Home » Feeling too much of your pain: therapists and clients

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Feeling too much of your pain: therapists and clients — 33 Comments

  1. Very good post.

    If ‘life experience’ is relevant, how can a non divorced counselor help divorced individuals? Is it always true that a therapist who has yet to ‘work out issues’ cannot detach themselves in a professional way?

    You deal with those and similar issues in your post, concisely and clearly.

    Still, there are other real issues.

    Whether the chemistry exists between patients and therapists or not, in the end, it is the quality and kind of therapy that the patient best relates to that is the final arbiter.

    In the end, successful therapy is best measured by the willingness of the patient to effect positive change, and not by the ‘quality’ of the relationship the patient has with the therapist.

  2. washingtonpost.comDid you see this article, by a Tennessee physician, writing about personal biases and how that effects health care? Interesting–not exactly on point, but there is some relevance.

  3. Having experienced therapy at one time or another with five different therapists, I found that each one had a positive impact in helping me change. I definitely had better chemistry with two of them and worked with them longer.

    “I know quite a few therapists who say they would have difficulty treating a client whom they know to be a Republican.”

    Back then I was definitely a libertarian with conservative overtones, but politics never entered into my therapy that I can remember. I’m not shocked to hear that however. I’m in a writers’ group and the liberals are very combative. They do seem to think Republicans are the scum of the earth. Maybe I’d have trouble finding a therapist today since it appears that most are left leaning. (Thank goodness for Neo, Shrink, Dr. S. and Siggy!)

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  5. I have to say that, while racism is undeniably a repugnant belief, I thought the psychiatrist’s offhand dismissal of it as a treatable condition was chilling. One of the worst trends of this century has been the tendency to define contrary political belief as mental illness.

    The state really has no greater power, when you think about it, than the power to declare someone crazy. It removes any need to debate or even discuss your beliefs, and it becomes the grounds for the most invasive of all medical treatment.

    Language like “an appropriate target for treatment” doesn’t make me feel any more confident in the unbiased, objective judgment of a medical professional, either.

  6. Is there any evidence “therapy” has ever helped anyone? I’m not being cantankerous, I’d really like to know. I’m especially impressed by the response above by the “patient” who has seen five different therapists. Is therapy perhaps just a form of expensive recreation?

  7. Robert Speirs,
    I’m the commenter who saw 5 different therapists over a period of 14 years. Job transfers and referrals were reasons why I saw different people. I might also note that I was never in therapy for more than one year continuously.

    Did it do me any good? My opinion, and I’m obviously prejudiced, is that it did. Change is probably the most difficult thing a person can attempt. One must be in a great deal of psychic pain or the motivation to change will just not be there. I wanted to change, but it took me a long time and much effort. Some people might say that I had transcendental experiences that changed me and they might be right. However, I think the therapy put me in the right frame of mind to finally come to terms with myself even though it arrived
    via a transcendental pathway.

    Should you be interested in more detail about this I posted about my mental and spiritual journey in a three part series on Shrinkwrapped’s blog here: http://shrinkwrapped.blogs.com/blog/2006/11/one_mans_journe.html

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  30. I was researching a topic and found your post about therapy. I thought it was great. Very insightful, intelligent, and helpful for therapist and clients alike. I will link this post on my site. You’re a great writer.

    Bill

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