Therapy

You bet it’s a scam and completely unnecessary to so many people who throw thousands of dollars worth down the drain at these unnecessary therapists when they can work on the help they need directly with their spouse or with themselves.

I totally agree. I have yet to meet someone who says that his/her therapist “cured” him/her. They’re just told that by their THERAPIST.

Therapy is frequently a scam but not always. There are three types therapy. Good therapy that helps. Bad therapy that doesn’t and only enriches the therapist while impoverishing the client . Ugly therapy that cause problems that weren’t there before. It needs to be clear that all three exist but it can not be completely discarded. .

To paraphrase the old jokes about lawyers (or whatever other profession you don’t like) Most therapists give the rest of them of a bad reputation. But you still need the few good ones..

Not everyone needs therapy but there certainly are people who do.

Therapy works in many instances and often requires well qualified therapists.

I’ve heard many success stories from Rabbis, Roshei Yeshiva, and school principals.

Certain types of therapy can backfire tremendously if they are not managed correctly, and should only be done with rabbinical coordination or some other form of outside oversight.

For example, if you have a mostly functioning family and the father decides to go through an intense trauma therapy, but the therapist is not skilled enough or does not have the proper oversight, he may wind up in a situation where he is reliving his trauma with no relief and cannot properly function as a husband and father (not to mention in business) and feels as though he cannot trust those around him who love and support him. (I’ve seen this happen)

So in short, therapy is not (categorically) a scam, but individual therapists may be unqualified or keeping clients who should really be discharged.

There are scams in every arena. There are yeshivos that are scams. There are contractors that are scams. There are rabbonim, mechanchim, and menahalim that are scams. If you are the victim of a scam, you are apt to perceive all those as scammers. There are no numbers here, at least those collecte with an eye to reliability. In relaity, there are good and bad doctors, good and bad lawyers, and the same goes for every conceivable career. But maybe we should take a peek at some of situations that give the picture that all is not well with therapists.

Our community can boast many people engaging in therapy that are either undertrained or not trained at all. Their best intentions do not result in best outcomes.

We have those who practice outside of their areas of expertise. Example, child therapists require specific training. An adult therapist is unlikely to be knowledgeable enough about kids unless he/she has undergone such training.

The word trauma is widely used, and its definition has expanded over the years. Not every therapist is trained in many trauma related conditions. There are those that believe they are qualified when they are not. Keeping to one’s training is crucial, as well as a requirement in all professional ethics.

Therapists have many available modalities. Training varies, and one might be trained in some modalities but not others. It is critical that the recommendations for which modalities to use comes from the trained professional. The Rov who “prescribes” EFT, DBT, CBT, or other letters is likely to be poorly informed enough as to create confusion.

There are situations in which therapists opine about the conditions and diagnoses of people they have never evaluated or even met. This is grossly unethical. Rabbonim have had professional opinions brought before them by these “rogue” therapists, unable to recognize that these are baseless and incompetent conclusions by unethical professionals.

Therapists can be misused. It is not strange that they are asked to assist clients in so much of their decision making that it results in unhealthy dependency.

Therapists are humans, and thus able to make mistakes. Some our greatest leaders, Gedolei Yisroel, and more have made mistakes. The Torah tells us about mistakes made by Moshe Rabbeinu, Aharon Hakohen, and Miriam Haneviya. The Torah never generalized to all of Sheivet Levi to denounce them. And even Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam retained their respect and status. The broad brush used for branding by the OP is foolish, untrue, and misleading.

Going to therapy can help. It’s not just the “therapy” that actually helps. It’s a combination of 1) the therapist’s genuine interest in your problem and helping you gain confidence in yourself that you can work through it 2) the client being forced to build self awareness and work through the issue 3) the tools therapy provides which have been proven to work through case studies.

I think scam is a strong word. I’d phrase it like this, there are no free lunches and everything costs money. Private insurance has to raise premiums to cover therapists now. Medicaid is ballooning out of control and bankrupting our country. suffice it to say we don’t have unlimited resources. Now the question is, if spending so much to solve mental health issues are efficient? So ask yourself the following,

Define who needs a therapist and who doesn’t? We know for example the cvs cancer lo alinu is very definable. One sees it on a cat scan etc. Define what is menatlly ill and what is isn’t? Similarly do we all really need a therapist when we go through a hardship? My grandparents went through the holocaust and had nightmare’s every night yet never saw a therapist. Obviously that’s an extreme but do we always need to see someone? Is every issue unsolvable with our own grit and determination?

Next question, whats the defined cure? For yena machala the goal is to shrink the tumor and the treatments are proven to work in many instances. What’s proven here and how efficient is the cure? For many they will never break out of their cycle and will be like that for life. I get you that some of it is about managing living with the illness just like someone manages diabetes etc. But even that, how effective is it really in managing it? And it mostly will never get rid of it.

Furthermore, what makes a therapist equipped? Not to knock many hard working therapists. But an oncologist for example attends rigorous training and schooling for years. A therapist attends a sara schneir online zoom class for 2 years? It just doesn’t seem to that the same level of rigor is required.

