Psychotherapy works

I am reading "Eleven Blunders that Cripple Psychotherapy in America" by Nicolas A. Cummings and William T. O'Donahue. It is an interesting book and it has me thinking about a number of things which I will be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks.

The first thing that bothers me is that psychotherapy works and it doesn't get the recognition, acknowledgement, and support that it deserves as a means of improving the quality of people's lives. In fact, clients seemed surprised that they feel better after a session with me and say things like "I didn't want to come. I didn't see how this would help, but I feel better. It's been good talking to you."

What makes people feel better in psychotherapy?

I think there can be a number of explanations, but the simplest one is perhaps that to have someone's undivided attention with whom we can express our inner most thoughts and feelings and feel understood is very validating. It is this validation which releases hormones in our system that gives us more of a sense of well being.

I am convinced that the thing most of of want more than anything else is to be understood, to have someone there for us, to know that someone else knows and cares what is going on for us.

Does this validation change the brain chemistry? There seems to be some evidence that it does. Is this as potent a biochemical change as pharmaceuticals? I think it probably is. While psychotherapy is not the same as falling in love, most of us know what that feels like, and it is a mood altering experience. Does psychotherapy, in a much lesser but significant way, provide a mood altering experience for people?

It does and it seems to benefit the person.

Psychotherapy, unfortunately has been undersold, and mis-sold, and upstages by biological psychiatry which has put its money behind pharmaceuticals. The research evidence is that psychotherapy is every bit as much important as phamaceuticals and evey better for helping people achieve better mental health.