[stopdog]

How do you gauge when therapy has worked versus when it has been a failure?

[Echos Myron redux]

A sense of emotional wellbeing that was previously not there.

[stopdog]

Does it matter if that is what you hired them for in the first place? Is emotional well being what you went for? Like if you hired them for X but somehow decided you had emotion wellbeing instead- would you consider that a success or a failure?

[Echos Myron redux]

Originally Posted by stopdog

Does it matter if that is what you hired them for in the first place? Is emotional well being what you went for? Like if you hired them for X but somehow decided you had emotion wellbeing instead- would you consider that a success or a failure?

That's a good question. I went to therapy because I wasn't coping. I am now coping and more resourceful and self-accepting than I ever knew was possible. So I got my stated goal (in the end) and have discovered I have more to gain from it too.

[Taylor27]

Sense of purpose in life helps me to know if therapy is working for me. Also learning new skills to cope with problems on my own step by step with the encouragement of my pyschologist. It helps me to reflect on my progress every few months with him and see what i need to work on more

[Carmina]

Being able to do things outside of therapy that at one point took a great effort or were hard even inside therapy.

eg for me, getting back to painting again

[ChickenNoodleSoup]

I think it worked if you have achieved whatever goal you wanted to achieve. If you want to just have somebody to talk and therapy provides that, it is working. If you need to get to terms with your life and therapy does that, it's working. If it does not provide the things you wanted from it, it's not working.

[SlumberKitty]

Originally Posted by stopdog

How do you gauge when therapy has worked versus when it has been a failure?

The T I saw for 4 appointments this Summer, well that ended in failure. We never "clicked" she was opinionated, dismissive, and critical. I never felt like she was on my team. I felt like she was there to shame me and criticize me. There was pretty much nothing positive about it. Failure.

[WishfulThinker66]

think back to that first session. Your T likely asked you what you wanted to get out of therapy and what were your goals. This then is your 'test'.

[WarmFuzzySocks]

That's a good question.

My goal in going to therapy was to save my marriage. That most decidedly didn't happen.

What happened instead is that I was given a lot of time and space to recognize and understand abusive dynamics and rebuild my life into something healthier. Things are better. My family is healthier. My friendships have deepened. I've recovered my sense of my self. So in that sense it has "worked," even though my stated goal wasn't met.

[SlumberKitty]

Originally Posted by WarmFuzzySocks

That's a good question.

My goal in going to therapy was to save my marriage. That most decidedly didn't happen.

What happened instead is that I was given a lot of time and space to recognize and understand abusive dynamics and rebuild my life into something healthier. Things are better. My family is healthier. My friendships have deepened. I've recovered my sense of my self. So in that sense it has "worked," even though my stated goal wasn't met.

Good point. Sometimes the goal changes from when therapy starts to wherever a person is at in their therapy. Thanks for bringing that up.

[stopdog]

Did you actively change them or is that just what happened and you decided it was okay?

[CantExplain]

I'm happier, less angry and less frightened. More comfortable in my own skin.
That's success.

[littleblackdog]

No experience of the former, but when both the therapist and I both agreed that CBT was only making me feel worse and it was probably not going to help me to finish the 12 week course, that was a pretty good indication that it had failed