[stopdog]

Do you believe the therapist you hire can accurately assess anything about you?

[atisketatasket]

In my experience, I haven’t yet seen evidence that they’re any better at it than non-therapists who know me.

ETA: though they might put a more positive spin on some characteristics than people who know me would.

[stopdog]

Mostly I am alarmed when they say things like they quit on a client because in their esteemed opinion, the client was not doing what the therapist wanted/decided was in the client's best interest. The arrogance of those guys takes my breath away.

[CaptainChaos]

I have yet to meet a therapist or psychologist who could accurately assess anything about me at our FIRST meeting. I knew one, who already knew me who did a good job of evaluating me. But he was also my former psychology professor so he knew me well.

[LostOnTheTrail]

Yes - she is a trained professional. However I think it has become more difficult for us to work through teletherapy. She can still read me like a book, but I am struggling with the distance aspect.

[TishaBuv]

I don’t know because I don’t know what is my accurate diagnosis, if any. I’ve had different diagnoses from varying doctors. Now my new doctors refuse to share with me any diagnosis they may be giving me. They say they just want to focus on symptoms now and that diagnoses don’t matter. They say the DSM will be changing.

I’m thinking about demanding to know if I’ve been given any diagnosis by my new doctors and what it is. Maybe they’ll drop me. They aren’t helping anyway.

[Omers]

Sometimes he floors me with his accuracy.... other times I wonder how you can miss by that much... guess he is human.

I have never found one that doesn't go on asumptions

and assumptions (regardless of who they are from) annoy me

I have also had a therapist tell me to

Possible trigger:

kill myself if that's what I want to do.

so I also think that some of them just don't know what they are doing, and are in it for the money

my experience of therapy is pretty low to be honest. I've had 9 therapists, and none of them really seem that bothered (I have had nice therapists, not good ones). their's defenetly a diffrence

oh: and I've had therapists that spend my session on the phone

professional!

[*Beth*]

The therapist I'm working with now is spot on with her accuracy about me.

[SlumberKitty]

I put maybe. I think she could maybe accurately assess if I were say, a danger to myself or something. Then again

Possible trigger:

I saw her the day before my last suicide attempt and she didn't accurately assess that risk.

. I think I would like to think that she could, but I sort of really doubt they have any more ability than any other person.

[Lonelyinmyheart]

I don't think any of the therapists I've seen would have claimed to assess me in any way. What they did was try to to understand me and empathise with my feelings and experiences. No labels or diagnoses were ever used. Maybe we're talking about different types of therapy.

[Mountaindewed]

I said something at the time I thought sounded ok. And then later I thought “was that a little weird?” But she answered it fine. I asked her if she thinks of me between sessions. We. Were talking about something else and she mentioned today that she knows me well enough or something like that. Although she’d be surprised at what she doesn’t know about me.

[nottrustin]

Sometimes. If you mean properly diagnose yes. Both my Ts have done well with that.

If you mean ready my body language. understand me, etc, soneyones she totally gets me other times she us way off. since going to teletherapy it has been a lot harder and she has been wrong more often.

[*Beth*]

Originally Posted by Lonelyinmyheart

I don't think any of the therapists I've seen would have claimed to assess me in any way. What they did was try to to understand me and empathise with my feelings and experiences. No labels or diagnoses were ever used. Maybe we're talking about different types of therapy.

An excellent point.

[stopdog]

I meant assess more as in whether you were getting out of therapy what you hired them for - not a dsm diagnosis. I was using assess more broadly than it seems people were taking it. The question came from one of those people talking about where she quit because the client was not doing what she thought the client should be doing - she assessed the client and decided that her "interventions" to do x had not worked and decided to quit. Again - their arrogance is astonishing.

[corbie]

I voted 'other'. For certain values of 'assess' and 'accurate', I think so - ex-T when she was not distracted by either institutional interference or what must have been her own counter-transference managed to act/react in helpful ways often/consistently enough that I think it has to have resulted from an accurate enough assessment. Alas, she could be wildly inaccurate at other times.

