My experiences with therapy, regrettably, have been more counterproductive than helpful. So much that therapists have done or said just didn't make sense to me. In fact, some of the things that most didn't make sense were their responses when I asked questions to try to understand or tried to tell the therapist that something didn't make sense. Sometimes things make sense if you make certain assumptions -- but if the assumptions don't hold, then the behavior doesn't make sense.

I have tried a number of therapists off and on over the years. I've also done a lot of reading to try to make sense of my experiences with therapy. A lot of what I have read also doesn't make sense, at least as far as something that would be helpful to me. I am not anti-therapy; I realize that it is helpful for many people. But in many ways it seems like religion to me. The different theoretical orientations seem to be based on beliefs that seem in many ways like religious beliefs. I am not against religion -- I realize that it is helpful for many people (although sometimes it can be harmful, too, as when someone from one religion considers someone from another religion "bad" just because they have a different religion.)

One thing I came across in my reading a couple of years ago (in a book Principles of Therapeutic Change that Work, edited by Castonguay and Beutler) is the assertion that therapy is less likely to help older clients -- which they defined as "over 35". This may have been part of my problem with therapy -- I was in my early forties when I first tried therapy (I am now in my mid sixties). I would be interested in hearing from anyone else out there who first tried therapy when they were over forty, or who is now my age, or who has had experiences similar to mine.

(My first version of this post had a few more paragraphs, but I've decided it would be better to put them in a different thread.)