Chumly wrote:You infer there may be good therapists. Without a scientific, subjective empirically based yardstick, exactly how would you know this? Even if true that there are good therapists, without a scientific, subjective empirically based yardstick, exactly would one know a good therapist from a bad therapist?
The same way you'd choose a physician. You don't need to be a premed
student or have the physicians CV in front of you to determine if the
physician of your choice is good or bad. If he cannot pinpoint what's wrong
with you and you've gone there a number of times and still have the
same ailments as before, you know he's not helping you.
I'd say the same principle can be applied for a therapist. Foremost,
there needs to be a connection between you and the therapist, something
what the Latinos call "sympatico". If you don't care for the therapist,
don't go there. After you've found one that you feel comfortable with,
you see what strategy they use, how they approach your problem and
what solutions they suggest for you. If it makes sense to you, then
it works.
I don't know if you're familiar with Albert Ellis. He was a no frills
Psychologist whose Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) made
a lot of sense. He believed that through rational therapy, people can
understand their errors better. He once said, if you're going for more than 6 session to a therapist and he hasn't helped you, he/she never will.
Bottom line, Chumley: look for someone you feel comfortable with
and is willing to look beyond the ordinary. What good does all the
scientific evidence do, if you personally are not helped, eh?