[sugahorse1]

Just a really dumb question...
Who do you have psychotherapy with - a psychologist?
Do you feel you have specific issues to work through or what makes you go in the first place?

I feel I don't have issues in my life - probably a stupid outlook. I don't know what I would be looking at getting out of therapy. I've seen a psychologist a number of times, but felt I was wasting my time as I came away with nothing.
I understand that maybe it wasn't the right psychologist for me.

I battle with depresion/bipolar - maybe therapy is more for people with other disorders?

Please give me your thoughts on this.

[jexa]

I see someone who's about to be a psychologist and is currently a psychology resident getting her hours for licensure. She is great.
I have a lot of specific issues, mostly having to do with anxiety. I first went to her when I had a severe OCD episode and needed help very much. Now the OCD is mild, pretty much subclinical right now, and I am working on other anxiety problems (PTSD, social, generalized). Therapy has been very, very helpful for me.

Therapy has also been shown to be very helpful for depression. If you have bipolar, medication management is also in order. And, if you are struggling with these things, you do have issues in life that could be helped with the kind of therapy that is right for you.

If you have been to therapy, may I ask:
- How many times did you see the therapist? How many sessions did you have?
- Did you seem to "click" with the therapist? Was he/she easy to talk do? Did he/she seem to understand your concerns?
- Were you able to be honest about your issues? Did embarrassment or something else keep you from giving at least a sketch of the full picture? Did you leave anything important out?
- What kind of therapy did the therapist do? Do you know?
- What did he/she do/suggest as a part of your therapy?
- What did you think therapy would be like?
- How was the therapy you got different from this?

Your answers to these questions will help the group in giving you some advice.

Personally, I see a psychologist, but there are other options out there. I started seeing this particular psychologist because I was having trouble with depression and needed a place to be able to have some objective support. I have bipolar disorder and PTSD, so my therapy has been dealing with issues of coping with my illness and with my past, and how both of those affect me in my life today.

Not everyone who has bipolar disorder needs therapy, but I'd say if either depression or mania start really affecting your day to day life, therapy might be an option to work through those issues.

[sugahorse1]

- How many times did you see the therapist? How many sessions did you have? she saw me 3 times in hospital, and I went to see her 3 or 4 times at her practice
- Did you seem to "click" with the therapist? Was he/she easy to talk do? Did he/she seem to understand your concerns? She was easy to talk to, mainly let me do the talking, I don't think I was able to click. May well have been due to the state I was in - I don't think i clicked with anyone at that stage. I think I tend to battle with OCD too, but more that I cling to people and back them the centre stage of my life, my crutch, my strength
- Were you able to be honest about your issues? Did embarrassment or something else keep you from giving at least a sketch of the full picture? Did you leave anything important out? I had to go through some embarrassing issues with her, including the fact I'd had a gay affair for the first and only time of my life. and she didn't seem to judge me
- What kind of therapy did the therapist do? Do you know? Not sure - I never really left with "homework" and found myself repeating the same things over every time I saw her.
- What did he/she do/suggest as a part of your therapy? Nothing really - she was more like an open ear
- What did you think therapy would be like? A bit more of a 2 way conversation, with the therapist finding common threads you may not have noticed, pointing out weaknesses and giving you some issues to work on until the next session. Obviously small steps
- How was the therapy you got different from this? as above - more of having someone there to talk to.

It's like I sometimes put on an ignorant front - I suffer from depression and bipolar which I view as purely a medical condition (And yes, i am seeing a psychiatrist who is helping finding the correct meds for me). I do not have close a relationship with my parents - and I had a pretty normal upbringing so there is no real reason for this - and probably a fair bit of jealousy towards my brother.

I used to be very anxious being on my own - like if my bf was working late or away, but I've got a whole lot better, after we broke up for a while and I had no choice but to be alone.
I just sometimes am ignorant and feel therapy will only help people with visible and obvious issues to work through e.g. sexual abuse, hi-jacking, alcoholism, PTSD... and I cannot say I have one specific issue.