In interpretations, and other cases when she made her 'assessment' known to me ... it's often difficult for me to judge accuracy. Some things feel kind of right, but not quite, in small ways I can't pinpoint, or, on tthe other end of the spectrum, feel wrong overall, but can't dismiss entirely. Other things I don't feel at all, but kind of make sense, so maybe true? A lot of the time I felt like I was still trying to adjust to the light and try to make out stuff in one direction, and she just spun me around and pointed to something in the other direction, and then went 'a-ha, you got angry so I must be right!' She might even be right for all I know, but I won't see it unless I can figure stuff out at my own pace.

For this reason, I kind of object to spoken out assessments. Well, and for the sheer gall of someone trying to know better what I feel, what helps me, what I can or can't (safely) do. Even if she happens to be accurate (which I'm pretty sure she wasn't a lot of the time), I want to make my own assessments. Point out where she thinks I'm going wrong? Yes please. Draw my attention to stuff she thinks I have yet to consider? Yes please. Lots of non-offensive ways to share her ideas and observations. But trying to tell me what I feel, what I want and what should be important to me? **** off.

Also, I think more important than accuracy is the willingness to re-assess frequently.

As for new T, she's promising, but to early to say anything.

[TishaBuv]

I thought you meant diagnose. I’ll change my answer now:

I think all the therapists I ever saw did accurately assess me, but this is only my projection onto myself.

I’d tell them my issues. They’d reframe and repeat back my issues. I’d hear my inner voice saying the worst things I think of myself.

Does this make sense? IDK if they said the things I told myself or not. It’s really just me assessing myself and unfortunately for me, not in a good way.

This is why I never got far in therapy with each therapist.

Now I am with one who I think is very good and not giving up. He’s said some things to me about myself in a very nice way, yet I interpret what he means about how i am the worst I think I am.

He said try to be different than this. Okay, sounds simple enough, will do.

[nottrustin]

Initially my current T had an idea but was somewhat off because of the way I presented. It didnt take long after we started EMDR that she realized the was preliminary work we had to do before returning to Emdr. She apologized profusely for assuming things instead of checking in. Part of that though, in my opinion, also was because working with two Ts and trying to figure who would help me with what, etc.

She occasionally will miss the mark on things and she has always apologized for either assuming or misinterpreting what I said without digging dipper.

[*Beth*]

I took "assess" to mean, in essence, does my therapist "read me" well. And yes, she does.

As far as assessing my progress, she tends to be, at times, slightly more optimistic than I am. But I truly don't fine that she's arrogant; I believe that she wants me to be healthy. Also, to be fair, she only knows what I tell her. If she saw me breaking out in a rage and kicking a door (and I haven't told her about the episode), she might have a different assessment.

I've worked with 5 therapists in my life, 3 individual and 2 group. Out of the 5 I'd say that one was arrogant, 1 was moderately so, 1 could be at times, and 2 were not at all.

Most likely if I knew any random 5 people I'd assess them to be the about the same.

To me, it's ridiculous to say that every person in a certain profession is the same. To believe that is as ignorant as any stereotyping is.

[stopdog]

it isn't stereotyping if it is true - it is the positioning of the profession. Whether any individual one of those people is or is not doesn't change how they have set the game up. Also - when you talk to them as professionals and not as clients - they are. When you read their notes - they are. When you have them in a position of weakness - they are. I do agree they are often very good actors.
The arrogance is systemic - that they know what is in someone else's best interest for example, is to me, the height of arrogance. If it is not to you -then have at it. My opinion of those people need have no bearing on yours.

[Mountaindewed]

I had a therapist quit on me as soon as he met me because he got spooked by my diagnosis. Claimed he wasn’t qualified to work with me and that I needed a higher level of care. It did honestly bother me because I truly thought we’d work out.