There is an example of articles written by a mathematician (!) in the 1970s who worked with a British therapist who treated anorexics. The description of how the therapist worked made a lot of sense to me. But as far as I know his work never received much attention in wider circles, even though many of his patients said when interviewed that his treatment was the only one that had effected a complete cure. Yes, cure. His treatment method was an inpatient one, and consisted of a number of several-hour sessions over weeks. Weeks, not years or decades. Of course, the important thing was what he did in the sessions. And it was a gentle listening and probing and very gentle "pushing" in a healing direction. A kind of relieving of the patients' need for conforming to the demands of society, letting them know that they would be heard whatever they said, not interrupted and "corrected" by the therapist. A kind of gentle reassurance, which led during the treatment to increasing the patients' ability to reassure themselves -- and this was the way the treatment led to "cure" -- because the patients could then work successfully on themselves. And the mathematics helped guide or at least understand the therapy, because it predicted when rapid changes could be effected and why they took place.

Well, I see none of this in present so-called therapies. Therapists seem to think they have to "do" something to you. They don't listen. They don't listen. They don't listen. There is no time taken to listen. There is not adequate time taken to listen. Nothing ever improves. Things stay the same. They do not expect anything to really change. So they do not see that anything is wrong.

I have been in and out of therapies for decades. I am fed up. I don't have that much time left.[/quote]

Hi I am new, but I want to post an opinion.............. I went into therapy for 5 days a week for about 3 years, during which I had variable degrees of consistency, mostly very good. The therapy has REALLY helped me come into myself. What I went through was that while earlier I felt for the therapist as a parent figure, in the process I just became a much better parent and finally started parenting myself much better. Now It is like I am in constant communication with a very nurturing part of myself, which helps me to identify pathologies, mourn and correct them. This sounds bit like what you are referring to.