Psychotherapy fails almost 50% of the time!

[Don]

Well, not exactly the therapy itself, but rather, the process. According to this report of a study in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, "surveys show that nearly half of people who begin psychotherapy — individual, group, or couples — quit, dissatisfied, against the therapist’s recommendation." So for all practical purposes, almost 50% of people who start psychotherapy don't succeed because they quit. And since nothing is 100% successful, that means that psychotherapy fails clients over 50% of the time due to a combination of dropouts and lack of therapeutic success.

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/conditions/mental-behavioral-health/depression/therapy/psychotherapy

What other healing system that fails more than 50% of the time is considered legitimate?

Tonight, on the TV show "Boston Legal," the claim was made that 40% of people who get into psychotherapy (especially grief therapy) end up worse. I have not been able to document this on the internet (does anyone have data?), but if true, that, combined with this article, are a damning condemnation of psychotherapy.

[skip]

I wonder what time frame they are measuring by.

A year?

10 years?

Whenever the shrink 'gives up'.

skip

[Simon]

Success rates of:

Good psychotherapist versus regular psychotherapist

And

Good hypnotherapist versus regular hypnotherapist

Now we'd need a way to decide when does one qualify for a good hypnotherapist or psychotherapist..

Then the next step would be to gather the statistical data for all four groups and compare them.

And that might tell us something of substance.

[Poodle]

I'd guess 15 - 30+ years. I think patients have the "belief" if they stopped the meds, they would revert right back to where they entered the process so it's more of a "holding pattern" -- cash cows Now the meds are given out by GP's with little knowledge and how psychiatric medications can interfer with other medications as the two groups don't even speak the same language as it were. When I first learned hypnosis, 100 years ago, I learned from a psychiatrist (my best friend's husband) and we also had a psychiatrist in this cowtown back in the late 80's to early '90's that used hypnosis. How good the latter was/is I really could not say.

[Terry]

Comparisons are not nescessary, the cause of failures are obvious. To begin with, one works with the concious mind, leaving out the power of the imagination and the expanded memory of the subconcious. The other uses the power of the subconcious, a much more dependable and powerful state.
The second greatest cause is impatience on the part of the client, and we see this every day here on this board as the unknowing what to know why they can't get instant gratification without taking the time to train.
Every Psycologist working in the helping field that I know of is using hypnosis to get results. That must tell us something about the differing success rate.
I would suggest that the fifty percent sucess rate is inflated, and the rate is much much closer to single digit figures.

[Connie]

My latest client is a former psychotherapist, who couldn't help/fix herself. She's terribly excited about hypnosis, now...after working with me and hearing my spiel.

[Don]

Several years ago I was at a friends house. She was a licensed psychologist in practice. On a table she had a book entitled something like "Major Advances in Psychology Over the Last 75 Years." It was about the size and thickness of "Time" magazine.

That's all they've got to brag about???!!!!

Oh, and she was an alcoholic who was in denial about her alcoholism and saw nothing wrong when her older son moved out to go to college and the younger son, who was living at home, promptly gained 75 pounds.

[Poodle]

We had a psychiatrist who was a nice guy, really super good looking and crazy about his son. I had met him and his son at the pet store in "Fish". From newspaper accounts he had been seeing a psychologist and went outside his family home with a rifle (liked to hunt elk) and shot himself in the head. His wife was in a law suit v. psychologist and they have written no more about it. Have no idea what was going on in his brain as he seemed to be such a great guy. :confused: Pood

[Poodle]

Last nite on TLC, I believe, there is a clinic in NYC for morbidly obese. This was unreal - actually eating themselves to death. There was one man at about 900 pounds. If he stood up, his legs would break. They brought in seven people and a crane to TRY to get him out of bed and could not. The only part that looked human was the face. Another of about similar poundage had been there previously, lost the weight only to go home and eat again to gain it all back and more. They had to tear out the front door and part of the walls so they could get him out of the house and into the clinic again. A woman only weighed 400 pounds and was working the "program". They did not starve these people -- 1300 calories three times a day and exercise. One lady didn't like it and was going for stomach staples. Comments from the people: "I just LOVE food". Does that tell you that cognitive therapy is great or what? I'd wager that everyone of them had a "reason" somewhere in that brain for doing what they were doing and the reason is "more than I just LOOOOVE FOOD". It was sad and disturbing to see people so ruin their lives.