I am sure therapy helps some people, some marginally and a few majorly and many barely anything. The question is really if this is an effiecnt use of limited resources?

Wow, you couldn’t define a troll better than your posts right here, @none 2.0. I do have a difference of opinion and have personally gained an immense amount through therapy, as well as many others have, much to your chagrin. Are you too stupid, angry or ignorant to realize that there are professional therapists that really do a good job out there?

“It doesn’t work ever” – WRONG, IT WORKED FOR ME AND COUNTLESS OTHERS
” Look at everyone who went to therapy. They always end up living in an echo chamber and being a mouthpiece quite like you are doing now, for therapy and their mindset is all backwards.” – YOU DON’T KNOW ME, SO IM NOT SURE WHY YOURE LABELING ME JUST BECAUSE MY OPINION IS DIFFERENT THAN YOURS…?! YOU SOUND LIKE A DUMBWITTED BIGGOT LUMPING PEOPLE TOGETHER AND LABELING THEM. KINDA LIKE RACISM OR ANTISEMITES.
” The topic is very “off” cuz your a conformist and you can’t handle a difference of opinion.” -WOW, WHO EXACTLY CAN’T HANDLE WHO’S OPINION….?!
Lol soon your gonna label me as “dangerous” – NO, NOT DANGEROUS, JUST A TROLL WHO ENJOYS EMBARRASSING HIMSELF IN PUBLIC WITH FOOLISHNESS.

I went throw being hit by my parents a lot even for things I did not do. Get an answer wrong, time for a beating?

Got bullied in school.

I became quieter over time to make sure I don’t say the wrong thing to be bullied or hit.

I went to high school where I was finally not bullied. finally I have life to look forward to.

The high school did not like I did not raise my hand, not talk to other girls so I was forced into therapy to talk for the sake of talking.

My parents nitpicked me for my grades now get to nitpick everything I say. Thanks so much for the added burden. Talking is subjective, not objective so i don’t know how to satisfy my parents anymore.

I was once a naive child and thought therapy will help me reconcile with my parents. I wanted to tell my parents how hurt I was. Now my parents mock me for bringing up the past. No therapist helped me. ABSOLUTE GARBAGE!

I nearly lost my job since I attempted to mimic a yenta. I got a rabbi calling me “sick” and “unfair on the world” right in front of my husband. I get attacked for asking questions.

I HATE THERAPY! A rabbi compared me to a cow for not wanting therapy again after therapists nearly destroyed my life.

A therapist told me that just because I was hurt by therapy that means we should destroy the entire industry. So where will the postpartum depressed mother go?

So is it fair I get experimented on with unproven therapy so therapists as an industry can hone their skills for the postpartum mother. I had no where to escape. I was a minor and had this garbage forced on me in high school.

Now therapists say quieter people are allowed to exist as they are considered introverts. Thanks so much for acknowledging that. I had to endure the times when it was considered bad not to talk. Even though there are many Rabbinic quotes that say how valuable it is to not indulge in idle chatter..

I pulled myself by the bootstraps by doing the complete opposite of the forced therapy. I now have my life in order. I learned outsiders are just not safe to interact with.

I despise this industry so much. I still have emotional regulation problems when back when I was a child I learned how to regulate my feelings due to bullying and beatings. Now I have to go to therapy to undo the damage therapy did to me? When I go to therapists now whatever they say goes in one ear and out the other due to my seething hatred.

And pro-therapists says there are way too many bad therapists and it takes time to find the right one. So where is the accountability to make sure bad therapists don’t get to practice? What can be done that bad therapists don’t work with kids who have no choice but to endure the garbage?

does anyone know a frum competent person who is really knowledgeable about it?

Chaim87:

All professions have continuing education, and the mental health field is no different. If you believe that someone can simply take 2 years of school, and then jump into practice of therapy, you arer seriously deluded. None of the varied mental health professions does this. Again, there are some rotten apples in mental health, just as there are lousy doctors, bad rabbonim, incompetent electricians, bumbling plumbers, and dishonest lawyers. For the most part, professionals do what they do, and have been trained by classes, tests, and supervision to do their jobs. Your broad brush is simply baseless and fictional.

none2.0:

An earlier comment referred to you as a troll. You certainly have an agenda, and it comes with a narrative that you have broken into pieces and posted as many different comments. I do feel bad for you in that you believe so much of the nonsense you spout. Your perceptions about what therapists do is so flawed that it makes Dr. Seuss books look like literary classics and utter brilliance. You should probably seek an author to rewrite your posts into a comic strip. It might at least be entertaining. Meanwhile, people get better all the time with the help of therapists, including adults, children, couples, and teens. The diagnostics in mental health are quite broad, and the approaches to intervention are likewise varied. There is science that supports this field, which is a far cry better than the soapbox proclamations you are pumping here. I suggest that you study the field a bit before launching your attacks. You might just discover that it is not anything like your portrayal.

eli > anyone familiar with therapists that discover “hidden” childhood memories. ?

R/Dr Twersky’s position is that ehatever childhood issues you had may affect you. This does not change the fact that you are now responsible for your further actions and you should focus on that