Myths of psychotherapy.

[Gob]

The British have a prickly relationship with psychotherapy. Unlike Americans, who have embraced the benefits of “talking therapy”, we tend to view the profession with suspicion, citing stoicism as the best way to deal with trauma.

Even at the highest level, therapists are treated as potentially dangerous: there are plans by the government body, the Health Professions Council, to regulate therapists (a plan, say some of the 3,000 therapists opposed to this action, that could stifle their creativity and their relationships with their clients). Yet most of those who have entered into therapy are wildly enthusiastic about the process.


1. It’s all your parents’ fault

It’s a bit simplistic to say this, but there is something in it. I believe that we learn to communicate with others through our relationship with our first carer and if that carer was unresponsive, abusive, inconsistent or depressed it is likely that there will be psychological problems to overcome later in life. When a parent consistently fails in understanding or gives up trying, his or her child will have to adapt and compensate for that. Sometimes these modifications can end up forming the child’s world-views, which will not serve them well later in life.

But apportioning blame isn’t particularly useful: most parents do their best, even if they made serious mistakes or found themselves in a dangerous environment when rearing their children. If you are having problems communicating with others, therapy can be useful in making you more aware and reflective about your responses so that you have more choice about how to be. Therapy can be about raising consciousness and, to do that competently, understanding our personal histories helps.

2. Talking about yourself is self-indulgent

It may be self-indulgent to talk about ourselves. However it is not self-indulgent to seek to understand oneself; there is a difference.

If we react rather than reflect we are often susceptible to projection and transference. Projection happens when, instead of having pure contact with another, we project a part of ourselves on to the other person and relate to these own projected parts. Transference occurs when we make subconscious assumptions about the person before us based on our experience of people we have known in the past. Of course, we are all going to use experience to colour our expectations of new meetings a little, but the danger comes when this makes us less flexible and our preconceptions become baggage that is likely to weigh us down.

If we can become more aware of these projections we are less likely to project our “shadow side” on to others. It is very common to see ourselves as good and the other as bad, and when we do this we are often projecting our own bad side on to the other. Psychotherapy helps you to own the insecurities, fears and aggressive drives that hold you back.

3. In the end, it all comes down to sex

Your sexuality is part of who you are and so it is possible that to understand yourself you might need to look at your sexual development and your sexual behaviours.

Sex plays a part in all relationships. By sex I don’t mean sexual intercourse but the connection and energy we feel with other people. I believe that this warmth between two people is necessary for the emotional growth of either or both of them. After all, we don’t pop out of the womb being able to fully relate to others. We learn how to relate by being in relationships with our earliest carers and we carry on developing in relationships with others all our lives. For psychotherapy to work effectively, the relationship you have with your therapist needs a certain warmth: a type of energy that goes back and forth between you that feels alive.

4. Most therapists are mad anyway

There is something in that statement. Often therapists got so much from overcoming their own psychological hang-ups that they feel inspired to train in order to help others face and work through their issues. I’m not sure that a person with perfect genes who experienced a trauma-free, ideal environment for early development and subsequent growth would be sufficiently interested in psychology to make it his or her profession.

5. It costs a fortune and will take for ever

Therapy does cost a lot and not only in money. It costs in time and effort. Psychotherapists do not do your work for you, they only facilitate you to do the psychological work that needs doing so how long it takes and how much it costs depends on lots of things: how embedded your neuroses are, how complicated your relationships have been and how willing you are to modify learnt behaviours. The author and therapist Robin Shapiro offers a good rule-of-thumb guide to how long individuals might expect to see a therapist in her blog (traumatherapy.typepad.com).

But if someone says that she can turn you around in six weeks without giving you any assessment first, don’t trust her.

6. Depression is a chemical imbalance and best treated with medicine

This is true of some types of mental illness: it may be useful to medicate a client before he or she can begin therapy, or some people will use the support of therapy while they come off antidepression medication. But sometimes talking therapy will reach the parts that the drugs cannot.

7. There’s no point in raking over the past

There is no point in going round in circles, which is what people tend to do when they don’t have the support to tackle the source of their problems.

Sometimes I find it helpful to think of therapy like this: if we don’t face the origin of our pain and get to know what it is and where it comes from, we can condemn ourselves to a continuous low level of suffering by repeating the same self- sabotaging patterns. I think that a bit of digging will save us from too much raking.

