of what type of intervention

is is engaged and that is and has been

one of the more positive aspects of the

therapy research that we’ve seen so when

people talk to therapists about their

problems it results in marked changes in

their psychological functioning marked

here means obvious or noticeable and

these marked changes are that people

become less depressed and anxious an

intervention by the way is something you

do to improve a medical problem and in

this context it refers to different

types of talk therapy but why is talking

about our problems helpful Neal I think

it gives a shape to our problems it

makes them seem clearer and that’s a

first step in being able to manage them

also a problem shared is a problem

halved as the saying goes there’s also

some scientific evidence that talk

therapy can change the way we think and

feel by replacing negative thought

patterns with positive ones medication

can also change the way we think and

feel

some people take pills to treat

depression but medication can have

negative effects for example it can make

you feel sleepy during the daytime well

here’s a positive thought let’s check

how much we’ve learned today by going

over today’s vocabulary we had therapy

therapy is a type of treatment for a

problem or illness as therapy therapist

therapeutic my therapist is using a new

therapy with me it’s very therapeutic

therapeutic means treating an illness

but in a more general sense it can

simply mean relaxing for example I find

listening to music very therapeutic okay

next up psychological relating to the

mind psychology psychologists

psychological depression and anxiety are

both psychological problems my friend is

studying psychology at university I

to be a famous psychologist career

change at your age Anil you’ve kept that

one a secret okay number three disturbed

not thinking or behaving in a normal way

because you have psychological problems

she was a disturbed young woman or

disturbing I’ve been having very

disturbing dreams recently no poor Neal

disturbing here means upsetting or

worrying next item depression a feeling

of unhappiness that can affect your

thoughts behavior and feelings we felt

depressed by the news news was very

depressing alright let’s lift the mood

marked means obvious or noticeable

there’s been a marked improvement in

your English homework there was a marked

increase in the company’s profits last

year and finally intervention something

you do to improve a problem medical or

otherwise let me intervene at this point

intervene that’s the verb and in this

context it means to interrupt and say

we’ve forgotten the quiz question Rob oh

no good intervention yes let’s remind

ourselves of that quiz question who

invented the first talking therapy and

you say Sigmund Freud which is the right

answer so well done Neel psychoanalysis

was invented in the early 1890s by the

Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud the

patient lies on a couch and talks about

their thoughts feelings and dreams while

the therapist listens psychoanalytic

sessions typically last 50 minutes and

take place four to five times a week

okay good to know but I think I prefer

our own brand of talk therapy here on

the show and listeners you can express

your thoughts and feelings by visiting

our Facebook Twitter Instagram and

YouTube pages hmm talk to you again soon

bye bye so tell me about your childhood

Rob from the BBC

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