[SarahSweden]

My T is an alternative therapist, that is she isn´t educated to treat conditions like depression and anxiety. She´s a psychosynthesis therapist and here they aren´t allowed to practise within mental health care and I see her at a church where she partly works as a therapist.

I knew this from the beginning and she has known from the beginning that I´ve struggled to get psychotherapy within mental health care but I was just given supportive counselling from a nurse.

I have suicide thoughts from time to time and I often feel hopelessness. I've never tried to kill myself but I feel I need to speak about that I many times find life hopeless. I also have several rather common but still big issues to talk about like loneliness, unemployment and intimacy issues.

I´m constantly afraid that my therapist will just suddenly state that she can´t support me any more. I´m not expecting a treatment but I have nobody but her to talk to about my issues and I´m afraid she´ll think she can´t spend unlimited time on me as she can´t treat depression.

But to me she´s important even if she can´t really treat depression, I´m not even sure what would even if I met with a "real" psychotherapist. I also were in psychodynamic therapy a couple of years ago with a "real" T and that didn´t help me anything.

I don´t want to question my T about this as she has already here and there said that she´s limited in what she can do, but I do worry about it.

What had you others done in this situation?

[Deejay14]

Sarah,
Being an alternative therapist she might that do that, but talk to her about your feelings and that you feel she has been a help to you. I do feel you should be honest with her because what is the point of therapy if you can't be honest? I am sure if she decided other wise it would not be a personal thing. It's about getting the best care. For example going to see a nurse practitioner when you really need the skills of a surgeon.

[mostlylurking]

I think you could start a conversation by telling her how helpful it has been to talk to her, and you could even say "I realize you're not trained to treat depression or anxiety but nonetheless, this has been helping me and it's really important to me." And then if you can, you could tell her you're worried about losing her if you fully open up about things.

If this therapist is working for you, then I would think about the possibility of supplementing with additional specialized care, but not replacing her, and maybe you could talk to her about that too.

[weaverbeaver]

I would talk with her like the others have said. Psychosynthesis is very holistic and incorporates the body and mind as one, saying that I imagine she does not treat depression and anxiety but she does work with it because they are a part of being human, we can’t separate the two. I believe Depression and anxiety are symptoms and conditions of living in a modern world full of stress and chaos.
I understand your therapy is not conventional but it sounds like you have both worked together well and I don’t think by telling her how hard it really is will change her mind about working with you.

[here today]

How do you feel about psychosynthesis in general as an approach to your problems? As was discussed on another recent thread in this forum, depression and anxiety can be viewed as "normal" responses to some situational stresses in life. Some people find psychotherapy helpful for that, some don't, as you see in the variety of opinions on this forum.

You wrote:

I´m constantly afraid that my therapist will just suddenly state that she can´t support me any more. I´m not expecting a treatment but I have nobody but her to talk to about my issues and I´m afraid she´ll think she can´t spend unlimited time on me as she can´t treat depression.

But to me she´s important even if she can´t really treat depression,

It seems to me it's great that you have someone who is important to you, and who is often there for you, even if she is limited in what she can do. Do you feel that you can talk to her directly about how much time she is willing to spend with you before she decides she can't be of benefit to you any more? Or something like that? I prefer facing issues I'm scared about head-on, when I can -- but not everybody is like that. And your therapist may not be either. So this is just my 2 cents.

[SarahSweden]

Thanks. Yes, I´ve been thinking of saying to her but at the same time I don´t want to put any pressure on her as the decision around continuing or not continuing therapy isn´t on her only. She sees me within the church where she works and her boss and others also have a say in this.

I´ve had contact within the specialised mental health care as well but there they don´t see me as "sick enough" and by that I won´t get access to more specialized care. They might perhaps give me some general counselling. I don´t know more specifically how my T looks upon this, I told her today I've had suicidal thoughts recently and it´s not that she won´t talk with me about that but I notice it´s a thing she doesn´t go deeper into.

Originally Posted by mostlylurking

I think you could start a conversation by telling her how helpful it has been to talk to her, and you could even say "I realize you're not trained to treat depression or anxiety but nonetheless, this has been helping me and it's really important to me." And then if you can, you could tell her you're worried about losing her if you fully open up about things.

If this therapist is working for you, then I would think about the possibility of supplementing with additional specialized care, but not replacing her, and maybe you could talk to her about that too.

[SarahSweden]

Thanks for comforting words. Do you have an experience of your own from psychosyntesis therapy?

I agree on what you say that they don´t treat depression and anxiety in a formal way but they kind of still treat those conditions or handle with them in different ways as negative thinking, feeling low and such are present in therapy.