[Simple Guy]

Hi Don,

Not to excuse mediocre/ineffective therapists/methodolgogies
for contributing to failure, but a sizable portion of clients are not willing
to adequately commit to their own success. And for them, their
own lack of personal responsibility/vestment in the therapeutic
process is contributory to failure, of course, as are processes that
fail to engage clients in accessing resourceful states so that they
can step up to the plate. Anyway, thought it worth bringing up
that it takes two to tango (or therapize). :)

[Henrik]

Here where I live they show that sort of things on the telly - entertainment for the people. Wonder why I stopped watching TV...

Henrik

[Don]

SG, you're absolutely correct, and that was pointed out in the article.

The question to my mind is not whether this occurs, but rather, why psychologists/psychiatrists haven't done anything about it. They've had 100 years and more to work on this and still fail. The article, as I recall, stated that they were setting up a committee to look at this problem.

Personally, I think the cause of the problem is their process focus. They are firmly convinced they can help people through the use of their process--whatever version of psychotherapy they use. This compares, IMO, with the hypnotherapeutic concept that it is a cooperative relationship focused on doing what will help the client. Just because one set of suggestions worked with one client with problem A doesn't mean the same ones will work with other clients with the same problem.

Virtually every client I know of wants to come to hypnotherapy sessions because they are enjoyable. Psychotherapists often want clients to have abreactions! Would you really want to go to such sessions?

[Nigel H]

Hi

Another thing that came to mind on this, is that with many forms of talking therapy, the talk is the only method to bring about a change and help the client use a different 'frame' from which to judge the scenario causing their problem(s).

With Hypnotherapy, NLP, TLT etc there are actual interventions which create the change. We are not asking someone to go out - and when something next happens to consciously react differently until it forms a habit. We help create the new habit before they leave....... I consider this to make a powerful difference.

If someone leaves a therapy session without experiencing a material change, they may consider it not worth their time/money/effort to return for 'more of the same talk' as some can consider some forms of therapy to be (following comments from people I know whom have had such therapy).

Hence - the use of specific 'intervention' is very relevant, in my view..... someone can have a conscious experience that a belief, emotion, opinion etc has been actually changed whilst in the session - so filling up their convincer that they have actually made that change now.

cheers

Nig

[Don]

Nigel, IMO the key word is "change."

In much of psychotherapy, the change is from X to not-X. Of course, the negative is deleted and the focus returns, resulting in a lack of change.

With hypnotherapy and NLP, the change is from uwanted-A to wanted B. It doesn't simply eliminate something--leaving a gaping hole--it replaces it with something better. As you put it, it establishes a new habit. To the best of my knowledge, psychotherapy doesn't do that.

And that is a primary reason for dissatisfaction and failure.

[pmdigi]

Trying to define "Psychotherapy" - I looked it up on the web and saw so many different kinds, like - Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy, Couples Counseling and Family Therapy, Rogerian Person Centered Approach, Gestalt Therapy, Rational-Emotive Psychotherapy, Group Therapy, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Play Therapy, Art Therapy, Dance/Movement Therapy, Music/Sound Therapy, and more! I just wonder what one(s) the article was about. :) I didn't mention Hypnotherapy.

[Nigel H]

Yes Don I agree ...... and I would add that we DO sometimes use the Not-X scenario in NLP etc by using a the non-mirror image reverse of a problem to blow out the boundaries so it disappears ...........! Although I certainly agree with the Not-X inthe way you mention it - as in don't think of a blue tree .......

Nig