This reminds me of another thing. David Burns wrote Feeling good, a famous book about healing depression, and he states repeatedly in that book without being too worried about it, how he would let severely depressed clients do things like call him anytime and he would REALLY go out of his way to take care of them, when they were so fallen apart. And he wouldn't give up on anyone, and healed many from their severe depression.

While reading all that, I thought of how the last therapist (the most harmful one to me) insisted so much on protocol and ethical boundaries with not really talking outside therapy. That was fine by me, but then it also caused friction when it turned out she did seek out and contact others alright if she "deemed" them to be in need of it (their state and problem being "serious" enough, yet mine somehow wasn't "serious" enough), and reading that book then really made me consider this more closely.

So like, was it ethical or not? Keeping boundaries or enmeshed? Whatnot? Did it work? Yes, according to his claim, the symptoms of these patients did improve a lot. Whatever he did, I don't know exactly, but what he did mention in the book, it is not supposed to be proper therapist boundaries....

While reading about that stuff in his book, I did wonder how he avoided burn out. But apparently he did avoid it....

Frankly, if I was to be so vulnerable as I am supposed to be in "deep" therapy, I would not see it working in any other way, but probably not even this way, as I would have a hard time trusting that they would really give their all like Burns apparently did it with his clients. Or trusting that that would even work or being convinced that I would need anything like that. No, I'm not convinced even after reading his book.

I've instead told myself, I don't need any of that. That I just need to go back to living life as it is and accept that I have to fend for myself, that's that. Still more safe for me than making myself too vulnerable in an artificial relationship with someone who's not transparent or authentic, let alone reciprocate openness or vulnerability, with all these power inequalities being harmful as a natural result.

What I wanted to say originally....was just that I don't believe in protocol like that. I don't believe these have been proven enough for now. What I can see as proven is, keeping the therapy focused on issues and problems to solve them with a professional approach - with the approach matching the issue - with enough distance kept between therapist and client, certainly no emotional dependence, or any of that "deep" therapy approach. Burns's approach fits neither approach, of course. I don't know where that one fits.