Advise Peddlers Versus Real Therapy
The results are in: a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy offer the best chance to make therapeutic gains, and to ameliorate symptoms. Baffling is that some therapies (we will exercise our reserve here and not name names) were found to be as useful as simply letting time pass. For those keeping score at home... letting time pass is FREE!
Here is the differentiation. If you come to a therapist's office with a problem, and they give you some useful advice to follow, you might have a good result. Great! You have have an exceptional result? Fantastic! Right? Nothing could be more horribly WRONG!
What are you going to do the next time a problem arises? Are you going to have a counselor on retainer forever to perpetually peddle advice for you? I suppose you could, but isn't the point of counseling to help you become a better version of yourself? Turning you into an instruction (read: advice) following robot is not our goal.
Counseling, rather than being a live, in-person advice column, should be teaching and preparing you to be your own counselor. A good counselor would rather be tarred and feathered than answer a direct question. It's not because we are playing hard to get, or head games, or "analyzing you", it's because a good counselor knows the value of having their client come to the correct answer of their own accord. The "aha!" moment is the most valuable and precious moment that we can engender.
Do not seek out counselors that willingly give you advice, rather, seek a counselor who will teach you to become your own teacher, and once you are a teacher, impart the wisdom you have discovered. Become a light in the world for someone else.
Check out our website at http://www.pohclinic.com to find out more!
We believe in people. In every person we see potential. As professional counselors in Dallas, we are the facilitators of that potential. Our therapists use research proven methods enabling our clients to make rapid progress, and enact real and meaningful change in their lives through powerful psychological techniques. Our counselors believe that life comes with the universal truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Among them:
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...