Posted by Daisym on March 25, 2011, at 0:23:57
In reply to People who've lost faith in therapy, posted by Tabitha on March 23, 2011, at 1:54:40
I think this is an interesting and really important discussion.
First - to answer one question asked, there are books that talk about this exact thing. William Glasser (sp?) I think wrote a book about how psychotherapy can be hazardous to your health. The CBT movement would agree with most of what you wrote.
And for sure, one size does not fit all.
From my perspective, both as a client and in my work with kids, I think the relationship that develops in long-term therapy can be healing and can provide the courage and capacity to move through your life, and accept who you are. I believe therapy might change some things about a person, but never really changes who we are in our core. I tend to think of it was helping me "grow up" differently than I did the first time.
I find myself wondering if the internet had been around when you started therapy if you would have had different expectations or if you would have had more support to not keep trying to use tools that weren't working for you. It is only fairly recently that psychotherapy has become more of a shared process with places for clients to talk about what was happening for them. Prior to online discussions, most people kept sessions very private and knew very little about what was "supposed to" happen or not.
And I guess I believe firmly that we look for what we need to deal with the stress of living and do the best we can with what we find. Every choice we make leaves other paths unexplored. Whose to say that your life wouldn't have been a whole lot worse, even as it isn't a whole lot better?
poster:Daisym
thread:980953
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20110324/msgs/981083.html