

Show HN: Former tech journalist, now therapist--“What Is Therapy? FAQ” - gw666
https://medium.com/@Therapy4Change/what-is-therapy-faq-a1e809675136

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lutusp
> “What Is Therapy?”

Easily answered -- therapy is when you have to pay someone to be on your side.

~~~
nostrademons
It's not at all that. First of all, a good therapist will challenge their
client to get out of their comfort zone and do things they would otherwise be
uncomfortable doing. Second, you don't _have to do_ anything as an adult, let
alone pay someone.

What therapy is is a professional service. You go to a lawyer because you do
not understand the law, and either have a problem now or wish to avoid
problems later by changing your behavior. You go to a doctor because you do
not understand your body, and either have a problem now or wish to avoid
problems later by changing your behavior. You go to a therapist because you do
not understand your unconscious, and either have a problem now or wish to
avoid problems later by changing your behavior.

The main difference is that most people in developed nations today understand
that they do not know know the law and do not understand the intricacies of
their body. The idea that we don't understand our unconscious is a much newer
development, and it's still very disquieting for most people. We'd like to
believe that we are consciously aware of everything we do - but there's ample
evidence that that's not the case, and people sabotage themselves without
understanding that's what they're doing all the time.

~~~
lutusp
> What therapy is is a professional service.

If therapists were professionals, they would respond to their professional
societies by abandoning discredited therapeutic methods. But they won't do
this. Asperger Syndrome (AS) caused an epidemic of phony diagnoses, after
which the professional societies responded by voting AS out of the new DSM,
but therapists are ignoring them and continuing to diagnose and "treat" AS,
more than a year after the handwriting appeared on the wall.

It's the same with Recovered Memory Therapy -- therapists are free to offer it
to their clients, more than a decade after this phony therapy created what
insiders call a "debacle" and a huge decline in public trust in therapy as a
profession.

People who ignore their professional societies aren't professionals.

> You go to a doctor because you do not understand your body, and either have
> a problem now or wish to avoid problems later by changing your behavior. You
> go to a therapist because you do not understand your unconscious, and either
> have a problem now or wish to avoid problems later by changing your
> behavior.

Your effort to compare therapy to sciences like modern medicine has been
contradicted by the NIMH, which recently ruled that the DSM, therapy's
"bible", may no longer be used as the basis for scientific research proposals,
for the simple reason that it has no scientific content:

[http://news.sciencemag.org/2013/05/nimh-wont-follow-
psychiat...](http://news.sciencemag.org/2013/05/nimh-wont-follow-psychiatry-
bible-anymore)

Therapy is not a science, and it is not a profession. Therapy is to modern
times what an aging aunt on a porch swing was to an earlier time -- a way to
derive benefit from ordinary conversation. Notwithstanding the benefit people
derive from therapy, all this talk about it being a scientific profession is
nonsense, something now widely recognized.

~~~
gw666
@lutusp, I'm sorry for whatever experiences have led you to such a negative
opinion of therapy; I'm sure you have very valid reasons to feel that way.

You're right, therapy is not a science, but it is doing its best to learn as
much as possible about the human condition and to apply what it has learned to
improve human lives.

In its defense, it's barely over 100 years old. Where was physics 100 years
after its origins? Chemistry? Medicine? When therapy started, all Freud and
Jung had to work with was observation of a person's visible and verbal
behavior...and dreams. They did what they could with the tools that were
available. Since then, we have roughly a century of observation, as well as
research that has attempted to be as scientifically rigorous as it could be.
And in the past 20 years or so, we've finally gained the first handful of
technologies that have given us some _basic_ data about what the brain is
actually doing. We're still just beginning.

Here's what we're up against. The human brain is the most complex system in
the universe, a crazy quilt of impulses that has accumulated from the blind
forces of million years of evolution. Can you imagine how difficult it is to
design an experiment that controls for unwanted factors? Now, add in the
restrictions dictated by ethical concerns _and_ the unimaginable range of
human behavior. Is it any wonder that progress is so slow?

So, given how little we know, by what right do we presume to practice? You
could ask the same of a physician from 200, or even 2,000, years ago. The
answer would be the same: "Because people are suffering, and we have things we
can do that have a good track record of reducing that suffering."

As a therapist, I am doing more than providing "benefit from ordinary
conversation." See my reply to @nostrademons for details. It is well
established, through numerous studies across the last 70 years, that
measurable benefits are to be had from talking to a therapist who is non-
judgemental, who communicates back to you an emotional understanding of your
experience, and who is there to provide--as much as is humanly possible--
unconditional support for you in your situation.

Changing human behavior is very, very difficult. But it can be done, and
therapists of all sorts--psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers,
marriage and family therapists, and other licensed counselors--have valuable
skills to offer.

Thank you for listening.