When it comes to suicidal thoughts I don´t know, I've mentioned those and she knows I still have some contact within mental health care and there are facilities to turn to if I get really unwell so perhaps she relies on that.

I guess I don´t want to question her too much around things like endings, the length of therapy as I´m afraid that will rise unneccesary thoughts and discussions. Soon it´s summer and then perhaps it'll be a natural break in therapy and we´ll then have some kind of evaluation. She has though as late as today said I made progress and that the process can take time so in that aspect she doesn´t seem to hesitate. Perhaps it´s just a feeling I have, perhaps there really is some kind of hesitation from her side.

Originally Posted by weaverbeaver

I would talk with her like the others have said. Psychosynthesis is very holistic and incorporates the body and mind as one, saying that I imagine she does not treat depression and anxiety but she does work with it because they are a part of being human, we can’t separate the two. I believe Depression and anxiety are symptoms and conditions of living in a modern world full of stress and chaos.
I understand your therapy is not conventional but it sounds like you have both worked together well and I don’t think by telling her how hard it really is will change her mind about working with you.

[SarahSweden]

Thanks here today. I feel both pro and con psychosynthesis in general. The pro is that it´s a holistic way of looking upon a person and that it stresses the importance of the therapeutic alliance and the therapist being a caring and kind person/therapist.

The con is that psychosynthesis isn´t accepted as therapy for mental illnessess and the theoretical framework has no certain evidence and there is no scientific proof that this type of therapy will work.

Do you have own experiences from psychosynthesis therapy?

I think I´m too afraid to ask her in a such a direct way about the time she is willing to spend with me. She today said that it takes time to work on certain issues and she initiated a new way of talking about things at the same time as she stated this about time. So it´s hard to know, sometimes I get the feeling that she can´t freely choose and that she perhaps is limited by her boss and others.

I also get the feeling that when I talk about depression and suicidal thoughts she doesn´t want to say straight out that those things aren´t what she treats but that she still thinks that way.

In the beginning she said they only give 10 sessions to people who turn to their church for someone to talk to but now we just go on and she tells me I make progress and that she´s happy I now can cry in therapy. But there´s still something, perhaps only in my head, that says she´s a bit hesitant.

Originally Posted by here today

How do you feel about psychosynthesis in general as an approach to your problems? As was discussed on another recent thread in this forum, depression and anxiety can be viewed as "normal" responses to some situational stresses in life. Some people find psychotherapy helpful for that, some don't, as you see in the variety of opinions on this forum.

You wrote:


It seems to me it's great that you have someone who is important to you, and who is often there for you, even if she is limited in what she can do. Do you feel that you can talk to her directly about how much time she is willing to spend with you before she decides she can't be of benefit to you any more? Or something like that? I prefer facing issues I'm scared about head-on, when I can -- but not everybody is like that. And your therapist may not be either. So this is just my 2 cents.

[weaverbeaver]

Originally Posted by SarahSweden

Thanks for comforting words. Do you have an experience of your own from psychosyntesis therapy?

I agree on what you say that they don´t treat depression and anxiety in a formal way but they kind of still treat those conditions or handle with them in different ways as negative thinking, feeling low and such are present in therapy.

When it comes to suicidal thoughts I don´t know, I've mentioned those and she knows I still have some contact within mental health care and there are facilities to turn to if I get really unwell so perhaps she relies on that.

I guess I don´t want to question her too much around things like endings, the length of therapy as I´m afraid that will rise unneccesary thoughts and discussions. Soon it´s summer and then perhaps it'll be a natural break in therapy and we´ll then have some kind of evaluation. She has though as late as today said I made progress and that the process can take time so in that aspect she doesn´t seem to hesitate. Perhaps it´s just a feeling I have, perhaps there really is some kind of hesitation from her side.

Yeah, I studied psychosynthesis a very very long time ago now but I really loved It’s ethos and how gentle and creative it was.
It is a shame that there hasn’t been much research in It’s uses or effectiveness but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not effective.
My experience of it is that it allows for things to emerge organically and allows for the space for these things to emerge that might not emerge with other therapies such as CBT that are apparently the gold standard of therapy, which is now being disproved. So I suppose what I am saying is that we can never really measure the effectiveness without asking the participants. It seems to me that this type of therapy is going much deeper than your other therapy and it is stirring up a lot of painful emotions, hence the crying and the grieving and perhaps you are both doing the work without necessarily addressing what the work is, maybe your other therapy was more solution focussed/ driven!