Hiya,

I am just wondering if I should persist in seeking out psychotherapy, or if it is just not for me.

I have just finished up a 2.5 year stint with a psychotherapist which was not successful. I went into it with a very positive outlook. She tried very hard, but after not having any improvement whatsoever the therapist has given up on me. I knew it was coming though.. I have become very disillusioned about psychotherapy and I could tell she was getting sick of me for the last 6 or so months, so I was prepared. I don't mind though, I gave it a go and it didn't work. It happens.

The reason I went to psychotherapy is because I have had severe depression (that comes with the joys of severe anhedonia) for 19 years, which has not improved with medication - I have been on all the medications on the market here in Australia, and combinations thereof, with no effect at all. So I thought I would try psychotherapy.. sort of to treat the cause, not the symptoms, if you will.

The main issue we had in our sessions was that I could not answer any of the questions that came up, and as you know the therapist is not allowed to answer any of the questions. Like for example, she gave the impression that she thought I did not trust her, so I asked her "how do you know if you trust someone?" and she would respond "How do YOU think you would know if you trusted someone?". That is just an example but you could substitute any question in there, and the answer is always "How do YOU think you would (x,y,z)?". And because I did not know the answer, she would go silent, and then the subject would change and nothing ever got resolved, basically.

So I'm just wondering, do you think that it is worth me continuing psychotherapy with a different therapist? I have gotten the impression that psychotherapy requires you to already know (perhaps subconsciously) the answers to your own questions, otherwise it will not work. And since I do not know any of these answers, then there is not much point me going, because the therapist isn't allowed to answer them. It made me really, really angry coming up against this time and time again, because the reason I am asking is because I DO NOT KNOW the answers, lol.

I had asked these questions on another forum and got a lot of responses saying "She is a bad therapist, find another one" or "Maybe you two just don't connect", but I sort of disagree with these statements. She was quite professional, was always on time, never rude, etc. I think I would have the same problem with any therapist, they are all the same to me, lol, so I doubt it was a trust thing. I told her my issues, therefore I trust her. So I am sort of of the opinion that maybe its the actual therapy that is the problem (ie. does not work for me), rather than the therapist themself.

So yeah.. What do you guys think?