FRAUDian Therapy ?

I second this.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Perhaps the subforum should be for the over the top positive posts. They attract less discussion. The guy who runs this site has repeatedly stated no subforum for unhappy therapy stories.
I think it goes back to put people on the ignore list or just don't read threads or posters you don't agree with if it is bothering you.

Uh...how is the Romantic Feelings subforum not full of unhappy therapy stories? (I know it is not your rule, it's kind of a rhetorical question.)

Putting people on the ignore list does not keep one from seeing they started a thread and its title, unless I'm doing it wrong.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'm not sure but I'd guess that the Romantic Feelings subforum was placed separate because of the sexual feelings/attraction issues that are discussed by the participants. Probably a few people didn't want to stumble into a thread that was blatantly sexual in nature.

I freely admit that when I see some posters name in a thread about problems in therapy, I just skip over their post because I know what they're going to say and I don't want it to bug me. I haven't as yet had to put anyone on ignore, but I'm pretty good at looking out for posts that might trigger me. I'm not a person who is supportive of poorly trained therapists and I freely encourage people to get out of a therapy situation that I think might be harmful. I also have no problem giving compassionate support to people who are struggling and needing to vent about their numbnut therapist--I get it that there are plenty of them out there. But I also know that there are plenty of good ones too. I've seen evidence of it here on this forum. I think it's wise to just skip over the posts that typically bother or irritate you. I'm always able to find plenty of posts that are supportive and helpful for ME PERSONALLY. To each his own, I always say!

You're certain this is absolute and universal? I find posts or opinions that aren't helpful to one person can be extremely helpful to someone else.

I think it has been extremely helpful to many people. And the over the top positive posts have been extremely harmful to many people. So there's that. None of it gets to me anymore. It's just a forum. It's not my life.

If the cost is your issue then maybe we can work on my sliding scale.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, if you want to leave -- after paying my mortgage for seven years -- let me remind you that my door is always open.

I think what AncientMelody is saying here (and please correct me if I'm wrong, AM), we ALL need to coach our posts in non-absolute terms. It's fine to talk about a particular therapist being poorly trained, unskilled, a manipulative S*#% or any other derogatory term you want to use. What some might find difficult to handle is when ALL therapists are dismissed using one of these negative terms. Or when ALL therapy is described as unhelpful, a sham or bound to be a misadventure right around the corner. Just as people who have been harmed by therapy and need talk about it, people who are still engaged in therapy in a positive way are hurt and angered by comments that reflect negatively on their experience of therapy. In other words, they begin to feel that people are calling them chumps for believing in their therapists.

I don't think it's okay for any of us to dismiss or insult anyone who had a terrible therapeutic experience that harmed and traumatized them, but you also have to understand that when you dismiss ALL therapists as charlatans and manipulative jerks it is hurtful to the other group. Why can't we talk about how therapy has been for us and how that might or might not be what the other person is experiencing? Why does either side of the issue have to hurt and/or degrade the group that sees things differently. Personally, I don't see either group as saints in this argument that keeps popping up, myself included. I know I'm not explaining this really well, but I just think we can still all be here without clawing at each other every ten or so threads. Just a thought.

Lots of posts about the positives (if there are any) of therapy are not made in those terms. People say things like "your therapist WILL help you with (whatever)." Many statements like those are made.

IF those types of statements are so detrimental and harmful to people on either side then maybe they shouldn't read the forum or just put people on ignore who bug them.

People shouldn't blame the clients so much either but they do. I think it's kind of controlling to try to moderate each other. That's the job of the actual moderators.

You're right, puzzle bug. I apologize to anyone that I offended with my post.
I'll bow out. I'm not a moderator and I shouldn't have interfered. Take care.

The first two words of this thread are "I think." That's not an absolute decree, that's stating a personal opinion. All of my therapists were charlatans too, so for me, the squandering of time, money and hope on top of my original pain is understandable reason for venting.

That's the truth. Although the friendliest voices are not always found here...

Exactly. My followup therapist only was interested in discouraging me from suing her colleague. I've yet to see professional literature that explores harmful therapy with real understanding or depth. The profession barely explores it at all and mostly blames the patient.

Therapy has absolutely been needed for me. But I will only deal with good therapists. The few bad ones or bad personality fits that I have had I dumped very quickly.

This is so unbelievably absurd to me. It’s true, yes, but absurd. Psychologists know how to do all kinds of questionnaires, surveys, interviews, etc. And yet they don’t gather information from the consumers of their services about the effectiveness of those services?

What a waste! Valuable information that could be used to improve the services in all kinds of ways and psychologists aren’t interested? I don’t get it.

That’s great for you. For me, undiagnosed/untreated personality problems made it difficult to impossible for me to evaluate good therapists from bad ones, and the notion of a “bad personality fit” made no sense to me. I lucked into finding my current, effective therapist. Luck after many years of unluck. I have friends in support groups who never lucked out. It breaks my heart.

There are a lot of unhappy therapy stories that have nothing to do with erotic transference, or transference period. Also, some of the people in that subforum are the ones most vehemently against criticising therapy.

Sometimes they do. Treatment centers (like he one I work in) often have patient satisfaction surveys to rate the quality of care and effectiveness. The info is compiled into monthly reports. Granted we don't do what most would consider real "therapy", so it may not be he best comparison. With private therapy some Ts do check in with their clients to see if therapy is working, though that doesn't seem to be the experience of a lot of posters here. I think one problem with measurements of good or bad therapists is progress can be next to impossible to measure without something concrete to go by. Someone with an eating disorder will gain weight if they are getting better or an addict will be clean for a certain amount of time, but measuring depressing and anxiety is far more difficult. Therapy can be measured in a similar way - especially CBT and DBT because they are short term and focus on symptom reduction. If that isn't the focus then the goal is so vague I can understand where the idea of success is subjective and hard to measure. I think a lot of Ts are reluctant to focus on symptoms as a measure of improvement, although they probably could. I also think some Ts don't want to admit their clients are better and may not need therapy anymore. My T is a believer of monotoring progress and assessing whether therapy is useful or even necessary. However, she did tell me lots of Ts don't do this, instead preferring to keep clients going long term and therefore, not really getting much better.

The irony in this heated discussion: the original poster fired a one-off comment and disappeared from the fray.

Even more so as its all about pharmacology now

It makes me feel like I should have became a psychotherapist.

Yes. Anger that we still know so little about the mind.

Bad therapy posts almost always turn into heated debates. It makes me think about how sometimes in therapy I want to throw a screaming stomping tantrum for no good reason. I want to throw it, I'm just not entirely sure why. Or, at least, I'm not entirely sure why at the time. In retrospect I'm almost positive it's because I just don't want to be responsible for my own growth, my own change. I want someone to do it for me. So much easier that way...

But I also don't want anyone else telling me what to do. I don't want to be dependent on anyone.

It does make for a frustrating conflict...

/thoughts. Not directed at anyone at all.

Just trying to get some discussion going on. Maybe I should have just said " How much do those who have been in psychotherapy for a mental " disorder " feel it has really helped " ?

Is that supposed to be funny or something ? Maybe you think
YOUR mother should have never had you ? Ask your therapist.