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Old May 14, 2017, 03:40 PM
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satsuma satsuma is offline
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Member Since: Feb 2017
Location: UK
Posts: 913
Quote:
Originally Posted by BudFox View Post
I can't get past the first myth without throwing up:

"Everyone who wants to engage in therapy can benefit. Not surprisingly, people who don’t have a modicum of motivation to change probably won’t. Psychotherapist Jeffrey Sumber, MA, stressed the importance of being ready, willing and open to therapy. …Hostile clients do not serve the client or the therapist. Our job is not to fix people; it is to support people who want to heal by reflecting their own strength back to them. There are clearly some clients who are 99 percent against changing their behaviors or thoughts, but it takes 1 percent, some thread of interest or hope, for the process to be successful."

This is incomprehensibly condescending and disdainful. It's also full of cheap cliches and crazy bias. Therapy might not be beneficial because: the therapist is a sociopath, the therapist lacks experience/knowledge/self-awareness, their approach is unhelpful to the client, the relationship itself is toxic or dysfunctional, the therapist is subtly using the client to gratify needs, the client's difficulties are not amenable to the very particular and limited nature of talk therapy. Or despite best efforts on both sides, the therapy might be just plain useless.
Yes, I think that both things can be true. Therapy may not work because the therapist isn't competent, or competent in the right area, or all the things that you have mentioned above. AND therapy may not work if the client doesn't want to be there or doesn't want to engage or make any changes. All of those scenarios could lead to therapy not working, and plus probably others as well.
I think you are saying that therapists shouldn't be quick to blame clients when things don't work out, but should instead examine themselves and the kind of therapy they are doing. I do agree.
Thanks for this!
here today