I think therapy is unhelpful

[Anonymous]

A bad therapist will just agree with how awful you say your life is.

A good therapist will validate your feelings, question your line of thinking, and help you come up with ways to change that thinking and resultant behaviors for a different and happier outcome.

Sounds like you've been going to a bad therapist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very often it's unhelpful.

There are a lot of ineffective therapists out there.

[Anonymous]

I think there is a time and place for therapy. You have a problem, you work through it with the therapist, you may uncover some new problems, but there should be an end point to therapy. Seeing a therapist for years and years with no end doesn’t seem like therapy to me anymore… it seems like you’re paying for someone to listen to you (which is totally fine - but not therapy to me).

[Anonymous]

Agree OP. There is incentive to keep the paychecks coming. And nothing for the therapist to prove as a cure like there is in other medical fields. You have to show an actual treatment in other fields and work to fixing an issue. In therapy there is nothing that the insurance has to see other than the code for therapy.

It also completely depends on the person. Some people really go into therapy trying to fix themselves and want to actually change their lives for the better through their own work just with the therapist facilitating and they have a much different experience than the ones who are more rigid in their ways and not really trying to do anything different, but just feel better about themselves and go to the therapist to sooth their worries.

[Anonymous]

There are a number of studies showing that therapy is no better, and sometimes worse, than a placebo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you go to a therapist, you tell them your woes but from an extremely biased, first person perspective. The therapist recieves the information from a biased narrator with no perspective or insight into other people the patient may reference.

How would a therapist guide you if she/he spends the entire session validating your perspective?

There are so many people who dig deeper into their dysfunction or selfishness because they’re now being validated by certified therapists.

You don’t understand what therapy is, so it’s not surprising that you think the thing you are describing is not helpful.

[Anonymous]

I think therapy can be amazingly helpful, but only if you get a really great therapist -- and those are few and far between.

It's usually a waste of time and money at best, harmful at worst.

[Anonymous]

Therapists are trained to read between the lines and detect BS, OP. They don’t take clients words at face value. Now, they might not call the client out immediately. Instead they will work to slowly help the client understand ways to see things from beyond their old perspective. This can take time and some people struggle. That doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you go to a therapist, you tell them your woes but from an extremely biased, first person perspective. The therapist recieves the information from a biased narrator with no perspective or insight into other people the patient may reference.

How would a therapist guide you if she/he spends the entire session validating your perspective?

There are so many people who dig deeper into their dysfunction or selfishness because they’re now being validated by certified therapists.

I agree with you, this person is getting PAID to hear you talk and "help you" through your dysfunction. I'd listen to you all day too if it meant you were paying me. A lot of lessons I naturally learned through living life and getting older.

[Anonymous]

Therapy helped me. I did note that there were parts of my life I didn’t admit to. Stuff I didn’t even bring up. And because she wasn’t observing me objectively, how would she know? She didn’t ask.

Anyway, what else are you going to do?

She helped me work through stuff I couldn’t get through on my own. Really important to my functioning at all.

[Anonymous]

Coming from dysfunction I agree. However I think personality goes a long way - some people really benefit from talk therapy. It certainly did not help me but life did. Time and living life naturally healed me but I think for some they need a lot. Personally I think your nature is your destiny so it doesn't really matter externally what happens. Cream rises to the top as they say so for some, therapy is neither here or there. You find your way as you go.

The one thing I would suggest is that for specific behaviors ie not experiences but anxiety for example, for kids under age 18 I am a big supporter of it.

[Anonymous]

I've seen maybe a dozen therapists of different types over the years. Only one was good. The rest ranged from ineffective to terrible. I think the biggest problem is that therapists are human, and have their own biases, filters and projections.

That one good therapist was amazing though. It's really a great thing if you can find a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you go to a therapist, you tell them your woes but from an extremely biased, first person perspective. The therapist recieves the information from a biased narrator with no perspective or insight into other people the patient may reference.

How would a therapist guide you if she/he spends the entire session validating your perspective?

There are so many people who dig deeper into their dysfunction or selfishness because they’re now being validated by certified therapists.

Who is seeing a therapist that needs to have you correct their narrative?

[Anonymous]

They are financially motivated to have people depend on them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you go to a therapist, you tell them your woes but from an extremely biased, first person perspective. The therapist recieves the information from a biased narrator with no perspective or insight into other people the patient may reference.

How would a therapist guide you if she/he spends the entire session validating your perspective?

There are so many people who dig deeper into their dysfunction or selfishness because they’re now being validated by certified therapists.

Totally agree. Depression and other mental illnesses come with "mental distortions" and the function of the therapist is to point these out. But if they don't involve other members of the family, etc., they cannot determine what is a distortion. In addition, most therapists do not keep up with mental health research and so fail to emphasize physical habits and other things that could make a difference. - MSW