Hi Shrinklady,

I enjoyed the movie, and the first "Close Encounter" edition rang very true for me since I am struggling to make an emotional connection with my therapist instead of trying to drag answers and information out of him.

An example: last week I was beyond frustrated with what I see as a serious lack of progress and I demanded some answers from my T, such as: why is this so hard, why am I so stuck, why don't I feel better yet, what is wrong with me?

Instead of answering my questions, he tried like hell to get to the anger and frustration behind them, asking me to put these questions into statement form and have me tie the feelings directly to him. But I just couldn't, which of course makes it all the more frustrating, because I know I need to feel to get anywhere.

So, I am looking forward to the next chapter.

Thanks,
Russ

Thanks Hummingbird for your kind words. Yes, it is nice to have a T you can really connect with. Speaking personally, I know what a difference it makes.

Thanks Russ. Glad to hear that you really get what your therapist is trying to do. You're half way there just knowing that.

Shrinklady

Brill!!!!!!!! Loved it....!!!!!!!!!!!!! My profession/discipline of nursing has utilized this notion to promote healing since the days of Nightengale!!!!!!!!

Thanks Sarah, nice to see you again. Yes, that's true isn't it. The nursing profession have been doing the business of caring for years.

Shrinklady

Sarah
HI!!!! How are you? Its wonderful to know you're still around!

AG

Hi AG:

Thanks!! I have been reading but not responding.....I haven't actually felt safe enough to do so ....

Sarah,
I'm sorry that you're not feeling safe, but I certainly respect that you're feeling that way, you do need to feel safe. I'm glad you haven't completely disappeared though. (((Sarah)))

AG

It was awesome! But we didn't like the skull that was on one of the pages.
Robin

Oh, thanks for that Robin.

Yeah, the brain looks kinda yucky underneath doesn't it. Not sure if the pink and blue help or not but I understand where you might be coming from.

Shrinklady

There was one slide of a magician looking person and in front of him he had a skull. I know it was supposed to be 'cute' but it freaked Samy out... the one with the brain under was ok.

Robin

Okay, yeah I see that. I thought you were talking about the eCourse. I haven't gotten much feedback on the course. Is it too short? I was wondering if it needed some quizzes.

Shrinklady

we didn't do the ecourse... where is it?
S

aha, so that is good to know. The eCourse sign-up is below the movie. It's called Close Encounters of the Therapeutic Kind.

Thanks for that tip. I'll try moving the heading higher.

Shrinklady

Ok, I got it now. I was confused because I already signed up for updates and the link seemed to me to be another signup for updates! my confusion..

Lesson #1
I suppose the question is, why is seeing a Therapist better than having a best friend if the relationship is what is most important? Is it because, as I've heard, it's 'two people focusing on one person' or is it something more? And, if it's the relationship, what do Therapists need so much training on theories? And, lastly, what would make a Doctor of Counseling or Psychiatry better than a Diploma in Counselling if it's all based on relationships? I have my own opinions (of course!) on these but wondering what your thoughts are.

S&R

Well supposedly psychotherapy is about more than just a relationship. A good therapist will bring in every skill they can to help their client recover. There is usually a goal or goals in a T relationship. These goals relate to recovering from something. In regular relationships you usually don't get together with a goal in mind. I mean yeah you may have similiar interests or you may want to be together to be less lonely or what have you but it is balanced. Each person shares their lives. In therapy it is unbalanced for the sake of recovery. The T keeps their baggage out of the picture so that their client can work through their own issues or what have you.

I am sure I could have said this all more succinctly and I am sure I have left things out but this is how I see it.

Yeah, Scott, Robin and Jo, these concepts are not easy to put into sound bites and I appreciate your thoughts on the issues. I recently re-worded the first email to better reflect the idea around a therapist's knowledge. I didn't mean to downplay it so much. I wanted to emphasize that the "talking out of our story" is less important than the "experiencing of our story in the presence of another".

