Psychotherapy Works?

It is dangerous for me to say that psychotherapy doesn't work; as a psychologist myself, it would be anti-advertising, but I would like to hand out a few tips before someone join a long and expensive treatment as psychotherapy.

First of all, not all clients will work with any psychotherapist. I'm not pointing only the differences among Psychologists theoretical approaches, but also the feeling between the client and the Psychologist. Have you ever met a person and you just don't like her, without any explainable reason? Well... that also happens in Psychotherapy. If you look at you Psychologist and just don't like him, as a person, your psychotherapy is a failure from the very beginning. You should thank for the Psychologist's time and search for another one. Psychotherapy success depends, at least in 50%, in the personal bond between the professional and the client. There must be an emotional connection between the two of them, or else the Psychotherapist will always be just a weird stranger in which the patient won't rely more than in a cab driver.

Second; Usually, the smarter the person, the harder will be Psychotherapy. I know that is rude for me to say that the easier treatments are for the stupid, but reality doesn't diverge much from that. Intellectualized people will get into therapy as the last resource, because they normally believe that they are able to solve any problem on their own. When they get to the Psychologist, they already tried to analyze themselves and their problems one hundred times, and developed many theories and concepts, in which they will utter mostly believe, and that probably will be very wrong. The Psychologist will need many sessions just to deconstruct these theories and concepts before starting any effective treatment.

Third; Before searching for Psychotherapy for your son, talk to the professional and ask if it wouldn't be better if you took some sessions, instead of the kid. I say that because after 6 years of experience, I hadn't seen a single case in which the problem doesn't live in the parents, instead of the kid. When children start to show emotional and behavioral problems, usually the parents are having internal psychological problems, or between them, and those are handled to the children. These kids haven't any emotional apparatus yet to deal with parents fighting, a mentally lost mother, a professionally frustrated father, and etc; and that's when the problems appear. Children can't verbalize what they strongly feel but don't understand, so they emit the responses they know: aggressiveness, school problems, incontinence, and many others. Usually, when the parents solve their problems, the children stop manifesting these symptoms too.

Fourth; Theoretic Approach. Each Psychologist uses one specific theoretic approach. Each of these theories has stronger and weaker points. Psychoanalysis, for example, is better for someone who wants to join the self-knowledge path. The Behaviorist approach, on the other hand, is recommended for someone who wants to get rid of a very specific symptom, as agoraphobia for example. There are many approaches, and a person should choose carefully one of them before joining therapy. Unfortunately, Psychotherapists tend to be arrogant and believe that they can solve any problem using the approach they know, and don't tell the patient that there may be other options that are better adequate for him. I intend to write a second article just about the approaches, how they work and the better uses of them.

Those are not the only things a person should consider before joining therapy, but certainly are very important ones. If you have any specific question about this matter, feel free to send me a message. I will be glad to be of any assistance.