Oh man a couple months ago I had to back off a topic because my therapist was obviously about to cry and just barely holding it together… I’m trans and was talking about my worries with how the US is going. They have trans kids and I think my concerns were hitting close to home for them. It was a difficult session for everyone x.x
Did you recommend going to therapy to your therapist?
In some countries it’s actually required for therapists to periodically see a therapist. To avoid getting retraumatized by their patients trauma and such
Sounds like a pyramid scheme.
And even those therapists need to see even higher therapists. It’s Dr Phil at the top, I guarantee
Dr Phil isn’t allowed to practice anymore - he started treating a college freshman for anxiety and depression, gave her a job and then started fucking her.
What he does on television has done immense damage to understandings of mental health. That bullshit disgusting tough love, while at the same time being a hypocritical creep and serial adulterer. Send his ass to Turnabout Ranch.
Uh, that’s why he is at the top. Do you think pyramid schemes are run by upstanding citizens?
His grift is less “pyramid scheme” and more just saying things people want to hear: You don’t need to pay for your kids to see a therapist, mental illness is just a lack of grit. Things like substance abuse and PTSD can be overcome if you just have enough willpower. The purpose of mental health care is to harangue weirdos into being normal.
right, one on one therapy is a pyramid scheme, as we all know pyramids are made out of two points.
Because of course every therapist only ever sees one client
Unironically a good idea. I saw a lot of therapists as a kid, and many of them were more fucked up than I was.
I had one trying to help me “recover” memories of CSA by vividly describing her own experiences of CSA. 80% of the therapy I do now is to recover from therapy then.
Jesus. That’s like… wow. Mental healthcare was the Wild West until very recently. Still feels like it is sometimes, in a lot of respects.
Just ask her how she feels, then charge her $200
I’m stuck at the tutorial boss (“how does that make you feel?”)
unironically sat 2 hours in pure silence because there were no other inputs from both sides. so i rather just sit the silence out in isolation
“And where do you feel that in your body?”
To this day I don’t understand this. My therapist used to ask this so many times and every time I was like:?? In my brain??? Where thoughts and feelings live???
Can someone explain?
Edit: the fact that you nice people here were able to make me understand this question and my therapist did not reinforces why I stopped going!
lol I have absolutely had sessions like that with my old therapist after explaining why I’m so panicky sometimes, because I understand at a nuanced and historically informed level what’s happening at a political and geopolitical level here, and all of my bleakest predictions keep coming true
It would be really helpful for the depression if I could stop being proven terribly correct every single time anything happens.
I know what you mean. I largely predicted what is happening now back in 2015, and in this case it was my husband, not my therapist, who told me he believes “the system of checks and balances won’t allow it to happen.” He is an optimist and wanted to believe the US was still a good country. He now agrees with me and gets sad and angry any time something new and horrible happens.
I’ve been told by my therapist I have the worst case she has ever seen. Yes I’m winning it ;)
I made my therapist lose her shits, because I sat in her chair once.
The arrangement was a small table and two identical chairs on either side, with no indication who has to sit where, other than how we’d usually do it and no clear instructions.
She couldn’t handle it and couldn’t let it go weeks after that session.
Am I winning?My therapist called me the most cynical 24 year old she’d ever seen. I’m 37 now.
Does therapy actually help you if you know what your problem is? Also knowing that they’re talking to you because it’s their job feels like the whole thing is a lie and a waste of time.
Does therapy actually help you if you know what your problem is?
Yes, then you’re already steps ahead. For some people, figuring out what the problem is, already takes therapy, but it doesn’t end there. If you know, what the problem is and know how to fix it, you probably don’t need therapy. But if you know what’s wrong but can’t fix it alone, that’s what therapy is for.
Also knowing that they’re talking to you because it’s their job feels like the whole thing is a lie and a waste of time.
Only if you somehow follow the idea, that the therapist has to like you. That is not the case. It is their job and that’s okay. You’re also just talking to them because it’s their job. Why would you open up to a stranger otherwise?
I mean you should get along together somehow, but you don’t have to be friends with your therapist.
Also one might be aware of the problem but not actually understand the underlying causes.
One can be a bloody genious and still be unable to self-rationalize one’s way out of certain negative behaviours because they’re driven by things at an emotional level (fear, pleasure, habit, need for approval, low self-esteem and so on), because they became entrenched as behavioural patterns when one was too young to understand any of it (as a child or teenager - it’s not by chance that a lot of Psychology “blames” one’s parents) and because without the distancing that comes from looking at it from the outside with no interest in seeing certain things rather than others (it’s generally emotionally unpleasent to notice and admit that certain elements of one’s personality are negative) it’s extremelly hard to spot certain things which for an observant trained independent outsider are very obvious.
Also I totally agree that one shouldn’t be going into it wanting the therapist to like you: people who worry about the impression they make on the therapist are likely not being fully open and honest about themselves to him or her, which kinda defeats the point of going to theraphy (if one was 100% perfect and all qualities, why go to theraphy).
In fact, the more successfully smart you are and perceived as intelligent, the more likely it is you need therapy deeply
Do you have a source on this claim?
One of big hurdles with therapy is finding a therapist that won’t gaslight me with capitalist propaganda when I express political or career angst. Being well adjusted to an insane system is not the goal I’m looking for.
This really depends on where you are located and what degree/license the therapist has.
For example, I’m a licensed clinical social worker in the Denver metro area. I got a ton of education on the issues of power, oppression, and privilege in grad school. All my colleagues are aware of those issues and would fully support you in your view.
But go South, and it becomes harder to find a therapist who is aware and won’t push god and religion on you.
In general, if you want more anti-capitalist therapists, lean towards social workers and check out the https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/ directory.
Going to therapy to hear that you need god in your life… Omg
Yup… happened to my friend who lives in Mississippi, and a few of my clients. One person was raped by their church camp counselor, but that didn’t stop their former therapist from suggesting religion. I honestly don’t understand how someone can be so tone deaf.
So if you lose therapy … you’re going to need therapy for that
