Still Unsure about therapy

[Dyess]

Anyone else have doubts about the benefits of therapy? I get the impression that seeing a counselor is only effective if you are already out of the really tough stuff. You've hit bottom and started, a little, back to the light. So what does a person do during the really hard times? Who would they see?
When I was going through the hardest stuff the EAP counselor did EMDR on me and really brought up a lot of issues, but she didn't want to talk about it, just more EMDR. My head was so messed up, I was in a deep fog. My T now says that it was too soon to do EMDR and that short term EAP should refrain from doing that because they may bring up issues that needed to be dealt with, and that's what happened. Actually made it worse. Just be aware of that with EMDR.

[woodsgnome]

Partly due to my remote residence, I've given up formal "live" T. Although there is a group counseling setup just 15 miles away, where I had 3 T's, they seemed pretty "cookie-cutter" in their approach. None of 'em had a clue about cptsd; I ended up teaching them about it.

One did EMDR (seemed hung-up on it), but similar to your experience, it was done-and-out. For her, it seemed like a game; for me, it was just confusing, and I was also discouraged from talking about it after.

I've cycled through periods with T's, long stretches without 'em. Funny thing I feel like I make more progress alone, reading lots, etc. Perhaps I could better structure my approach. Come to think of it, though, many T's I had weren't very structured at all, just darting around. I'm sure there's good ones; Long ago I had one pretty good T (out of 9) but back soloing now and feeling okay about it. No driving and no bills for glorified "chats" either.

[stillhere]

So much of effective therapy seems to be the luck of time and space.  Living in a place with options increases the possibility of finding someone helpful.  And what's available has depended much on the state of psychology and psychiatry, which continue to progress very fast.  Add to those conditions the limitations imposed by insurance and public policy and, well, small wonder so many people have "failed" to recover. 

Trace, I think people in the direst of straits may be best served by in-patient treatment.  Few of us can make good use of a weekly 50-minute session when in extremis.  But that's usually the only option, or at least the best option available.  I try to tell myself that I might as well proceed down that road, even though it doesn't always seem to lead anywhere demonstrably better.  The option is to stay stuck.

[Dyess]

I agree that taking a break from counseling can be of benefit, or seem to be that way. But why? Maybe because counseling stirs up so much stuff then consumes your head for so long that nothing else can get through? That you feel so down afterwards and it's really not worth feeling that bad? Or is that part of healing? Maybe feeling bad is a way to healing Have been told you have to go through the pain to heal, that going around it is of no benefit. But more comfortable. So.....my thought is if we invest this time and money to feel better, what's a little more pain to see light on the other side? Can you carry a little more pain? This is where I think the MH society fails us. We do not know the right path, maybe don't understand the process enough to ask the right questions, and we have no guidance or maybe the T doesn't recognize how we struggle with what to do, what to say, and what options there are.

[Dyess]

"A good therapist guides you to your own best solutions. They are not "rescuers" who are there to save you from the issues you are facing. Instead they help you achieve insight into your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences so that you can make the right choices for yourself and move toward a healthier emotional state"
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/50-signs-good-therapy-0110119

well that explains it a little more.