Nickel Therapy
This article is bad news from beginning to end.
And then it gets worse.
The thought that e-therapy is a good idea because it's convenient and cheap is very, very bad news. Um, how about whether or not it's effective? A six-session positive thinking course? I'm trying to get a doctorate for that crap? Oh, man, that's a bad sign.
And a minor point in the article but one that must be addressed: A $1,200 online course in recovery that is based on 12-step programs? A bill per step? Because people like the anonymity of the online format? Because the "anonymous" in "Alcoholics Anonymous" isn't quite anonymous enough?
I'm about to start on my dissertation arguing that long-term, insight oriented psychotherapy is a vital form of treatment for elderly individuals. Apparently, that will only be the case for those individuals without computer skills.
Only a matter of time before there's a booth at the local Super Wal-Mart that sells therapy for a nickel. Charles Schultz was prescient.
posted by Teodoro Callate @ 7:26 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Ohhh....
I know, I know.
If it was as easy as saying "feel better," we all would have by now.
Feel better in six sessions over the internet? The thing that pisses me off is that actual therapists are offering this service, which is more troubling than people actually participating in this. I expect people to flock to this idea (as well as the online recovery model) because it feeds into the hands of therapeutic resistance. Why do any real work if you can "participate in therapy" over the internet? It's a natural retreat from the danger of therapy. Therapy isn't always comfortable, and it's not suppossed to be. People who say different are selling something besides psychological health. So what really gets my goat is that the people that offer this are far more culpable than the customers. The people that offer this service should know better. Seems downright unethical to me, though I know I will eventually be in the minority here.
One of the ethical principles in question is called beneficence (do good for your patients) and another is nonmaleficence (do no harm). I'm not convinced that either of these principles are adequately followed by online therapy.
Dammit.
I tried using the internet to make me happy. The porn was great, natch, but the one hot spicy chicken leg got stuck in my usb port, made my keys all gross and delivered a surprising jalepeno kick to my "down there" regions.
As a rule, I decline any theraputic measures that do not come with a complementary moist towlette.
Too Saucy? To Felicity!
There is no restraint.
LOL!!
I just loves me some Felicity.
i've never had a therapist that would really communicate with me via email. a couple would, briefly...but no one would encourage it. even if they'd let me get stuff out in my what were to become blog like missives, they would never respond, telling me that there were tone issues and that much was to be gained by talking face to face. fuckers. :)
also. there was a line in the AA "big book" saying that meetings online were the same as meetings in person that was TAKEN OUT because they *aren't* the same. i'm of the opinion that if you need to talk with another alkie, yeah...get your butt in a chat room and do it. but, nothing beats a meeting in person. it's palpable how higher powers mix and match and meet up. i'll go with the b-i-b-l-e on this one -- where two or more gather...there i am among them....
hells yeah.
and yeah. sometimes, it sucks. to hear someone reflect what you've just said or been saying and get that burning hot feeling in your gut that moves up through your esophagus and to your eyes and back down to your throat screaming -- cry cry cry, just let this shit OUT!
and sometimes it's coincidally shitty/great to hear yourself say something random out loud and then hear it in the rewind/double take and then get the great epiphany. holy shit! i'm a liar. i've been fooling myself about ____ (food, money, sex, drinking, honesty, trauma, etc.) this whole time. even just a sentence of it.
who knows what the therapist is thinking right then. maybe, "thank god."
anyway. that's a blog post. sorry.
Wow, Smussy. I mean ... hell, yeah. Thanks for that.
Post a Comment
<< Home