8. Therapists fill you with psychobabble

Most psychotherapists are interested in specifics, not sweeping, blanket terms. But some terms from therapy have now filtered down into everyday language and mean different things to different people. So, if a client says, for example, “I’m feeling very co-dependent on my father”, I won’t pretend I know what she means by that. I will ask her to explain what her relationship with her father is like, how he makes her feel, how she behaves around him and so on. Generally, these pop-psychology terms aren’t that helpful.

9. Psychotherapy is just psychiatry-lite

Or psychiatry is psychotherapy-lite! Psychotherapists are trained to treat the person and not the illness. Whereas a psychiatrist traditionally treats the disorder, if someone comes to me and I suspect that they have, say, bi-polar disorder, I will want him or her to see us both. Therapy is not a substitute for anti-psychotic medication. In my experience psychiatrists and psychotherapists tend to work together.

10. Therapy will change my personality

This is something that people fear, but I’m not sure you can eradicate a personality. Psychotherapy is about looking at everything you’ve been told overtly and covertly and every experience that’s formed you. Then it’s about deciding which you want to take with you, and which you want to leave behind. Hopefully this means that you become more truly yourself instead of being a victim of environment, circumstances and influences. Some behaviour that we see as being very much a cornerstone of our personality — such as a joshing sense of humour — can be a means of defence and quite passive-aggressive. It can be a mechanism to stop other people getting close, so a therapist may suggest that a client explores this type of behaviour so that there is a choice as to if, how and when it is employed.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 145545.ece

[Reality Bytes]

About ruddy time they standardise and regulate just who can describe themselves as a Psychotherapist or Counsellor - and standardise the training that is required. At the moment theres nothing to stop anyone calling themselves a Counsellor or Psychotherapist and I cannot see how that could stifle relationships with clients or stifle "creativity". It makes me bloody livid when I come across someone who's taken a 6 week introduction to Counselling course describing themselves as a "qualified counsellor" or REIKI healers offering "counselling" arrrrgggggg - I had 3 years of full time college level training, including hundreds of client hours & supervision and fecked if I can remember how many case studies, at the time my qualification was regarded as the only one which was good enough and professional enough to work with clients, I also had/have an ongoing commitment to learning and training and I utterly refuse to work without regular supervision sessions.

Since qualifying I've taken additional courses in CBT, Gestalt, TA, REBT, NLP, Couples Therapy, Grief & Bereavement, PTSD, Child Abuse, Sexual Violence & Domestic Violence, Survivors of Murder/Manslaughter and was one of the few Counsellors to work with Alternative Lifestyle issues. I additionally trained and qualified as a Counselling Supervisor - all at my own expense. I also know my own limitations and I will not work with children or young adults - it's not my thing and it's too close to home for me.

I resigned from the BAC many years ago as they were doing fuck all to further the cause of a recognised "profession" instead they were promoting their own accreditation process costing thousands of £££ which merely repeated the training many of us had already undertaken. Last time I checked it was close on £15k to gain full accreditation which was still NOT a "professional" qualification - they were useful for cheaper professional liability insurance but not much else and once I made the decision to walk away I got the same discounts by joining a Psychotherapy body instead.

I would welcome any form of validation of my training and cannot understand any "professional" therapist beit Counsellor or Psychotherapist objecting to it - what are they afraid of?

[Gob]

You should meet some of the fuckwitted harebrained wankstains calling themselves "counselors" I come across RB.

One "Somatic therapist" was counseling an acute schizophrenic girl on our caseload. The "counseling" boiled down to telling her to stop taking her meds, and to take homepathic remedies, rieiki, Bach flower remedies and fish oils, as well as a course in yoga.

Funnily enough the therapist was able to sell the kid all of these.

I was close to going down there with my cricket bat, luckily the girls father went and "had a quiet word" with her first.

[dales]

As an "associated member" of the profession, let me say this.

In the US, "Brief Therapy" is all the rage due to insurance companies unwilling to pay for more than 6 to 10 sessions.

We also have managed care which has embraced the "Brief Therapy" model as well.

For those that have above average insurance coverage or are well off financially.

A more "in depth therapy" process may be employed.

In my opinion, this is the only model that will result in the client actually getting better for a long periods of time.

Yes, it cost money....in the end it is worth every penny IMHO.

A quick set of 6-10 session might result in a temporary relief of mental suffering. But this is only a quick fix and as we all know the lasting effects of quick fixes are dubious at best. Often the symtoms can return more embedded into the psyche than before. Two steps forward and three steps back as they say.

As for licenseing this is done on a state by state basis.

A therapist is not automatically qualified in every state, but must re-take the licensing test for the state they wish to practise.

A Masters Degree or higher is required in either psychology or socialogy. Many thousand of hours working under a licensed therapist, a rigid test administered by the licensing board, etc.

