I don't think there is one of these yet according to the search but I think it has been mentioned by a few people. This is a thread for everyone to share their experiences of different times of therapy whether it's anything from counselling to DBT so if anybody has found that anything has worked well for them other people can find out about it.
Also if anybody is starting a kind of therapy and they would like some info about it this can be the place to come! If a certain kind of therapy hasn't worked for you then by all means say that but try to be constructive:
e.g instead of saying CBT didn't work for me and I think it's rubbish you could say CBT didn't work for me because I didn't like this or that aspect of it etc. Everybody is different and finds different types of therapy helpful so we don't want to be putting people off trying different types of therapy.
Finally asking for help is hard enough so whatever therapy you're having well done for making that step and asking for help!
If I missed anything out here please let me know!
Kiran
xx
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you wish to make.
I have a counsellor, who I've had since about July last year. She helped me at first when I eventually got to trust her, but now she doesn't really help me because we talk about really futile things, things I could talk to a friend or anybody about. Now with the Voices and everything, she mentions them but she always forgets what medication I'm on and that's the starting place every time.
Her: What medication is it you're on?
Me: Risperidone
Her: What dosage?
Me: 1mg a day
Her: Is that half morning and half at night?
Me: yeah.
And it goes on from there. We get to the end of the session and I feel worse than I did when I went in.
CBT sucks. Haha it's so hard. It's all about thinking about thinking about thinking. And changing negative thought patterns. That's what I understood from it anyway. You have to put a lot of work in for it to make a difference.
But if i still believe you love me, maybe i'll survive.
So i tell myself you're coming home, like you've done a million times.
CBT can be used for loads of different things. I have it for depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. I've found it's helped a lot for the anxiety side of things but my depression stuff is more deep-rooted so I haven't made much progress with that. I'm hoping to try psychotherapy as I'm due to finish CBT in a few weeks and am still struggling a lot. I think psychotherapy might help because through doing CBT me and my therapist have worked out that a lot of my problems are caused by stuff in my past that I've never been able to really think or talk about.
I was having CAT, but they decided that it didn't suit me. Mainly as it's a very short (20saessions) time frame and they thought that we would be unable to look into everything in that time
yep. It's meant to help people to understand how the difficulties they experience may be made worse by their habitual coping mechanisms, or something like that...
Kiran... really good idea cos this is a major issue for so many so well done for taking the initiative
in answer to questions about approaches, from what i know...
CBT - cognitive behavioural therapy: focuses on what you think about and the underlying beliefs that support the way you think about stuff. these are called Core Beliefs. the therapist works with you collaboratively (not just sitting there and nodding and not just telling you what to do) discussing ways you can do things to disprove unhelpful core beliefs (that's the cognitive bit). the behavioural bit is where you modify little things you do, not major stuff, so its baby steps at first. following on from that, you work with bigger and bigger behaviours (such as the things you do in life that aren't helpful such as anger outbursts, addictive stuff and so on) until you get to the biggies. so... you work with big thoughts and refine them so they make sense and connect with your world in a more helpful way with coping strategies that support you in life rather than just get you to stop doing what you do without anything in their place, and work with small things you do and build on them, ideally building up to changing what you do in and with your life. i hope that makes sense
CAT - cognitive analytic therapy: CBT using psychodynamic therapy (kinda psychoanalysis but with the therapist getting involved by bringing themselves as a real person into what you work together on) which looks as how stuff you're not aware of such as past influences in earlier life play out in how you are in everyday life (like how you attach to people and how that plays out with attachments in earlier life, for example as a common theme - if you didn't feel loved or safe as a kid, then in later life love can be an issue in relationships where you don't really see how what you do on your side of things plays out and makes the relationship go a certain way, and that because of not feeling safe you ultimately can't trust and feel threatened and get angry and push away in all close relationships for which the reason before therapy isn't clear)
most CBT therapists enhance what they do with other forms of therapy so its rare to get the pure form (and the folks that put the approach together recommended CBT be done in that way too)
I've just been to a couple different counselors before, but it never helped me, because it seems like...well frankly that I've already figured out more than they have about any issues I have. I mean, maybe I was just unlucky with who I got, but the ones I went to really weren't that helpful. At all.
CBT sounds like it would be helpful, I wish I could do something like that.
i have had two years of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic (can't remember which) therapy with a CAMHS psychotherapist at 3x/week.
spent a year in a residential therapeutic community which was based on a "psychosocial model" - never really figured out what that was, basically we did different types of psychotherapy groups like dynamic-type talking therapy, art therapy and psychodrama (which was awesome!) and social groups too. they used to say "it's all therapy" - every minute of the day.
now i'm doing CAT with a psychologist once a week, i don't have a time limit though, it was originally for 24 sessions but that went down the drain lol.
i think i'll be therapied out by the end, but i'd be interested to know more about DBT - unfortunately i don't know of any NHS services for this in my area.
Tuesday, do you think you could ask for CBT? i imagine these types of therapy would be far more helpful for most of us on RYL, as counsellors are generally only helpful for transitional periods like following a divorce or a bereavement.
I loved CBT. Only thing is it only went so far with me. It helped immensely! But, cognitive is only so much for me and then it's like 'okay, my thinking is fine, my cognitions are not distorted, but... what is bothering me is still present.'
I'm in CBT... for the anxiety it's worked wonders but for depression it's done next to nothing. I do like it... but at the same time, it's also quite stressful to constantly analyse my thoughts and once or twice it's done more harm than good. Sometimes I do psychodrama as well which is rather fun!
But the therapist wants me to try a different therapy; she said it was to do with Rapid Eye Movement. Does anybody know anything about it? Any help will be greatly appreciated ^__^
EMDR is Eye-Movement Desentisation and Reprocessing. My understanding of it is that EMDR therapists feel that the brain is like an information processor and that when trauma of any sort happens it's because the brain is too overwhelmed by what it needs to process so the therapy is all about getting parts of your brain to link together so the older stuff that you went through can be sort of "re-lived" again but this time you will be helped to deal with it in a more positve way. That might sound scary but your therapist will help you by practising emotion management techniques with you and if you ever feel like things are going to fast for you then you and your therapist can agree to slow things down You may have to practise some eye-movements (like when your eyes move side to side when you watch a finger) Some people think this helps with connecting different parts of your brain or it could just serve as a way to keep you in the present when your reliving things from your past.
Hope this helps a bit!
Glad you like the thread guys!
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you wish to make.
CBT didn't work for me because I know what's wrong, damn I could almost become a therapist myself by now...
I just can't change it. Also it didn't leave any room for the past, all the therapist wanted to work with was the present and future, though my problems are deeply rooted in my youth, if something has been beaten in for over 2 decades, you don't jkust change it in a week or 10 by changing your behaviour.
Am still looking for something that'll actually allow me to deal with the past and put it to rest, will give a headsup here if I ever find it
that makes sense, thanks 
