[continuosly blue]

Hi All , I'm new to a forum I thought I would never be involved with. I started to
believe that after much therapy psychotherapy was a fraud.
Now I realize after trying other methods that psychotherapy is what I really want.
I just haven't found the right therapist. It's unfortunate that most psychiatrists today don't spend time with you anymore. The ones who do want cash on the line. I haven't had much luck with regular therapists , ( no offence to the therapists out there , there are a lot of good ones ) , but I need to talk to a psychiatrist who can properly prescribe medication , after a diagnosis , if needed.

I know my symptoms are a result of complex interactions but regardless I still want to know WHY I have become the person I am and I want to hear it from a psychoanalyst. Preferably from a Jungian school of thought.

Are there any others who have gone through or feel in a similar way ?
Going away from psychotherapy and then regretting it ?

[Perna]

Psychoanalysts are usually not psychiatrists these days and do not prescribe medication, especially Jungians (I too would like to see a Jungian "next") Psychoanalysts are just another kind of "regular" therapists and, psychoanalysts especially, are not going to "tell" you anything, are going to make you work for your own insight

The Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Psychoanalyst: The Differences Between the Three P's

[ruh roh]

I've been where you are several times throughout the years. I saw two Jungian analysts at different times. True analysis is very, very deep and challenging work. I couldn't hack it, but boy those two sure did know what they were doing. I also saw a couple therapists who advertised as "Jungian theory." They were not trained analysts and practiced some sort of makeshift therapy where they tossed in dreamwork. One was really lousy. The other was very good, but I wasn't in a place to be able to trust.

Just be clear on what, exactly, you are looking for. A true Jungian analyst is extremely expensive and hard to find. A therapist who practices Jungian theory can be great or extremely awful. I had studied depth psychology in undergrad, so I knew what to expect and look for, and that made it easier to spot the ones who were just doing guesswork.

So, just get straight with what type of therapist you want. Psychiatrists mostly just prescribe meds these days, and they cost a lot, but a master's level counselor can do what you're looking for. Just be sure to research who's in your area and then have some consultations.

[Fuzzybear]

[continuosly blue]

Let me explain a little more.
What I need is guidance. Not just somebody to listen to me. I've had insights since my 20's but incorporating those insights was the problem.
It was also back then that I read a great deal of Freud and Jung.
What turned me on to the Jungian school of thought was that , simply put , he didn't throw spirituality out the window. There was just too much evidence dating back to primitive cultures ,which he personally explored , to disregard this part of the psychology of mankind.
That's why he broke away from Freud , he just didn't believe that man is solely made up of his most base desires. I think that was Freud's own neurosis talking.

Back then these men were Psychiatrists having had medical training but they were also psychologists who studied the behavior of man besides their patients. So the two words seemed interchangeable. Today there is the clear distinction between a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

We can't just look at everything from one point of view. I understand Freud's contribution but I identify immensely with the Jungian school of thought.
Now I'm in my 60's and it appears that both schools of thought , mainly psychotherapy in general , has gone by the wayside.

I think having someone tell you to " think in the moment " is a very effective but simplistic method of treatment which a friend or my own common sense could have told me.
I have to be " taught " about myself just as much as I had to be taught any other subject. If they can't do it then just tell me so. Don't keep me hanging on to false hope just to make more money.

P.S. In all fairness I have to say that I've meet a few " therapists " with minimal training who turned out to have great insight. Go figure.

[Perna]

When I am having trouble incorporating insight, it usually means I am in my head too much and not getting first-hand experience. Therapy is an intellectual thing, all words and can be difficult sometimes if we are already too intellectual/living in our heads. One saying that has helped me enormously in that regard is: "The map is not the territory."

Knowing that it is because my stepmother was new to me as a young child and in that first year of our relationship would take me with her (a stranger) and/or drop me off at her relatives houses (other strangers) to babysit me at times and that I was anxious about whether she'd come and pick me back up/whether I'd see my father and brothers again is what makes me anxious now about being in other people's houses (I hated babysitting as a teen, still hate being in other people's houses "alone" and "in charge" (even taking care of grandchildren!)) -- that insight does not help me not be anxious. Only working with the actual anxiety-producing situation and reworking the literal here-and-now can do that.

Were I you, I'd take a CBT course, just for the heck of it, see what mud that stirred up that you could work with I think such a course would make me intensely angry and any good, intense emotion is grist for my working mill these days.

[ruh roh]

I agree with you about the simplistic approach with a lot of today's therapy. I think that's why I like having an older therapist, because she really gets the deeper stuff. I worried at one point that she might prefer younger clients because they have a whole future to build, but she said no, she actually prefers clients 40 and up (though she likes working with teens). I can compare it to my own therapy in my 20's and 30's, and it's much different, much more meaningful, but also harder to define and measure. I would put her right up there with the two Jungian analysts I saw, only more interactive, but just as keen.