Question about my therapist.

Hello Amen, welcome to the forum!

Your topic is a very good one. Finding the right therapist can be tricky, because when you are depressed you often have little faith in your own judgement, and you can be feeling so desperate about your situation that you will "put up with anything" in the hope that it will help.

However, I would say that it is a prime rule of succesful therapy that you need to feel completely comfortable with the therapist - this is more important than exactly what technique they use. If you are feeling unhappy with what is going on, and actually feeling worse after three sessions, I would say that you are right to wonder whether this is really going to do you any good.

YOU are the important person in this, not the therapist. There are many good therapists out there who can help you - you have a perfect right to change and look for another one - you don't owe anything to the therapist you are with now.

That's my view, anyhow!

Good luck, and keep posting!

Kathleen

Hi Kathleen;nice to meet you:
To tell you the truth ,I've nothing bad to say about my therapist .He is highly esteemed and valued and his patients love him dearly.The catch is that I've never talked about certain events and situations in my past to any one.So,it feels very weired and uncomfortable talking about them for the first time in my life.He sensed this from my first session and continue drilling any way.In fact , I've just arrived home from my fourth session with him in wich, I told him again about my feelings.He told me; he is determind to ask about my past because I've been depressed since an early age and for that I might misinterpreted some or most events in my past.Because I was looking with a black shades on my eyes ,I shoud get a nutural look upon my past to reintrpreted my past as it was,not as I'de seen it with my black shades on,he said.He reassured me that as soon I come over this stage ; he will give answers and solutions(Behavioral and solution focused therapy,it seems) to my depression.But first .I should surrendur my past to him even if I feel pain revealing.Coming to think of it, his argument stands on a very logical grounds.What got me confused in the first time is what Roger and Mark said in the Depression Learning Path about the psychodynamic counseling(concentrates on the past mostly) being the less effective type of therapy.Is he taking me for the hard steps first,then I'll come to the easiest ones lastly.I hope I'm not wasting my time on this,and I also hope I'm not wasting yours.I'll appreciate any advice from you guys.And with hope in our hearts we shall part ,for now.
Hope and Will-power helped me through tough times in my life
and God be my witness I'm sticking with them to the end
I hope you to.
Many thanks and much regards one and all;
Amen
"This too.... shall pass"

Hi Amen,

It seems you have a bit of a quandry, on whether to stay with your current therapist or not.

I agree with Kathleen that you need to feel at ease with your therapist, but I do think that the approach that the therapist uses is very important.

Research carried out by the United States Public Health Service Agency has shown that some approaches are more effective at treating depression than others.

The research showed that brief, solution focused therapies are more effective than psychodynamic therapy and 'insight' counselling, which may maintain and deepen depression.

Why this is becomes clear from what you've read in the Depression Learning Path - factors in depression are introspection and emotional arousal. A therapist who encourages you to talk unduly about an uncomfortable past is encouraging the very introspection and emotional arousal that cause depression.

This is borne out by your experience - you say that each time you have seen him you feel worse.

If you had a broken leg and went to a doctor who kept hitting it, and each time you'd seen him/her you felt in more pain, would you keep going back to the same doctor?

Hi Amen

It IS fair to say that if you have never talked about these matters to anyone before, it might be very uncomfortable to suddenly begin doing so - although many people actually find that it is a great relief when finally they can tell their story to someone who understands.

It is also true that we sometimes need to "re-assess" our view of events that happened in the past. This can be because of "black shades" (8)?) that blackened our view (which could have happened if we were depressed), or it could just be because the information available to us at the time led us to make a mistaken judgement (this happens a lot, of course, when we are children! )

Like Mike, I feel concerned that, after four sessions, you feel worse than when you started - I would hope that, even if disturbing emotions are roused during a session, these are dealt with and the client returned to a state of reasonable equanimity before the end of the session. This is certainly what I try to ensure for my clients.

Mike and I are not saying that your therapist is absolutely wrong to take the approach he is taking, or that this definitely won't help you - we are saying that other approaches might be more QUICKLY effective, and less traumatic to go through.

It seems that in this case it is going to come down to the level of trust you feel in your therapist. You say he is esteemed and valued by his clients. May I ask how you know this?

And by the way, Amen, I know you have studied the Depression Learning Path, and know about the importance of reducing rumination - so what steps are you taking to help yourself cut down rumination time? What do you find most helpful in doing that?

Kathleen