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Originally Posted by Lorelyen
The astute psychologist should be able to steer the prompts and questioning to help the patient firm up on their perception of the troubles (assuming said psychologist can act without too much bias from their background 'school' and other assumptions).
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That's the theory anyway, a good therapist should be able to take their own bias out of the equation but that doesn't always happen, sadly. A good therapist should be able to steer the patient through the 'surface' layers of perceptions towards, hopefully, the root cause of their perceptions. Along the way they should also guide the patient towards constructive rather than destructive cognitive behaviour - what the Buddhists know as Right Thinking.
The problem with psychology is that there can be a web-like framework that any perception is built on, and sometimes going back to childhood. It might entail following a chain of 'effect and cause', because one destructive perception is going to affect so many others that come after it. This effect has this cause because of that effect.... The main issue is the unwillingness of the patient to cooperate willingly. Or not.
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Originally Posted by Lorelyen
Our National Heath Service puts self-defeating bureaucratic limits on treatment such as 4 sessions of 40 minutes only, so I couldn't raise much enthusiasm.
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It's all down to money with the NHS which is understandable to a point - every aspect of health care is the same.
It also doesn't help when the therapist makes assumptions then imprints them onto the patient, that's not very professional of them. A good therapist wouldn't have had that problem, she should have been able to accept that it works for you and is constructive as far as you're concerned - and not an issue.
Luckily the therapist I had was both professional and patient-led, and she made that clear right from the start. While it was gruelling in terms of emotions - I'm a very emotional person - but my whole perceptual framework was taken apart and examined. I tend to get cranky with people who try to tell me how I think and feel, so your therapist wouldn't have lasted too long.
It's the best of a bad job and we can say the same for psychology and psychiatry as we can for everything else that's medical-healthcare related. What changed my perspective was working in mental health, and when you see people taking life-threatening psychotic episodes in front of you because their medication is late.... It gives you another perspective entirely.