Gob posted:

One "Somatic therapist" was counseling an acute schizophrenic girl on our caseload. The "counseling" boiled down to telling her to stop taking her meds, and to take homepathic remedies, rieiki, Bach flower remedies and fish oils, as well as a course in yoga.

I'm from the holistic school (where somatic disciplines were taught) and let me say - - this therapist does not know sh-t from shinola.

Compared to where the Psychology/Psychiatry field was 20 or so years ago. Medications have come a long way and have relieved so much suffering by those who are afflicted.

Hell, many of the SSRI's and SNRI's along with the anti-psychotics did NOT exist 20 years ago. In those days it was lithium salts, MAO's, Electric Shock, and severe seditation with powerful barbituates and sedatives.

We've come so far and have so far left to go.

We are still in the dark ages as far an brain chemistry is concerned.

(my typing sux i'm sorry)

[Reality Bytes]

It's similar here Dales the Brief Therapy or Solution Focused model is what your average client will be offered when they approach their Dr for a referral, 6 sessions before review extending to 10 following review if needed. In many cases including my own when I went that route it was a temporary band aid or "quick fix" rather than any form of healing. A lot of the "in house" counsellors have only done a truncated form of training and have absolutely no training to deal with trauma issues or survivor issues - they expect to be seeing people with mild anxiety or reactive stress and are totally unable to deal with someone presenting with anything more complicated, their role seems to be teaching relaxation and de stressing mechanisms rather than looking at the underlying issues..

Time after time when working with abuse survivors I keep hearing "oh I have had counselling but they didn't want me to talk about how my experiences have affected me" or worse "I had 6 sessions but it raised so many additional issues for me that I came away worse rather than better and now I can't have any more besides it was a waste of time anyway". For myself I managed to push for a Psychology referral avoiding the in house counsellor altogether only to find when meeting the clinical psychologist that she too had absolutely no training on sexual violence issues and in fact used some of our sessions to draw information from me to inform HER practice!

If you want professional counselling here as a client you enter a minefield - you don't know if the therapists qualifications and training are any good, you don't know where to go or who to ask, before you even start you need to be doing homework and "interviewing" therapists - I've always offered a free introductory appointment where the client and I sit down together and discuss what they are looking for, what I can offer them and what I can't, talk through boundaries and contracts, and see how well we "fit" and only if both I and the client are happy do we proceed into a therapeutic relationship.

One of the biggest problems is that peope don't want to pay for it they can get 10 free sessions on the NHS so can't see why they should pay for private treatment. Unless you have access to a reasonably priced therapy room then as a self employed counsellor or psychotherapist here it's very difficult to make a living from it. Clients who are in need often cannot afford to pay, my overheads when working include room hire, advertising, professional liability insurance, my own supervision costs, ongoing training, production of literature, phones etc. etc. the best way is to try and get into a group practise where each therapist compliments the other so you can go the in house referal route and costs can be shared. I'm on a break at the moment, I'm not even sure I want to go back to therapy work even writing this all the old niggles have me grinding my teeth

[Mr. Duality]

My first Psychology professor said "this profession has a powerful attraction for people with problems of their own." In the course of getting a BA in Psych and enduring a year of graduate school I learned he was very right. In my experience, most psychology professionals have not worked through their own problems.

I remember well the study which found people who talked with their bartenders had recovery rates not significantly different from those who talked with therapists. I suppose therapists can be useful for nondrinkers.

[Gob]

My first Psychology professor said "this profession has a powerful attraction for people with problems of their own." In the course of getting a BA in Psych and enduring a year of graduate school I learned he was very right. In my experience, most psychology professionals have not worked through their own problems.

You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK.

[loCAtek]

LOL My sister has a degree in psychology ...hey, at least I admit I'm crazy, my sister thinks it's everybody else who is.

[Mr. Duality]

My first Psychology professor said "this profession has a powerful attraction for people with problems of their own." In the course of getting a BA in Psych and enduring a year of graduate school I learned he was very right. In my experience, most psychology professionals have not worked through their own problems.

You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK.

I'm talking to myself as much as to anyone else. I talk to myself regularly. Usually it goes something like

Me: Fuck you!
myself: No, fuck you!
Me: Well, fuck you and your dog.
myself: No, fuck you and the ugly-ass horse you rode into town on.
Me: fuck it, let's go see if there's any action at the park.

I not among the redeemed or "cured" as Clockwork Orange Alex would say. I have my Dark Passenger who regularly takes over the controls.