Interesting Psychotherapy Articles

So in the end, it makes sense to take clients as far as they want to go (and can afford to go) toward transformation, as long as we separate our hopes for our clients from their goals for themselves, and as long as we understand that we’re just one of many wisdom traditions (from religion to philosophy) that have their own beliefs about what human flourishing looks like, and as long as we’re willing to acknowledge and work on the blind spots in our tradition, including the tendency to explain human problems at the micro level and ignore larger social forces. As Winston Churchill liked to say, “We all suffer from the defects of our virtues.”

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This blog is excerpted from "Therapy and Transformation," by William Doherty. The full version is available in the January/February 2018 issue, Not Your Grandfather's Therapy: Meeting the Needs of Today's Clients.

The last one of these struck me because of how defensive the therapist is rather than considering that her"interventions" were just completely wrong.
https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article...a-psychologist

Things therapists are not direct about
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/10...3-07-26?page=1

Marketing
Psychotherapy?s Image Problem Pushes Some Therapists to Become ?Brands? - The New York Times

Manipulations
https://www.unk.com/blog/psychothera...ore-receptive/

My favorite part is the comments
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/s...e-its-you.html

Therapist who could not leave a bad therapist
Firing Your Therapist

The Therapists Whose Side Gig Is Professional Cuddling

Therapists are becoming professional cuddlers. I wonder if they are safer at doing this job compared to their therapy jobs...

I'm glad my therapist was willing to this as a part of my treatment.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n...ional-cuddling

they do judge clients all the time:
https://nypost.com/2016/10/06/your-t...y-judging-you/

therapist suicide
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...y-grief-coping

Matching client attachment styles to therapist style
Therapist Referral: Client-Therapist Matching Based on Attachment Style

Interesting project, and interesting author. Perhaps the world, and psychology, is not doomed to h**l in a handbasket forever? Too late for me, I think, but interesting nevertheless.

Interesting, but I am not sure it works as a universal way to assess who fits with whom best. For example "avoidant clients should be matched with an attuned, following, warm, flexible "holding" type of therapy"... Just reading this forum, I am not sure that the people who self-admittedly have avoidant tendencies (including myself) desire that type of therapist. For me, a T who overly tried to connect with me emotionally mostly just provoked increased avoidance. Intelligent, well-informed and realistic with good boundaries is a much better match. Maybe for the ambivalent style the firm, consistent and boundaried is a good fit - again, just reading this forum.

https://themorningnews.org/article/t...t-know-thyself

"It is a closely guarded secret among therapists that the outcome of The Work can be roughly divided into thirds. One third of clients improve, one third of clients stay the same, and one third of clients get worse."

side effects of bad therapy
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full...48670903107559

Talking therapies can harm too ? here's what to look out for

https://www.theferentzinstitute.com/...pists-do-harm/

read the comments:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/11...ersonal-lives/

Consumers and Therapy | Business coaching for therapists and counselors in private practice

Review of Blue Dreams.

Wow, this book looks like a really interesting read.
Something seems integrated in this authors story, she had to choose her mind over her body. This really stood out for me and made me think so we really have to chose and what would I choose if I had to make that decision. I am not sure if I could choose, surely there is another way.
This article doesn’t mention therapy at all perhaps a combination of medication and therapy would be a more integrated approach.
There is a huge loss that the author has had to struggle with and a betrayal of her body because of the medication. This article has really made me think about what we are asked to do to our minds and bodies by doctors and psychiatrists by taking drugs and not being educated about the consequences.

From "Not Trauma Alone: Therapy for Child Abuse Survivors in Family and Social Context (Series in Trauma and Loss)"

