Placebo effect

Interesting to see one of them admitting it even if it is mixed in with other stuff.
And of course the word magical-which I have never found any where near therapists.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...-psychotherapy

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I was turned off by the title -- Magical Power of Healing and Caring...

I couldn't read anything after that.

Good article, thanks for sharing it. I don't much like the word "magical" for this context either. I especially liked what the therapist interviewed said about needing to look to the future in therapy.

I can't speak about other MH conditions, but I find that chronic depression takes away my ability to look forward to the future and to have goals.

I still remember that one time the woman looked at me and said most of her clients (unlike me presumably) usually come in with a belief she will be able to help them. I was (and still am) flabbergasted that she believes it is true, or worse, that it just may be true in general.

Nothing surprising there. That effect is at work in many realms.

Well, they don't often tell clients about it and they do tend to act like they think they actually are doing something rather than just marking time. They don't usually advertise they are simply Dumbo's Feather.

Barf. It's so badly written, with so many buzzwords.

Sure, some people - with mild problems, not major trauma, depression, etc., to which this article is not speaking - just need hope. But isn't there a self-serving element to this? If healing is contingent on hope, and hope comes from the therapist, therapy must continue. There's little suggestion in the article that therapists teach their clients to solve their problems on their own, without some kind of strong therapeutic relationship in place.

This is another interesting article I think:
http://www.sageofasheville.com/pub_d...CHOTHERAPY.pdf

I have mixed feelings on that one. I think that the ability to hope is good and too often gets stamped out by depression. On the other hand, I hate to think of all those potentially hopeful people out there being devastated when it turns out that their therapist is incompetent or just a bad fit for them.

I tend to be a pretty blunt person most of the time, and I think I've had more than one therapist get flustered with me because I wasn't "magically" experiencing hope just because.. I was supposed to?

Like I explained to my last T that I see no real future for myself. I struggle with mental illness and will probably never be able to achieve more than a minimum wage job like working at a fast food joint or grocery store or something along those lines. So even if I do manage to get a job, it still won't be enough for me to be independent and support myself.

At that point, what I wanted (due to how my brain works) was for the T to either confirm the reality of my situation, or explain to me why my perception was inaccurate.

But instead it was like it became this weird little battle about how I was supposed to feel, and apparently not being hopeful was just not cool.

The last sentence says it all: "...not all clients are strong placebo reactors, and its effects can be limited and temporary in nature."

I am not opposed at all to the placebo effect. When used properly, the placebo effect can be harnessed as a treatment mechanism. Sometimes I wish it were considered medically ethical to use placebo treatments such as sugar pills for patients because I feel some of my own patients would benefit from it.

I don't think my therapy has been beneficial due to placebo effect because I have a very kind caring and thoughful family practitioner who had been treating my anxiety ineffectively for 5 months. I felt very good on the day I'd go see my doctor, the appointment itself provided relief. But that relief did not last into the next day.

I am extremely happy it is not considered ethical in health care and do not think it is ethical for therapists either.

I didn't understand all of that because I haven't studied psychology, but the part about therapists using certain approaches even if they don't believe in them was alarming to me.

I want my therapist to believe in the therapeutic approach that she's using. If it works even if she doesn't believe in it, I still don't like the idea. It seems impossible for a therapist to have respect for the client and "genuineness" if she's using a technique she doesn't believe in.

That seems like an accurate description to me of some of what happens in my experience with the IFS therapist.

Thanks, good article even if I did only vaguely grasp much of it.

Some of therapy works for some people, some doesnt work for other people. I think the point is to find what DOES work for you - me - whoever. Like AA says, take what you need and leave the rest. I guess i dont understand the point of these threads - like the one, therapy does more harm than good. "More"? How would you even begin to quantify that? It does harm, it does good. Its like a car, or a gun, or a grape. You could choke on a grape. Should nobody eat grapes? I dont particularly want to hear diatribes against grapes when im looking for grape recipes. Dr Phil asks people, do you want to be right, or do you want to get better? I can support your wanting to get better; i dont have much to say if you just want to be right; but whatever - room on the site for both options. But if youre coming here to comment, and not an anti-therapy website, methinks the lady doth protest too much.

I want to know what they are doing at me and why - I do not just blindly turn myself over to them. It is not anti anything to want to understand what is supposed to going on. I don't just want to be better at any cost - if others do - it is fine with me - but it is certainly not how I am nor do I want to be

Every study done on cough and cold medications show they are as effective, but no more so, than placebo. That is a multi-billion dollar industry.

Guess therapy can be the same.

I agree. I think it is something we could do on our own. The information is out there. Why do we need therapists to help us with whatever it is we need help with.

Seriously? I kinda like my guafinesen.

Same reason you dont cut your own hair or do your own dental work.

I do think self help aka therapy IS something you can do. People do it all the time. Therapy isn't the same as physical medical care at all.

And there are a lot of things people learn to do from information they can get from books and the internet. I think self help/therapy/whatever is one of them. It's not brain surgery. LOL.

I have cut my own hair. And I make my own cough syrup. And with dentistry I certainly look up information before turning myself over to them.

Me too. LOL. It's very telling when people in the profession can't even agree on what supposedly helps people. Is it the relationship? Is it the techniques they use? Is it medication? Is it trust? Is it totally up to the client whether they get well? Some here imply it is. If that is true then a therapist isn't truly needed.

By the same token -If you just want grape recipes, don't read the threads about how to avoid choking on grapes. I believe posting info and articles like these is supportive for those who want to know where therapy pitfalls lie or things to guard against while paying a therapist. I like being an informed consumer and I have never found therapists as a whole to be particularly forthcoming.

... Recipe?