CBT can be helpful, but there's so little to it. The problem is that it encourages therapists to think of themselves as smart and the people they help as dumb. There's a preconception that they have all the answers ahead of time. As much as I dislike neo-Freudianism, at least they understand that puzzling out what's really bothering someone is hard and not pre-known. That full self-knowledge is sometimes highly difficult for people, especially if they have serious conditions that cause adrenaline spikes that distort understanding. I've had CBT therapists just repeat "just try not to think about it" to me every single session. This should be reasoned, this should be scientific,you and your therapist should be explorers trying to figure out a puzzle, not a poor supplicant seeking out a wizard. That's the side effect of CBT, you often come to think of yourself as dumb when you're made to write out "i think x is scary but i know it's not" over and over again like your 5 years old. The fear is often not about the thing itself, the mind tricks you. Only puzzling it out will work, not stating the insanely obvious "being afraid of water is irrational" like you were too much of an idiot to figure it out the first time. /rant.
CBT can be helpful, but there's so little to it. The problem is that it encourages therapists to think of themselves as smart and the people they help as dumb. There's a preconception that they have...
... (more)