A somewhat more complex manifestation of dissociation is a traumatic flashback. As in simple absorption, a flashback involves some degree of unawareness of and unresponsiveness to external stimuli. However, in this case it is specifically accompanied by the recall of a traumatic event, retrieved so powerfully that it is reexperienced rather than merely cognitively recalled, which obscures contact with the immediate present. In its most extreme forms, flashbacks of trauma may almost entirely eclipse orientation to the present. In the throes of a particularly realistic flashback, the trauma is revivified so intensely that the person consumed by it may compellingly experience actually being back in the time and place, and regressed to the age, at which the event originally took place. Frequently, therefore, observable signs of being disconnected from the here and now associated with dissociative absorption will be accompanied by indicators of immersion in vivid and intensely distressing reverie. In the midst of a flashback, the client may flinch, cower, or curl up in a fetal position. Instead of displaying a dazed or vacant expression, he or she may grimace or wince in terror or pain. Where the revivified trauma is one of interpersonal victimization, such as sexual molestation or physical abuse, the client may talk as if the perpetrator is present (e.g., "No! Stop! Please, don't hurt me! Leave me alone!").
In actuality, when therapy is conducted within a contextual framework, it is much less likely that flashbacks will arise in session than if a trauma-focused approach is used. Alternately stated, the risk of evoking flashbacks is much higher when intervention centers on the review and processing of frankly traumatic material. In most cases in which a family context model is used, therefore, episodes of dissociative absorption are much more likely to be encountered than are intense flashbacks. However, in those rare instances when flashbacks do occur in session, it is imperative that the practitioner be prepared to help the client attenuate and manage them.
It can be appreciably more challenging to reorient a client engulfed in a flashback to than one engrossed in dissociative absorption. In instances in which the client spontaneously verbalizes, furnishing the practitioner with some notion of the nature of the event being experienced (e.g., "No! Don't! He's going to get me!"), these cues can be a valuable tool in the reorienting process. The more compelling the flashback, the less likely immediately speaking to the client from a current-day perspective is to successfully penetrate the dissociative state, although there is usually no harm in attempting this. If, however, this approach is unsuccessful, it may be necessary to "enter into" the event by speaking as if one is "there" with the client. The following dialogue approximates the type of interchange that might ensue between therapist (T) and client (C).
C: No! Don't! He's going to get me!
T: [Matching the sense of urgency in the client's voice, but with a tone of reassurance.] Don't worry! We can get away! Come with me! [It may seem a minor point, but it is generally best to try to emphasize joining with the client rather than taking an explicitly protective stance, using language such as "We can get away" rather than "I'll save you!" and "Come with me!" instead of "Follow me!"]
C: No! He'll get you too!
T: [Purposely remaining vague about particulars such as whether the locale is indoors or outside, to avoid incongruence with the client's experience.] It's okay! Come with me! See over there? Look! We can get away! Can you see? Let's go!
C: [Fearfully.] Are you sure?
T: Yes! Come on! It's okay! Let's go! Are you with me?
C: [Hesitantly.] Yes. . . okay.
T: [Emphatically.] Come on! Here we go! Stay with me now!
C: Okay.
T: Keep up with me! Are you with me?
C: Yes. . .
T: We're almost home free! Can you see?
C: Yes!
T: Come on, come on . . . are you with me?
C: Yes.
T: See? We're safe now.
C: [With a tone of relief.] Yes! Yes!
Throughout this interchange, the therapist should be vigilant for signs of reduction in the client's arousal level, adjusting her or his tone and statements to optimize the probability that the client will feel reassured and perceive her- or himself to be out of danger. At that point, the protocol that has been described for reorientation from dissociative absorption can be initiated. This protocol culminates in transmitting strategies to the client for her or him to use to disrupt dissociative experiences as they arise outside of therapy.

Psychotherapy Clients’ Online Behavior and Opinions Regarding Internet Searches Conducted by Therapists

Therapists and money
https://www.psychotherapynetworker.o...R_warming_noon

ACT and Trauma: https://psychwire.com/harris/act-trauma

Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide

Not a science but a craft
https://www.psychotherapynetworker.o...ttled#Comments

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLIENT–THERAPIST BOND THROUGH THE LENS OF ATTACHMENT THEORY
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d38...1987ab8101.pdf

Best to practice, I guess, “my craft, or sullen art!”

Very good article in the NYTimes about antidepressant withdrawal: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/h...-cymbalta.html

More on how they train to manipulate
https://www.psychotherapynetworker.o...nto-attunement

I didn't read the whole article, but I find it so interesting that you see this as manipulation, when I see it as how people can connect to each other. Attunement is merely connecting with another person in such a way that they feel "seen" and "heard" for the person they are.

For example, I work with 2 year olds, so I get a lot of practice in trying to do this, especially with language. I have one child who will continue to repeat the same thing over and over, increasingly getting agitated if I don't understand what she is saying. I have learned ways to figure out a child that REALLY wants to be understood (aka: heard/seen), and the moment when I get it, I can see them relax and light up because I heard them.

That is small example of what I see as attunement, and what you see as manipulation.

(I am not judging your opinion at all, SD, I swear)