Experiences with therapy?

[Smilla]

Please discuss. Mine were at best patronizing and at worst traumatic.

Anyone else think that therapy, in the words of Jeffrey Masson, is a socially sanctioned form of abuse because of the inherent power differential between client and provider?

 

[EternalSanction]

It really depends on your therapist. I myself made bad experiences once and haven't tried again so far. On the other hand I've heard of people who met therapists that were indeed helpful to them and helped them to turn their life around.
So if you haven't been to a therapist, I'd recommend to at least try it out, as there is a (small?) chance you would feel better.

 

[Tiburcio]

I think all my years in therapy can be summed up in one word: USELESS. You only can say them what they want to hear or if not they will give you the typical generic toxic shit or put you in a worse situation. They only want your money but they consider you a shit.

 

[Smilla]

I think all my years in therapy can be summed up in one word: USELESS. You only can say them what they want to hear or if not they will give you the typical generic toxic shit or put you in a worse situation. They only want your money but they consider you a shit.

This was my experience.

 

[Life sucks]

I don't have any experiences in therapy but I don't believe in it or in ideas behind it. The world and life itself is bad, a therapy or a med if we suppose it "helps" is just a way to lie to oneself. Instead of blaming the problems and other people who caused the misery, they blame the person as the source of problems and being faulty.

 

[Tiburcio]

I don't have any experiences in therapy but I don't believe in it or in ideas behind it. The world and life itself is bad, a therapy or a med if we suppose it "helps" is just a way to lie to oneself. Instead of blaming the problems and other people who caused the misery, they blame the person as the source of problems and being faulty.

I think the same, I only did it because it was forced and my mind didn't changed even a bit. Again, they want our money and if they have to blame us for being "mentally weak" for filling their pockets, they will do it.

 

[Threads]

I have a good therapist.

 

[ScaredOfLife]

I've been in therapy since 2001. It's useless for me, ...and I've had various therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists over the years. I've not gotten better. I feel that I'm only getting worse.

 

[Nauseated]

I had a good experience but she didnt ever give me any useful advice or help me understand myself better. She mainly just let me talk without passing judgment and also showed me understanding which is something I needed a lot at the time. It wasn't enough to save me but it might for someone else.

 

[millefeui]

I had a positive experience with therapy. 2 years and a half of it. Ultimately it was pointless because my problems can't be solved, so I was essentially wasting money by paying for therapy. Still, I enjoyed chatting with my ex-therapist.

 

[ultraviolet sin]

I did CBT in outpatient after my first ever attempt. He was okay and had a few novel ideas. I was slightly less angry after 6 sessions. But that was a group layout, obv not my fav.

 

[AveryConure]

A lot of them I felt were pointless and the few that actually helped ended up moving somewhere else making think life is just fucking with me at this point.

I only had one that was bad to the point of walking out, but now that I realized I'm probably going to kill myself regardless I'd rather spend the money on videogames cause it kind of does the same thing for me anyways.

 

[Final Escape]

I went to a therapist lol! I told him I was a prostitute and he felt bad about taking the money that is being earned that way. He was willing to see me but it was ridiculously expensive and I didn't get a good vibe so I didn't go back. I did have one decent one but I couldn't afford to keep seeing him and it was prior to me becoming a prostitute.

 

[icky]

I've had three. The first one, I saw of my own accord. I actually had to do a fair bit of bonding with a school counselor who convinced my unwilling mom that therapy was something I wanted. He was nice and it was a healing experience, although he often got visibly bored if I didn't bring up something traumatic for a while.

The second was forced on me by my school. Someone on the staff made up some shit about me - a smelly kid who never talked and had no friends - and what a problem child I was. This woman hated me from the beginning, as I was thoroughly unimpressed with her attempts at being a therapist. The other students bought into her vapid, irrelevant psychobabble that she clearly memorized from a college textbook but I didn't. At one point when I was alone with her, she went on an unprovoked diatribe about how I tried too hard to be special and it was sooo obvious from the way I dressed and acted.

