What Your Therapist Won't Tell You: WSJ Marketwatch Interview
If you're considering therapy, this is an interesting read. I share a few insights for this Marketwatch piece by Quentin Fottrell about some things that you may want to be aware of before you enter therapy. For example, therapy is costly but effective, coaches are different than licensed therapists, not all therapists have taken their turn on "the couch" as a client in therapy. Here are a few...
1) You think your childhood was bad, wait till you see your bill
Therapists say rates can vary from $75 to $250 an hour and Americans spend around $10 billion a year on all kinds of psychotherapy.
2) I may not have any training
For instance, some life coaches practice as therapists, says Julie Hanks, owner and executive director of Wasatch Family Therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah. (A life coach draws on techniques from psychology and career counseling, but working as a life coach requires no formal training.) Life coaches can be well-suited to helping people decide their next career move or improve their productivity... Nonetheless, Hanks says, she’s been surprised by how many clients have told her they weren’t aware their coaches weren’t trained to treat mental health problems.
Although it’s important to find a qualified professional, Hanks says, the degree does not make the therapist. “What it boils down to is the quality of the connection between the client and therapist,” she says.
3) Will you ever stop talking?
“I’ve been bored out of my mind occasionally,” says Hanks, the Salt Lake City therapist. But there’s an upside to her only very occasional boredom: It clues her in that something isn’t working. Then, she says, she knows to ask herself, “What do I need to do differently with this client?”