Therapist Question...

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-28-2004
Therapist Question...
3
Sun, 05-30-2004 - 10:53am
I am wondering what type of therapy has worked for you and what allowed you to make real changes in your life.

Thanks,

Mary


Edited 5/30/2004 12:18 pm ET ET by rochestermary

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-27-2004
Sun, 05-30-2004 - 1:53pm

Hi from another Mary!


I suppose I've been lucky.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Sun, 05-30-2004 - 2:00pm
I have done different kinds of therapy. I feel like it helped me to do some Gestalt-type work where I learned to express my feelings and let them out. The therapists I went to called it "processing." I would follow my feelings whereever they took me. I would let anger out by yelling into a pillow, beating on my bed, stomping on the floor. Then I'd follow that feeling to wherever it went. If there was grief under it, I'd follow th feeling to tears, sobbing. really letting my feelings out. The point is to keep moving and go with each layer of the feeling. If you have inner pain, I have that it's important to let that pain out. Just changing your thoughts won't be enough.

Family Systems Therapy is also really powerful. It helps you to see how your family system created who you are. YOu get to see how your family pretty demands that you have the role that you have in relation to them and to the rest of your life. I think that if you can identify those patterns andmake breaks from the past, then you can consciously create the life and person you want to be.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the kind of therapy that I talk about most on this board. It is what I have done most recently. I think that with all of the different therapies that I've done, CBT has given me the most insight into how my thoughts and beliefs keep creating my depression. I have such black and white type of thinking. I react to life situations often with judgmental, pessimistic attitude, mostly about myself. CBT basically has taught me that I need to take control of my thoughts by noticing them and stopping myself from believing such unrealistic things, even though it's my pattern.

I also did some psychodynamic stuff with a psychiatrist when I was a teenager. That was a huge wasted of money! Aack! I don't believe in that style of just talking stuff out and the guy gives you some feedback after 8 or 10 sessions. That was ridiculous.

Hope this helps.

MariaC

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2003
Sun, 05-30-2004 - 5:12pm




I am a firm believer in Cognitive Behavoir Therapy!


*hugs