PSYCHOTHERAPY
Abundant research has proven that individual counseling (which means the same as psychotherapy), can help many people with many different kinds of psychological problems. For example a survey conducted by the Consumers Union of their subscribers showed that even just a couple of sessions of therapy resulted in significantly greater self-acceptance, as reported by approximately 3000 respondents. This survey also revealed that clients found their therapy to be helpful when they could positively answer these two questions; "does my therapist really understand me?" and "am I confident that my therapist can help me?". The response to these questions was much more important then the style of therapy practiced by the therapist. In general more experienced therapists tended to produce better results, and the amount of experience was more important than the particular kind of therapy done by a particular therapist.
There are basically three different categories of psychotherapy: psychoeducation, supportive therapy, and what I call "insight therapy". Many people overlook the first two categories.
Clients who have been raised in a so-called "dysfunctional family" will have learned a lot of "bad information" about how to conduct their interpersonal relationships, how to take responsibility for their lives, work successfully at a job, etc. Worse yet, such people typically do not "know what they don't know". By “dysfunctional family”, I am referring to a family in which neither parent is merely "good enough". A good enough parent does not have to approach perfection. Only one parent must be able to manage the ordinary challenges of life reasonably well, and provide accurate feedback and teaching to their child in a warm and accepting emotional relationship for it to be a “functional family”. Psychoeducation can help clients learn new life skills in a wide variety of areas. These days there are numerous affordable and excellent self-help books which can accomplish psychoeducation. For motivated clients, combining individual therapy with reading books can accomplish more, with less cost, than psychotherspy alone. Reading books alone can sometimes be sufficient.
Supportive psychotherapy involves interacting with a compassionate person, who sincerely wants to and is able to understand you. It's often the case that clients with psychological problems feel dreadfully alone. They may not want to burden their loved ones with stories about their suffering. Commonly, they secretly feel that they may be crazy. Supportive therapy can help alleviate these misperceptions and diminish tht feeling of being all alone. Moreover the therapist conveys legitimate hope and optimism and supports the client during "emotional meltdowns."
I've often heard clients complain that therapists are merely being paid to care. This overlooks the fact that most therapists choose to enter the profession, because they are compassionate by nature and feel gratified when they can help people enjoy their lives more and suffer less. You are not just buying an insincere pseudo- friendship.
I call the third category of therapy, "insight therapy.". There are many different kinds including Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Psychoanalysis, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Gestalt, and many others. Some people erroneously believed that the only kind of psychotherapy is "insight therapy.". All insight therapies involve helping people become aware of things about themselves and/or about life, that they simply have not yet become aware of ( i.e. gain insight). A common example would be the case of an alcoholic. In the beginning most alcoholics truly do not believe that they are addicted to alcohol. Even though it may be obvious to those around them, the alcoholic is not consciously lying to themselves. They just don't realize the extent of their problems caused by their consumption of alcohol. This is called being "in denial." Becoming aware of things happens in insight therapy. This is the meaning of, "the truth shall set you free." It actually means,”The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
The insight therapist has to be patient, because clients will be threatened or harmed, if the therapist tries to point something out prematurely or without the client's permission. In ordinary life we've all had the experience that people won't thank you if you point something out to them that they are not ready to hear. They tend to get angry and or defensive.
Having a good therapeutic alliance with your therapist makes it much more likely that clients will gain insight and use the insights productively.
Actually, most effective psychotherapy involves a mixture of all the three categories that I've described. In essence all psychotherapy is merely a highly specialized way of learning how to have more enjoyment and less suffering in your life. In order to become involved in psychotherapy, you don't have to be a defective or worthless person, which is what many clients falsely believe about themselves at the beginning of their therapy. In truth you only have to tell yourself, "I haven't learned how to do that yet". "That" could refer to coping with depression, enjoying intimacy, resolving a phobia about public speaking, or many other issues. “Yet" implies that you don't have to remain ignorant forever. You can become more skillful at doing what you don't know how to do now. Unfortunately many therapists agree with their patients by explicitly or implicitly conveying, "there is something broken or wrong with you now, and I'm going to help you fix it." Because we all die imperfect, that attitude about a psychotherapeutic process can result in endless therapy, which continues to reinforce the painful attitude that you're still broken.