PERSONALITY DISORDERS: A Consumer's Guide to Psychological Treatment
NEVER WORK WITH A THERAPIST WHO’S PERSONALITY ISN’T TASTEFUL...
If you find the therapist is aggressive, frequently angry or sadistic,
impatient, challenging, or nasty, find another! Such therapists, regardless of
their reputation, are unlikely to be able to do any good, and can often do
considerable harm, as in the following case:
...One therapist spent two years mocking a client's passivity, appearing to retch
every time she said something sweet. It was his conviction that this client needed
to know how others felt about her, and he feigned retching in order to demonstrate.
But the effects on the client were simply disastrous. Intimidated by him as
she was by others, she became all the more sweetly passive, hoping thereby to
avert yet another disaster. Only the insistence of friends made her terminate the
treatment. While one ought not to expect a therapist to be constantly agreeable
and protective, a therapist should appear to respect the client and to care for his or
her well-being.
BEWARE OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
A substantial minority of psychologists
and psychiatrists acknowledge having had a sexual relationship with
one or more clients (Keith-Spiegel, 1977). Occasionally, such relationships
are rationalized by the therapists on the grounds that they teach clients to
enjoy "intimacy" or simply to make love. Oddly and overwhelmingly, however,
these clients are women, while the therapists are male. (Women therapists
rarely find male clients in need of such instruction!) These practices
have more to do with the needs of the therapists and their own psychological
immaturity than any treatment goal. There is no evidence that physical intimacy
with one's therapist works for the client's benefit. When intimacy is
suggested, the client should terminate treatment.
AVOID SUSPICIOUSLY HIGH FEES
One of the most self-serving myths
among psychologists and psychiatrists is that the more the client pays, the
more progress he or she makes in treatment. Pure nonsense! Some of the
finest clinicians work in colleges and community clinics where fees are low
or nonexistent. It you feel you are being overcharged, discuss the matter
with your therapist. If you can't reach a comfortable understanding, seek
help elsewhere.
KNOW YOUR MEDICINES
If a psychiatrist has prescribed psychoactive
drugs (and only a physician can prescribe such drugs), you deserve to know
the names of the drugs that are being prescribed, what symptoms they are
supposed to treat, how long it will be before effects are seen, how long you
will have to take them, and what the short-term and long-term side effects of
these drugs are. Anything less than a frank and open response to your inquiries
violates the requirements of effective treatment that were discussed earlier,
and may be dangerous to your health besides.
BE FREE TO QUESTION
Sometimes treatment bogs down. Clients, and
often therapists, feel that insufficient progress is being made. If you feel that
way, raise the matter openly with the therapist. Often progress is blocked
because the client has hit a resistance: a transient inability to deal with a significant
issue. Such resistances may seem insurmountable, but they are
commonly signs that progress is about to be made. Talking about feelings
openly often helps to overcome resistances.
But sometimes progress is blocked, not by resistance, but by the therapist's
lack of skill. Not all therapists can help all clients all the time. A therapist
may occasionally lack the ability to help the client surmount particular
kinds of difficulties. Again, open discussion of the stalemate can yield insight
and resolution. If it does not, ask for a consultation with another professional.
An objective third party can frequently shed light on the causes of
stalemate, enabling client and therapist to continue their progress.
If the therapist refuses a consultation, however, seek help elsewhere. And
surely if, at any time during treatment, the therapist forbids discussing
treatment with anyone else, question the therapist carefully. Such admonitions,
often given on the grounds that therapy is a private matter, are equally
often self-serving. They may be designed to protect the therapist, not you.
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More info below:
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http://treating-borderline-personality.weebly.com
More info below:
Healing the Unconscious...Looking for therapy?
For the spouse of a Borderline
For Borderline patients or BPD APD NPD
The Treatment method I recommend
is The Liberator Method.
Click here:
http://www.theliberatormethod.com/Welcome.html