7 Ways Seeing a Therapist Is Better Than Talking to a Friend

a post by Jennifer D. Maddox for YourTango.com [via World of Psychology]



Ditch the notion that therapy sucks.

I’m a bit biased about the positive effects of seeing a therapist, but I often have a new client come to me and say, “I was so scared to come here today,” or, “Well, that wasn’t really so bad. I thought it was going to suck!” The truth is, seeing a therapist doesn’t have to suck, and if going to therapy does suck for you, find a new therapist.

There are so many people to choose from, so continue looking until you find someone who resonates with you, someone you respect and would want to have as a friend. Being very clear though, this person can never be considered a friend in any social settings, outside of the therapy office.

It’s a boundary violation and an ethical issue, but if you like him or her, as you would a friend, you’ll be more willing to talk and trust, to open up as a whole. Find someone you like and respect, and then start talking!

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Hazel’s comment:
Please note that the author of this piece is writing about the situation in the USA. All therapy is paid for either by insurance or directly out of your own pocket so choice is available.
If you are using the NHS service in the UK you take what you are given or lose any opportunity for therapy – at least that seems to be the situation in most areas of the country.

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Why Therapy Didn't Work for Me

a post by Amber Nordstrom for the World of Psychology blog



When I was 16 years old, I had a metabolism that was to die for. I could eat anything I wanted, whenever I wanted to, and was always hungry, which led to developing an undesirable habit of snacking at 3 a.m. My parents saw the litter of dishes and snack wrappers in my room that I had been too lazy and tired to clean up before crashing back into bed and wrongfully concluded that I was closet bingeing. Coupled with my string bean frame, they were concerned enough to book an appointment with a therapist. Unyielding in the face of my denial and protests, I soon found myself subjected to Thursday afternoons spent with Janet.

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Addiction and Mental Health Demystified

Joe Koelzer and Colleagues cover various issue for the World of Psychology blog in separate blog posts

Addiction and Shame

“Shame is a soul-eating emotion.” So said Carl Jung, one of the most influential voices in modern psychology and psychiatry. Those are strong words, but justifiably so.

While shame is a near-universal human emotion - experienced by everyone but sociopaths - it also does tremendous damage.

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I don't know about these new drugs, guys

a post by Seamus Bellamy for the Boing Boing blog



Being medicated is the best and the absolute worst.

I take a cocktail of anti-anxiety and anti-depressive drugs on a daily basis to help me deal with the symptoms that come with my PTSD. Most of the time, I’m grateful for them: They’ve helped to numb me, just enough so that I can use the techniques I’ve learned in therapy to help ground myself during a flashback or panic attack. Now that I’m medicated – I refused treatment for years – I’m able to maintain a healthy relationship.

The rage and detachment I’ve experienced these past 20 years have been tamped down far enough that I can empathize, fully, with my wife, friends and colleagues. It’s hard work, sometimes! But I feel healthier than I have in years. A lot of the time, I’m even able to sleep through the night. The paranoia I deal with and the thoughts that refuse to stop tumbling around in my head give way to slumber, most evenings. It’s still a frequent thing for me to wake up, sweat-drenched and alert in the dead of night, but it feels manageable. Before, it was just exhausting and sad.

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Why It’s Never Too Late to Heal Your Mind

a post by Hilary Jacobs Hendel for the World of Psychology blog



Brian had suffered for years from an intractable depression for which he had been hospitalized.

He had been through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychoanalytic psychotherapy, supportive therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT).

He received varied diagnoses from major depression to bipolar disorder to dependent personality disorder. He had tried many medications that had proven ineffective. The psychiatrist who referred him told me he was hopeless.

I am a trauma therapist well versed in the science of emotions and attachment. Although change takes work, my conviction that the brain and mind heal is unwavering. No one disputes that the body heals itself. You fall and scrape your knee. Then, if you take care of the wound, your body heals. Just like your body heals with proper care, so do your brain and mind.

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Researchers say you might as well be your own therapist

a post by Olivia Goldhill in Quartz with grateful thanks to 3 Quarks Daily


Self-help really can help (AP Photo/Bob Wands)

Seeking out the perfect therapist can feel as significant and difficult as finding a romantic partner. A study on the effectiveness of trained therapists versus self-help treatment, though, suggests that therapists are not as important as they seem.

A meta-analyses of 15 studies, published in this month’s volume of Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, found no significant difference in the treatment outcomes for patients who saw a therapist and those who followed a self-help book or online program.

The researchers, led by Robert King, psychology professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, evaluated the outcomes of 723 patients who were treated for a variety of mental health conditions, including anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and depression.

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Of course in the UK you get what you are given (or not as the case might be) unless you are willing and able to pay but the ideas here may help when waiting for help. H.

Be your own therapist? Fine – if you're up to the job

an article by Mark Brown for the Guardian

Self-help can be brilliant for those who are at least part of the way there, but we should be wary of any suggestion that it could replace therapy

Feeling that you are not coping is horrible, like trying to untangle shackles around you that instead pull tighter with every movement. We are supposed to be able to look after ourselves. Our culture lionises fighters; decision takers; people who know their own mind. We are comfortable in the hands of specialists such as hairdressers or driving instructors, yet many of us find the idea of using a therapist, a specialist in distress, to be strange and uncomfortable – an admission that we can’t sort out our own problems. People experiencing mental distress are often desperate for some kind of talking therapy, yet we still maintain a deep cultural ambivalence toward the concept.

This ambivalence is often reflected in research. Does therapy work? Do other cheaper things work better? The website Quartz recently published an article headlined “Researchers say you might as well be your own therapist”, summarising a paper that contrasts self-help therapy with therapist-delivered therapy.

The paper, a meta-analysis of 15 studies, contrasted cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) delivered by a therapist with CBT delivered through self-help activities, such as activities and exercises. CBT is defined by NHS Choices as “a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave”. It is provided as part of England’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, which began in 2007 and was recently written up with besotted love by the New York Times.

The authors of the paper “found no difference in treatment completion rate and broad equivalence of treatment outcomes for participants treated through self-help and participants treated through a therapist”.

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