But I wonder, are people really convinced about psychotherapy? What is it that makes people discredit psychotherapy? Frankly, I know many family members and friends who have visited a shrink at least once or twice in their lives but then, they think the sessions were either futile or the therapist was incompetent. Do they think they were charged too expensive for an hour of talking where the other party seems like doing nothing but nodding and jotting down a few points?
Do clients feel like they are ripped off because there is/are no visible objects such as blood, syringes, nurses and medicine during treatment?
The thing is... can we really see our minds? Well no, unless the therapist induces one to talk. So the behavior of the patient and the underlying message a person is trying to convey in their language can be observed. Are psychotherapy sessions bloody and gruesome? Hell yeah, I think so... I know that if our minds can be seen, we won't look as nice and normal as we try to look on the outside. Many of us could be walking around and living with seriously ugly things inside us.
In one of my first therapies, the therapist asked me about my father and my relationship with him. Funnily he said something like, the way I have been relating to other people is somehow related to the way I interact(ed) with my father.
I go to study counselling and in my first year, the lecturer tells the students to describe our own parents. Why are our parents so important in our present lives? Do they really affect and shape us in everything we do and think?
Gee... I am tired now.. let me explore more tomorrow. I read somewhere in the Psychology magazine that there is a reason why therapy sessions are 50 minutes.
You wanna know why? It's because it's simply too tiring to think and exercise our emotions for too long. So good night my dear friend or friends!!!!
Hi thanks for your comments on my blog. This is an interesting post. i have been in therapy for a long time and yeah, you are right a Lot think it is hogwash.
ReplyDeleteIt has helped me tremendously but only after i stopped going bc someone made me too and started going bc i wanted to change things...be better
I think people don't realize that even though you pay someone else, YOU still have to do the work OUTSIDE of the session.
I see my therapist as a guide along the way that helps me empty out my baggage and sort through it, she is not a magician or a genie.
However, I acknowledge that therapy does not work for everyone...
(and i am fortunate that i found a very affordable therapist.)
good luck to you in studying counseling! i hope it all goes well.