For reference, the emo/mallgoth aesthetic was growing in popularity due to the local arrival of a Hot Topic- kids were wearing Tripp clothing, heavy eye makeup, platform shoes, and putting technicolor streaks in their hair. Meanwhile, all of my clothes were drab, dusty, matronly ensembles from the White Stag rack at Wal-Mart. I wore no make-up and my hair was its virgin dark brown. My biggest Hot Topic purchase was a bottle of nail polish because my brother didn't want me wearing the kind of clothes they had there - it was his thing. Yeah I had a "way" about me but what depressed teenager doesn't?

Anyway, in a saga involving an ephebophile English teacher and every adult in the county telling me to shut up and "let it go," this so-called professional told every lie she could to make me look completely detached from reality AND in love with this predatorial HS teacher. Everyone bought it and I had to spend a week in a mental ward for confessing that I wanted to kill him.

The third professional was assigned to me after my big shaming. She was overemotional and completely inconsistent with her advice.
ex: "You should keep going. They say success is the best revenge!"
(a week later) Me: Success is the best revenge.
"You shouldn't use that as a motivator, it's really unhealthy."

TL;DR: visiting with a "professional" can be frustration or disastrous unless it's a decision that you've made yourself.

 

[Final Escape]

Please discuss. Mine were at best patronizing and at worst traumatic.

Anyone else think that therapy, in the words of Jeffrey Masson, is a socially sanctioned form of abuse because of the inherent power differential between client and provider?

In a free market I think therapists would have to be good to

I've had three. The first one, I saw of my own accord. I actually had to do a fair bit of bonding with a school counselor who convinced my unwilling mom that therapy was something I wanted. He was nice and it was a healing experience, although he often got visibly bored if I didn't bring up something traumatic for a while.

The second was forced on me by my school. Someone on the staff made up some shit about me - a smelly kid who never talked and had no friends - and what a problem child I was. This woman hated me from the beginning, as I was thoroughly unimpressed with her attempts at being a therapist. The other students bought into her vapid, irrelevant psychobabble that she clearly memorized from a college textbook but I didn't. At one point when I was alone with her, she went on an unprovoked diatribe about how I tried too hard to be special and it was sooo obvious from the way I dressed and acted.

For reference, the emo/mallgoth aesthetic was growing in popularity due to the local arrival of a Hot Topic- kids were wearing Tripp clothing, heavy eye makeup, platform shoes, and putting technicolor streaks in their hair. Meanwhile, all of my clothes were drab, dusty, matronly ensembles from the White Stag rack at Wal-Mart. I wore no make-up and my hair was its virgin dark brown. My biggest Hot Topic purchase was a bottle of nail polish because my brother didn't want me wearing the kind of clothes they had there - it was his thing. Yeah I had a "way" about me but what depressed teenager doesn't?

Anyway, in a saga involving an ephebophile English teacher and every adult in the county telling me to shut up and "let it go," this so-called professional told every lie she could to make me look completely detached from reality AND in love with this predatorial HS teacher. Everyone bought it and I had to spend a week in a mental ward for confessing that I wanted to kill him.

The third professional was assigned to me after my big shaming. She was overemotional and completely inconsistent with her advice.
ex: "You should keep going. They say success is the best revenge!"
(a week later) Me: Success is the best revenge.
"You shouldn't use that as a motivator, it's really unhealthy."

TL;DR: visiting with a "professional" can be frustration or disastrous unless it's a decision that you've made yourself.

Wow! I believe it, those pple don't all have the aptitude to be therapists but bc the government manipulates standards and criteria even people who should never be therapists get in.

 

[Why.]

Mostly useless. The last therapist I saw was actually pretty good and I uncovered a fair bit of stuff, but I could only get 12 sessions. I was referred to an online therapy service with a support worker, and I mentioned to said worker I wanted to see about getting screened for something I suspect having, and in doing so, she referred me to somewhere else, and for reasons I can't even remember having the referral to the third place means I can't keep my support worker.

So I gave up with the online place. No fucking point.