I strongly doubt that many people really gain transformative insight from meeting once a week for 45 minutes with an MSW. When I hear people say that going to a therapist was very helpful, I don't think "insight" was really what they got out of it. I think what they got was "affirmation." I believe that, when people go to therapists, what they really want is to be comforted in some way. If the therapist delivers that in some way, the client feels gratified. Maybe the client had a painful childhood with a parent who was very critical. They would like to receive the validation that they never got in their childhood home. If the therapist tells them they didn't deserve all that parental criticism, the client feels defended against the psychological bullying they were subjected to by the parent. I wouldn't call that insight. The client is still yearning for external validation.

I believe that adult unhappiness is mainly caused by having an approach to life that is not working very well. The last thing most people want to be told is that their approach to life is seriously flawed. They're all ears when a therapist tells them that the way they were parented was flawed. People want to hear how someone failed them. "It's not your fault." seems to be the holy grail that therapy clients are seeking. I think the important insights are when we can critique ourselves and not have our self-esteem collapse. No one can change how they were parented. With insight, maybe I can change how I'm approaching life.

I was in a partial hospitalization program where my peers helped me a lot in that regard. I wasn't getting along well with the staff. My peers advised me that I was alienating staff by challenging a lot of what they said. They advised me that I needed to just shut up more. That was hard for me to hear, but they gave that feedback in a way that was not without compassion. They advised, "Take what you value, and leave what you don't." They even validated that staff was kind of picking on me. "But," they said, "you bring that on yourself, by how contrary you are towards them." That gave me real food for thought. I adopted a different demeanor. My peers even pointed out to staff how I was trying to be a better listener and less argumentative.

I do think "peer support" can be very potent. There aren't a lot of venues where you can find that.