These days whenever you say that you are feeling down or not well emotionally, the instant reply from your friends or family is ‘go see a therapist’.
Even major self-help websites and magazines cannot stop singing the praise of how essential therapy is and how it can be the perfect cure to wash away issues like depression, anxiety, and any other mental or psychological problems that you face.
While I am 100% in support of therapy and truly do believe that it is a great way for a person dealing with such issues to talk about them and learn how to best deal with them, there is also a small problem that mainstream media is not addressing.
Finding the right therapist.
Some think it is actually gathering the courage to go to ‘therapy’ and not think of the stigmas that revolve around it, that is the biggest step one can take. According to me though, the biggest problem is not choosing therapy, but actually finding a good enough therapist.
Therapist Almost Broke A Family
An acquaintance shared their friend’s horrific experience with a therapist who almost managed to break their very happy and normal family.
According to them, the guy had been feeling a little low in life due to a recent breakup paired with the fact that even his business was not really taking off as well as he had hoped it would.
On the suggestion of his friends, he tried out therapy, and the therapist played such a havoc on his mind that inspite of never having had any issues with his parents, he started to resent them and blame them for everything wrong in his life.
Prior to this, the guy had always had extremely good relations with his parents, who were supposedly good people, supportive of their kids and never really tried to impose their lifestyle on to him.
However, the therapist made him believe that everything wrong that was happening in his life was because of them. According to the person, his therapist convinced him into thinking that he had done nothing wrong and that it was his parents who forced their beliefs on him, and that they were the wrong party here.
Eventually, this created a lot of family disharmony leading to bad relationships between the son and his parents fraught with tension and negative emotions.
It was later found out that the reason the entire brainwashing was done was because she could not find a better way to consult him about why things were going wrong for him. Perhaps she was an escapist therapist and applied the same method to the patient. She found the easiest way out and that would be to simply blame the parents.
Read More: This Japanese Practice Lets You Soak In The Environment To Reduce Stress
It Is Not Easy Finding The Right Therapist
Finding a therapist that fits well with you is not an easy task, in fact, most of it is more a case of trial and error.
Unlike a medicine that instantly shows results, therapy is not quick, settling in and getting comfortable with a therapist takes times. And the most is taken in finally opening up to that therapist about the problems you are facing and finally admitting that perhaps everything is not as right as you thought it to be.
But in the process you might come across a therapist that is not right for you, does not know how to do their job, is too money minded and in lieu of all that could end up creating more of a ruckus than help you out.
Some therapists give an entirely wrong consultation and play the blame game in order to lift their patient’s guilt, some can keep agreeing with their patient in order to make them keep coming back.
You could say that finding the right therapist is like finding that perfect pair of jeans that fit you just right.
However, this is not reason enough to completely give up on therapy. As stated in the beginning, therapy is actually very helpful and important in dealing with psychological issues.
Although there is no sure fire way to get your perfect therapist, a few things to keep in mind when choosing one would be to get recommendations, lots of them. If you are searching online portals for a therapist see if that particular one has any reviews or if suggested by a friend ask if they can recommend a patient of theirs who can give insight on what kind of therapist they are.
Also, make a list of at least 3 to 4 therapists, talk to them once or twice, arrange a trial counseling session, see if you and the therapist fit together, if they make you feel comfortable, do you think you can open up to them.
Basically, focus more on how you feel around a certain therapist, what kind of vibe they give, are they empathetic or seem to be just in it for the money and only then select on one.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Wikipedia, The Guardian, HuffPost
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2018/02/gaslighting-is-a-scary-form-of-mental-torture-in-dating-relationships/
“An acquaintance of a friend” sounds totally legit lol