Quote:
Originally Posted by Wawrzyn
My understanding of the way therapy works is that if you have a psychological problem that you cannot solve on your own you hire a paid professional, you share your problems with him or her, he or she helps you understand how to solve your problems, and then you move on with your life and hopefully apply what you learned in therapy. The therapy itself should last only a few months. But then you have people who, by their own admission, have been working with the same therapist for as many as 3-15 years. I believe that keeping a person in therapy for so many years not only says a lot about the curative capacity of the professional but also suggests a lack of ethics on their part.
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If the therapist is
manipulating the situation to "keep" a client who otherwise may not need therapy, then YES the manipulation of the client is unethical and there is likely insurance fraud as well.
Duration alone does not indicate unethical practices.
Is it unethical for a client to keep going to therapy when they don't really get anything from it, just like going or have gotten in the habit and can't imagine stopping?
There is not a duration "litmus" test. Definitely there are professionals who disagree with the use of long-term therapy for nearly everyone - See Doc John's blog post on Howard Stern's therapy. Some therapists are very tightly bound to a school of thought - so it guides them to view long term therapy though that lens (Good! Bad! As Needed!).
BUT, like others have noted, there are plenty of people for whom long term therapy (3+ years) is considered the
proper and appropriate treatment! I sure hope that the therapist and the insurance company are able to provide the care needed for as long as it is appropriate.
I'm coming up on the end of my 2nd year of therapy - 18 mo with my original counselor and 6 mo with current therapist. Both my therapist and I envision a time when I won't need/want therapy; it isn't now. But she said "You will know when you are done" and I agree.
It has been a super fantastic experience to change how I interact/react with the world.
