Sunday, September 19, 2010

Psychotherapy: A Place To "Dump"?

So is this beneficial to me?, she asked, after a long session of sharing her life and work. I'm not inside you, I said, I can't say. What do you think? Yes, she said, it has been beneficial. It's helpful to have a place to "dump".

I confess: A part of me cringes when I hear this. Is that what psychotherapy is about? A place for people to "dump" their "stuff" (or more graphically, their "shit"), as in, turn it over to me so that they imagine that they are now free of it? Well, I know how I answer this question: of course not. And yet...............

there is clearly some benefit for people, initially at least, in realizing that they can talk candidly and in some depth about their lives, about what they struggle with, about, for example, being sometimes morally compromised on the job, and that they will not be judged or criticized for this. For new clients especially, this experience is often unique and perhaps unprecedented in their lives. As an early step then, it has benefit, and this benefit is palpable. Also, it helps to set the stage for a pattern of exploration that will no doubt go deeper
as the therapeutic process proceeds, and can provide (almost) immediate feedback about the potential inherent in this process.

I suppose I can relax some about the implications, to me in any case, of "dumping".
My fear is that a client will imagine or assume that this dumping is all there is to it, and that by doing this, they have actually done meaningful therapeutic work, when, in my view, they have only introduced themselves to a possibility. Really though, when there is sufficient motivation to continue, the nature of therapy will become more and more clear, and the necessity to participate in other, perhaps more challenging ways will become so also.

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