Posted by caraher on June 27, 2006, at 14:20:50
In reply to Re: Gender and preferred therapy » llrrrpp, posted by bent on June 27, 2006, at 12:10:47
First, I am a man...
Personally, I don't have a strong "either/or" preference for therapy vs. meds. "Whatever works" is my philosophy. And from what I've read I've come to believe therapy and meds work in different ways that make a combination approach the most likely to work.
One stereotypical "guy" attitude of mine is aversion to doctors and medicines. (I don't take anything for headaches, for instance.) That actually inclines me somewhat toward a preference for therapy, if anything. But ultimately I've found medication an annoying but probably necessary component to dealing with depression.
As for therapy, I'm more interested in "results" than developing a relationship or obtaining "insight." That doesn't mean I'm not at all interested in those things, but that I'm paying >$100/hour in order to function better, not to have a friend or suurrogate parent. It does seem there is a tendency by some to subtly denigrate CBT as "shallow," but if it works what's the problem? (I also agree with those who lament the tendency in some health care systems to use a cookie-cutter approach; I don't think CBT works for everyone and alternative approaches should be available. I'm just relentlessly pragmatic about the whole issue... show me results!)
I've also never expressed a preference for males or females either as pdocs or as therapists. As it turned out, all my pdocs except two have been male and all my therapists except one have been female. I don't think it makes any difference whatsoever what the sex of my pdoc is. I do think I generally tend to communicate better with women, so the fact that I've only had one male T probably isn't coincidental.
poster:caraher
thread:661713
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060623/msgs/661867.html