How does therapy actually work, how do you find a good one, and what’s the difference between counseling/therapy/psychiatrists/psychologists/etc.?

Question

How does therapy actually work, how do you find a good one, and what’s the difference between counseling/therapy/psychiatrists/psychologists/etc.?

In: Other

Answer 1

Cognitive-behavioral therapies and most other therapies that are popular assume that you know what’s wrong with you (your ‘symptom’) and then they try to fix it.

Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapies assume that you don’t necessarily know what the problem is — that the problem is unconscious, and that there are reasons that you want the problem there. Understanding those reasons is the *real* problem.

I’m a big advocate of the latter, even though they’re “out of fashion” because people want quick fixes. Go find a local psychoanalytic institute, and be prepared to spend a lot of time. In exchange you will get to know yourself and change in a far deeper way than is likely with other therapies.