How Helpful is Therapy/Counselling? Depending on type of therapist.

[Lady Wolfshead]

I was talking to a friend yesterday about therapy. Both of us have had a lot of it, and I personally have found it extremely helpful. But some of the therapists I've gone to were more helpful than others. The thing is - different professionals who offer therapy/counselling have different credentials, and vastly different backgrounds and education. It can frankly be bewildering. Here are some types that I'm aware of.

- Psychiatrist (MD)- Medical doctor with specialization (usually 5 additional years) training in brain and behavior. Often just gives medication, but some psychiatrists do various forms of therapy.
- Psychiatric Nurse (RPN) - Nurse with specialization and brain and behavior
- Clinical Psychologist - Usually has PhD in Psychology and called "Dr" although they are not medical doctors.
- Counselling Psychologist - Usually has MEd, master of education in Counselling Psychology
- Psychiatric social worker - Social worker with specialization in psychiatry
- Social work counsellor (sorry I don't know the official name) - usually has MSW. May be the same as above
- General/addictions counsellor - this type may have a 2-year college diploma or some combination of training and experience.

So this is a sort of poll, to say what type of therapist you've seen, what their education and credentials were, and if they were helpful to you. My friend, for instance found that the social workers she'd seen for counselling were not very helpful.

I've seen

- 2 Psychiatrists. One was a psychodynamic therapist (post-Freudian) and was very helpful. The other is my current psychiatrist and she is great - recommends non-drug treatments as well as meds. Very supportive

- 10+ Counselling psychologists (MEd in counselling psychology).
- 2 not very helpful and just chatted really. The rest were good. In the last few years I've had a few phone appointments with this type of counsellor and they were very incisive in giving me some helpful tips and insights in just a few appointments.

- 3 Clinical psychologists - 1 was just for phobia therapy, and that went well. 1 was moderate I would say (I did ACT therapy with her but was mostly just working through it on my own.) 1 was really good - I had 6 phone appointments with her and left each appointment really feeling like I had been given some help.

 

[may71]

I think the style of therapy and the level of training a therapist has are relevant, but other factors may be more important.

Not everyone is going to benefit from therapy imho. I think you have to have something that you want to say to the therapist; you're going learn something helpful from the therapist; the process of talking is going to create some transformation; or just keeping your appointments and having some social interaction is going to be good for you.

For people who are good candidates for therapy, how you click with the individual therapist and their style is also important. There's also the question of how much benefit you're getting for the time and money you're spending.

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

I think the style of therapy and the level of training a therapist has are relevant, but other factors may be more important.

Not everyone is going to benefit from therapy imho. I think you have to have something that you want to say to the therapist; you're going learn something helpful from the therapist; the process of talking is going to create some transformation; or just keeping your appointments and having some social interaction is going to be good for you.

For people who are good candidates for therapy, how you click with the individual therapist and their style is also important. There's also the question of how much benefit you're getting for the time and money you're spending.

For sure these things are important too, but this thread is more geared to the type of therapist, and their training. Think of it like medical doctors - how you click with a doctor is important, and the individual's experience etc, but their training is also very important and ANY doctor you go to for a physical ailment should be able to provide some kind of assistance. However treatments may vary between an MD, functional medicine doctor, ND and nurse practitioner. Just as an example - this is not exactly parallel to therapists.

I'm curious how the specific training of the therapist correlates with the benefits of therapy.

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

Oh, and I disagree with one thing - I think everyone can benefit from therapy. Of course it cannot "cure" all problems any more than a doctor can cure a chronic illness, but it should help. Therapists are professionals and their training should allow them to help clients despite personality differences or other factors.

Another reason I started this thread is that I feel like in the past 30 years therapy has gotten much more effective than it used to be. They just seems to have more tools in their toolbox. My own recent experiences with therapy have really impressed me. I also had a friend going through EMDR therapy for extreme childhood trauma and he felt it was helping him where no other treatment had helped - sadly he died of other causes before he could finish it.