Some may believe that all client problems are especially well-suited for therapy. In this thread, the topic question is:

What are the types of problems that are likely to be helped fairly quickly in ethical and effectively delivered psychotherapy?

This thread is not to discuss inappropriate client behavior in therapy, inappropriate therapist behavior, ineffectiveness of therapy, or other negatively oriented topics. There are other threads on these issues.

It would be nice if responses in this thread will assume that the therapist side of this thread is behaving ethically and following all rules posted by people in the "Signs of a Good therapist" thread and other threads like it.

I think there are certain types of client problems that can be really helped by an ethical and competent therapist.

My example is that several years ago, I was having lots of problems with grief after 2 of my friends were killed about a year apart from each other in work accidents. I fell into a really bad depression and had motivation problems, and my thinking wasn't clear. I had a real sarcastic view of life and couldn't see a future for myself. I felt like I would be next.

I started therapy and followed instructions. It took me about 14-15 sessions in therapy, and I noticed that I was thinking about their deaths in a different way. Instead of feeling like a victim, instead of being afraid that I would be next, I was looking at the situation as tragic and unfortunate. But my energy levels were back, and I was motivated to move forward.

So in my experience, one type of problem that therapy worked pretty quickly for is my depressed reaction to grief and loss.