Court-Ordered Therapy

Ok, so I'm just curious if court-ordered therapy is ever successful? I mean, if someone isn't willingly going to therapy, I doubt that it would be very successful. If the client does not sincerely want to be there, then there's really nothing the therapist can do, right? Examples would be drug counseling or anger management.

Most are not. But every once in a while, court-ordered therapy does some good in the life of the person who is required to go.

I ran into someone else waiting for an appointment one time. He was getting more and more mad as the therapist wasn't coming round to collect him. I think the therapist was like 30 minutes late by the time she came, but before that, he was like "I'm only here because it's court-ordered."

It's so individual. Maybe they got into trouble but want help. Maybe they got into trouble and couldn't care less.

I don't know it, but there is certainly an actual empirical answer to your question out there beyond the opinions and anecdotes of the fine folks on this forum. The effects of court-ordered therapy in various contexts have no doubt been documented and analyzed extensively. Anyone care to look it up?

I don't think it ever really helped any of my clients. Usually just getting the client to show up and play along long enough to get the probation officers off their case was considered a success by us.

I wasn't court ordered to therapy the first time, but pressured by my doctor and nutritionist. I was basically given a choice of a hospital or a therapist for an eating disorder. It was a life altering experience for me. Further, I probably wouldn't have gone in for the second appointment if I thought I had a choice about whether or not to go.

In my experience working in an IOP program I find that those who are there only because of being court-orered very rarely finish the program.