subject: Choosing a Therapist [print this page] Choosing a Therapist Choosing a Therapist
Choosing a Therapist
If you have serious problems, it can be dangerous to thinkyou can deal with them by yourself. Dissatisfaction withlife, prolonged depression or anxiety, and a sense of helplessness are all indications of a need to go into therapy. Irecommend group therapy for the following reasons: One,defenses are broken down quicker in group than in individual therapy. For instance, if you are blaming someoneelse for your problems, it's harder to argue with eightpeople than it is with an individual therapist, and there area lot of individual therapists who willnever challengeyour point of view.
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In one-on-one therapy a patient can easily get lost inmental abstractions. In a group the focus is on socialinteraction. Patients relate to each other's feelings, andthe process of identification comes out of that. This process will not necessarily happen with individualtherapists, particularly if they play a passive role and do not interact with their patients.
Another reason 1 recommend group therapy is theimportance to recovery of a sense of belonging. Although you can get that sense of belonging from a 12-step fellowship, you can also hide out in one. You can get supportyou need from the fellowship, but no one will ever challenge you as a group will. There, confrontation is part of the growth process, with the therapist acting as a protector and moderator so no one gets scapegoated.
I also recommend group therapy because there is lessof a chance for distortion to take place. In one-on-one,you may be taking on a therapist's issues and not evenknow it. For instance, a woman can end up with a maletherapist who has a problem with his mother, who thengives a distorted perception of the patient's mother. Or, an anorexic might go to a therapist who didn't think she was underweight because of the therapist's own body-image distortions. Considering how many people have such dis tortions, 1 think you're a whole lot safer in a group. There,mirrored in the perceptions of six to eight other people,you have a better chance of learning to see yourself theway you really are.
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