Quote:
Originally Posted by learning1
I think the way therapy works involves practicing talking about the feelings and experiencing the feelings while you're talking to the therapist. Sometimes if you're experiencing them, the therapist can help you interpret the feelings differently than you normally do. It's important to be feeling them during the therapy session because then you understand (feel) them for real, not just intellectually. Then if you start to interpret them differently, sometimes you start to feel differently and you're motivated to behave differently.
Another way to try to explain why experiencing the feeling during therapy is important is because you've already tried to understand the feelings or behaviors intellectually. Understanding them intellectually didn't work to change the feelings, and the behavior they cause, the way you want to change it. So if you actually experience the feelings you need to change, and the therapist explains how to change it right then, it can help you understand more genuinely. It is an emotional understanding instead of an intellectual understanding.
Also if the therapist watches you feel the feeling or demonstrate the behavior, they might understand it better than if you just explain it.
Does any of that make sense?
I don't like CBT for myself either. I'm glad you don't want to do it  |
I agree with this. My t has told me that therapy is not an exercise in intellect, because if it were, then there would be a LOT less clients/patients. It's really an exercise in emotion/feelings, which for people like me, is VERY difficult because I've never believed my feelings/emotions deserved any attention; they always came second to others' feelings/emotions for various reasons. Plus, I'm a HIGHLY rational, critically thinking person - I NEED STUFF TO MAKE SENSE TO SEE THE RELEVANCE! - so concentrating on the feeling and emotion behind the intellect has been incredibly difficult.
stopdog, I totally understand where you're coming from with all of this. I don't understand HOW or WHY this works. I don't think we're ever going to get the answer we're looking for. I'm just trying to push that aside and trust the net is down at the bottom somewhere; I have nothing left to do. I am frequently asked by people (who know i'm in t) if it's "helping" and I don't know how to answer that. I mean, I guess it is. But only if I don't think about it too hard (which is an exercise in itself for me). *sigh*