Discussion what types of therapy have you found most helpful?

[moriix]

hi! i've been thinking about getting into therapy again after stopping because of a terrible experience with my previous therapist. for the members of this forum that were/are in therapy, what therapy type have you found to be most helpful for your issues? on the other hand, if you had negative experiences--which approach had you found unhelpful/harmful?

regarding types of therapy im referring to gestalt/psychodynamic/CBT/ACT/DBT/EMDR etc. there are a lot of them my question also includes experiences with less standard types of therapy like ketamine or psilocybin therapy. i personally only had experience with psychodynamic therapy and found it disappointing--i now know where most of my issues stem from but i still dont have any tools to actually improve my life, which is why I was thinking of trying a more solutions-oriented therapy like CBT. curious to hear your experiences!

 

[MessyNonsense]

This is exactly what i hate about psychodynamic therapy! It's like "yeah so your problems are caused by this and this" and it's like wow thanks so much what do i actually do to feel better? And they're like

A very close person in my life is not only a practicing multi-field therapist but also a researcher on therapy and a traumatologist, among other things. So while i can't claim to be an expert about anything, i'm constantly hearing about the latest research and stuff through them. I can't get them to shut up about it, lol.

What therapy will be helpful for you depends a lot on what your problems are. As you say, "therapy" is a broad term and can really refer to anything that's, well. therapeutic. For people whose main problems relate to patterns of thought and behaviour, they might find CBT, ACT, and DBT helpful. Other types of therapy work on a more direct level, cutting through your mind and conscious thoughts and connecting directly to your polyvagal nervous system, which is where things like trauma, negative emotions, etc are actually "stored" (oversimplification, but sufficient for this explanation). For this reason lots of research is showing that for many, many people, these types of more direct therapy are WAY more helpful and produce deeper, longer-lasting, bigger, and overall more satisfactory improvements than the more cerebral types of therapy listed above. Some examples of these more direct therapies are EMDR, as well as brainspotting, EFT tapping, and somatic experiencing.

And, of course, it should be said that a person can---and often should---pursue multiple types of therapies at once. An all-around approach is often good.

 

[nayomi]

i think it is very personal and lots of self work and research.

you can get healing from non therapy too like hobbies, personal development, work (healing + money. crazy cheat code) , spirituality, psycadelics and so on.
just try things out and read about it pretty much