Shrinking the Shrinks
How good is therapy and do all therapies work? Who has put therapists feet to the fire when it comes to actually testing the efficacy of some therapies and where has the damage been done when this checks-and-balances monitoring has been neglected? That's not the stuff of fantasies, but of cool reality and we all need to consider it.
Saying you're a therapist and actually doing something therapeutic is now a point of contention and some research has found rather revealing negative information. Therapy, according to some experts who have researched it, can actually do more harm than good. This appears to be the case with some PTSD patients who suffer more because of therapy with no better outcomes. It's the same with the recovered memories and the search to root out "alters" in dissociative identity disorder.
A recent article in Newsweek points out some of the potential for harm and even indicates that The American Psychological Association has admitted there is "psychoquackery" out there.
The old adage, "Let the buyer beware" (caveat emptor), still applies when it comes to psychotherapy services. Don't be fooled by the certificates on the wall or the polished plate on the door.
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: psychotherapy, therapists, mental health
10 Comments:
I have extreme anxiety in the morning and through out the day. At night or in the evening it goes away. What is the reason for this , and do you have a cure?
I have extreme anxiety in the morning and through out the day. At night or in the evening it goes away. What is the reason for this , and do you have a cure?
Michael, sorry but this isn't the place for this type of information. Why not post to the anxiety board and I'm sure you'll get a number of responses.
Be all that as it may, your sound-bite type article may also do more harm than good if it convinces someone who needs an excuse, not to seek therapy. Being honest with a therapist (I guess I've just been lucky to have therapuetic therapists in the past)is one of the best gifts you can give yourself if you need help, even in terms of recommending medications. Family physicians should not be sole purveyors of meds and too often that's where the buck stops. It's cheaper and easier than actually working on behavior patterns and feelings that are destructive.
And since I finally seem to have a way of reaching a 'voice' on the other end of WEB MD, I will say that I find its reporting shoddy, vague and/or concrete.
If no one goes to your link to Newsweek, your piece is going to be damaging.
E. Conner
MHRN
A answer was given."Why not post to the anxiety board and I'm sure you'll get a number of responses". Where do I go to post on the anxiety board?!!!!!
Michael,
Here is the link to the Anxiety & Panic Disorders message board.
E. Conner, as a mental health nurse, which I assume you are, you know that the article and my blog's only purpose was to show the other side of therapy. We both know there are people out there who do not warrant the use of the term "psychotherapist." If someone doesn't want to go to therapy, they can find reasons without seeing either the Newsweek article or my blog. I don't believe we frightened anyone away.
Can a good doctor not only help with factors affecting you life, buy can they help with stress management? My husband and I are in desperate need of someone who can help us work through slight depression, anger, and hopelessness... Do you have any suggestions?
Hi, I think that like any other profession, there are good professionals and not so good professionals and some who are down right charletans and don't know what they are doing. I've known plumbers who saved a house and some who ruined houses. Doctors who helped, and doctors who made things worse.
I guess that when it comes to psychotherapy, there's a need for 'buyer beware' not more and not less than when one looks for the right professional in other areas. A therapist is a human being, not a God, and as such, the consumer can decide whether they want to work with them or not. It is okay to research a therapist or a condition he or she diagnoses, and to question it if it doesn't feel right. It is okay to seek a second opinion, to change a therapist, to challange the therapist.
There are many with PTSD who got marvelously better with therapy, others got worse, even with the same method of therapy--maybe it fit one person but not the other.
I'd be wary of a therapist that swears by only one method of treatment as a cure-all. I'd be wary of a therapist who doesn't listen to what YOU say but focuses on what you need to agree with that THEY say or else you are "resistant, borderline, projecting, transferring, whatever".
Dissociative Disorders (not only DID but others--Amnesia, Depersonalization, Deralization, Fuge-States, Identity Alteration) are real phenomenon, and are not rare following severe, repeated trauma. Children who grow up under extreme, helpless, threatening conditions might choose to escape into their mind (they can't escape physically, after all, being so little and dependent). Dissociative Disorders have excellent prognosis--if treated by a specialist who understands the mechanisms and how to approcah them.
It is no more magic than seeking someone who is an expert in Autism to treat an Autistic child--one would not go to a stuttering specialist for that...
So...therapy is an awesome potential. But like any potential, it needs to be realized, and for that one must take the initiative and be a discerning consumer. I would not lump any diagnosis or outcome as 'this is how it is' or 'this is real and this is not real'.
Hope this makes sense.
People with Trauma, PTSD, DID, should seek out therapists who are soecialised in Trauma. "Mainstream" psychotherapy, can be very detrimental to a trauma patient or an undiagnosed PTSD/DID patient, as the therapist may unintentionally cause secondary trauma.
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