I certainly find that my knowledge of neuroscience helps frame symptoms for clients in a way that seems to be really helpful. I certainly know that's how it was for me when I first learned these concepts from my therapist. But if it was the knowledge alone, I could easily get that from a lecture or a book. No, it was my relationship with my therapist that helped me get to an embodied place within myself.

A therapist's knowledge is really important but it's important because of how he or she "lives" it. I know in my personal therapy, my therapist's clarity of her own boundaries has had an impact on my own boundary setting in my relationships. I've learned from her not so much in what she says but how she manages the boundaries in my work with her.

S&R, you mentioned the influence of training. Now, some would argue that a well-balanced individual would know good boundaries intuitively and understand the subtleties of building a good relationship. In this case, they might say, training is less important. I don't have an answer to that. It's very possible that some folks pursue higher education because they are intensely curious about finding what works. Others may pursue higher ed for reasons related to their ego (and hence may not make good therapists). I feel strongly that there are some psychiatrists and doctorate level therapists who harm their clients because they feel their techniques are what count overriding the needs of the client. I believe there are therapists with much less education doing marvelous work. There's just too much harm going on out there for me to say much about credentials.

What impresses me more are therapists who do experiential workshops. It's there that they really put themselves out there to learn and grow. I'm also obviously impressed with therapists who continue to do their own work either through ongoing supervision or personal therapy.

As for skills. I think it's very handy for a therapist to have many ideas in the toolkit to help clients recover especially as I said above through workshops (as opposed to lectures). However, here again, if the connection is lost, these skills are not going to help much. For instance, if my therapist attempts to help me to ground when I don't want to and I feel it's an intrusion to my process, I'll buck up against it.

In regards to getting help from a friend. I certainly feel that those around us, have the potential to change us. Few friends however take the risks I think that therapists do in challenging their clients. I believe therapy offers a more focused intent on that goal as you all seem to be saying. It consolidates the efforts of both parties. And, as Jo added, the therapist leaves his or her stuff at the door (to the degree that it's possible). This gives more freedom to the client to move through emotional stuff more easily.

I'm sure I can say more and I probably will once I sleep on these ideas. Thanks again for your comments.

Shrinklady

"experiencing your story in the presence of others" ... I really like this! I appreciate my T's thoughts on neuroscience, right/left brain etc. (those some insiders find this just irritating). We are training to be a T ourselves, so I have a lot of questions on how it all works.
Robin/Scott

Hi Shrinklady,

I had problems playing the file which might be down to either a tediously slow broadband connection recent days or me using a Mac. Only worked by manually which means it was buffering, just not playing. Is there a soundfile with it?

Not so sure about the eCourse text Shrinklady. It sounds very sales-like to me which I find a bit much given the context. But that might be a cultural issue as I'm based in the UK and you know what they say about Brit understatement...

SB

Well thank-you SongBird for the tip. I'll take a look at that aspect. I certainly don't want to be offputting in a promotional way.

I wonder, did you see the download link? That might make it easier to see it. I have a Mac too and when my connection was slow, the movie kept stopping.

Shrinklady

Yes I did

hello guys.im 25 year male.i have a mental disease.can u tell how to get help from this site

Hi Chamara and welcome!

The best way to get help from this site is to read topics in the forums that pertain to issues that you have, and then ask questions or add your own ideas/thoughts. You can also read through the information/links on the main page (www.myshrink.com).

Enjoy your stay here, I'll look forward to talking with you again!

I liked it! It is very interesting and thoughtful. I like your pictures, fun! and they complimented your text nicely and were humorous. :0D

Editing is fun, yes? I love television and cut a number of projects too. As one editor to another I would like to make a technical suggestion, ( I am not trying to bash on your video) shorten the time the slides are on screen. They felt a little long and I believe the longer clips slow the video down. That was just my feeling. I look forward to seeing more of your films!!