But on some days my depression can get me so down I just want to grab every tranquilizer and drug in sight to knock myself out. Even now, I am tending to withdraw - i sit at work in my corner, with iPod and interact as little as possible and mainly via e-mail. Difficult when you work for a company the equivalent to Walmart!

[Mike_J]

Personally I see a psychologist (she is a PHD) reasons, depression suicidal thoughts (never any actual attempts), anxiety and social phobia. I didn’t start to SI until after I began therapy so that got added to the list.

And she has seriously saved my life, I can’t imagine still being alive without her and the help she has given me. Therapy has done more to improve my life than all the medications ever have.

[jexa]

sugahorse, it sounds like your idea of what therapy would be like is about how mine is. And I have found therapy like that. And it has worked very well for me. Having a listening ear is not what I need. I can write about my problems all I want, I can talk about my problems over and over, and it does nothing. I need perspective, and I need someone who is sharp and able to see things in me that I don't see. My T is all of those things.

It's not about whether you see a psychologist or a mental health counselor or other type of mental health professional. It's about what you are looking for in therapy, whether that therapist does it (and does it well), and how well you can listen to and trust that therapist. It sounds like you want to take action, you want to solve problems, you're not in therapy because you really need to talk or have a strong desire to explore your psyche with a mental health professional. You want solutions, you want a plan that will work for you. It sounds like what you want is something like CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. Other kinds of therapy that take this approach are REBT (rational emotive behavior therapy), ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), and DBT (dialectical behavior therapy, though DBT is normally used for borderline personality disorder). Other therapists loosely call their techniques "solution-focused." So, before you go to see a therapist, you want to see if they do something like this. You might ask, "Do you take a solution-focused approach?" Or "Do you do CBT?" Maybe this will give you a better experience that better suits your needs.

My therapist does ACT and it works very well for me. I have tried therapists with the approach you are describing and it didn't work at all for me. Hope this helps.

I see an LCSW or licensed clinical social worker, and i think the connection and why you are going is a biggie.
Mostly i deal with depression and self esteem issues
hope this helps

[BlackCanary]

I see a LCSW for therapy - also see a psychiatrist every few months to check on medications (also see my primary care doc regularly).
I started therapy after a life-threatening illness last year. I was just overwhelmed by how bad I felt inside and knew I had to do something, so therapy was what I picked. I'd resisted going in the past.
We just started - we talked. Learning to say "no" to all sorts of requests was step one. I've learned about keeping my boundaries with my healthy life and all other things that might impact a healthy life. Have had "improved relationship with parents before I die" as my goal -- yeah, so simple...

Along the way I got to talk about a traumatic event in my family, and one in my life. I'm going to be working on that for a while.

Therapy is a place where I can talk about my darkest fears, my worst moments - the things that are too heavy to put on a friend or my spouse. These things weigh me down less once I've talked about them, too. Then I can share a small part of it with my spouse as needed to make sure he knows how I'm feeling, bring him into my life.

A friend who has bi-polar goes to therapy with an MD Psych.
If you are ready to try, go ahead and try!

[sugahorse1]

Thanks for all the advice.
I started seeing a psychiatrist after a really bad depressive episode. I had gotten involved in a VERY difficult relationship (and an affair on my side at that!) and when that ended my world came crumbling down. I was admitted to hospital for 3 days.
So I started anti-depressants and it was suggested I go see a psychologist (I am assuming this term can be used interchangably with "therapist"?) She came to see me in hospital every day while I was ther, and I saw her a few times at her offices. I guess at the time is was more to have someone help me find myself, and what I want out of life.
The depression wouldn't lift and I really felt my visits to the psychologist were a waste of time.
About 2 months after I first started taking anti-depressants I attempted to commit suicide. Naturally this landed me up in hospital again. Both my p-doc and psychologist came to visit me, and even after I was discharged, I continued my therapy sessions. Yet I never once noticed a difference in her approach, especially as it now was evidently a lot more serious and deep-routed as I had absolutely no self-worth as I tried to commit suicide.

I thought she was a wonderful and approachable and friendly woman, and it is a bit updetting that I just felt I left those therapy sessions with nothing