Finding the Right Therapist for You

by Annabelle Parr

Therapy can be incredibly helpful and healing in the midst of struggle, but it’s not “one size fits all” and sometimes it can be challenging to find the right fit. If you have tried therapy before and been frustrated by a lack of progress, it’s possible you haven’t found the right therapist for you. Having some knowledge about therapy and the different options available can help when you are seeking out help.

What do therapists do?

A therapist’s role is to provide you with empathy, help you learn healthy coping methods and give you tools to manage your emotions constructively. They are there to help you connect with your personal values and get in touch with your own internal strength, while offering you compassionate support and understanding along the way. They are like “training wheels” to help you learn to engage in life in a new way.

What don’t therapists do?

They are not there to pass judgement, minimize your feelings, or offer you advice. No advice means that they are not there to make decisions for you, such as whether or not to stay in a relationship or a job; they can, however, assign you homework to help you make progress and teach you coping mechanisms.

If you ever feel judged or like your therapist is minimizing your feelings, discuss this with them. This will allow you to discern whether you misunderstood their message or whether maybe they are not the best fit for you. It is important to talk with your therapist about the therapeutic process itself, especially if something feels off.

Note: therapy can be helpful and it can be hard.

Therapy is challenging. It requires active work on the part of the client and it requires facing uncomfortable and painful emotions, and likely making difficult changes. As James Hollis (1998) notes, “no one enters the therapist’s office whose adaptive strategies are still working.” So sometimes, clients may feel worse before they feel better because change is inherently uncomfortable. This kind of “feeling worse” is a vital part of the growth process, not a further descent into the same struggle that brought you into the office.

If it feels like you have tried various therapies or therapists, and have not progressed despite your commitment to finding help and engaging in the therapeutic process, you may not have found the right therapist yet. Here are some things to look for when seeking therapy.

1. Connection with the therapist. Therapy requires that you let another person in on your innermost thoughts and feelings. This is not an easy thing to do, so it is important that you feel comfortable with the person you choose. Research shows that the therapeutic relationship itself is the most important aspect of therapy – accounting for about 30% of the variance in treatment outcome, which is more than any other factor including the technique the therapist uses. So make sure that the therapist you choose to see is someone you trust and whom you are willing to talk to. If it doesn’t feel like the right fit, it probably won’t be.
    
2. The therapist’s areas of expertise. While the relationship is the most important piece of therapy, specialization and technique are still very important pieces of the puzzle. When looking for a therapist, make sure to search for someone who has experience working with individuals dealing with your particular concerns. Otherwise, you may end up wasting time and money working with someone who might not conduct a proper assessment, or who does not have experience working with your particular issue. Ask them about their experience working with others who have concerns similar to yours, including the techniques they use and the degree of progress and healing that they typically see in their clients.
    
3. Evidence based treatments. There are lots of different treatment options out there; a good place to start is searching for a therapist with true training in modalities that are supported by solid research (such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). Ask questions about their training and choice treatment modalities, what a typical session will look like, how your individual needs will be addressed, whether you will receive homework, what will be required of you in the process, how your progress will be evaluated, and what steps will your therapist take if they find that your progress has prematurely plateaued.

If you are struggling and considering reaching out for help, this knowledge can help you navigate choosing a therapist and can help you recognize sooner rather than later if it’s not the right fit. If you have tried therapy before and have been frustrated by a lack of progress, you are not alone. Remember, effective help is available when you know what to look for.

CSAM IS HERE TO HELP

If you or someone you love might benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), or biofeedback for anxiety, depression, stress, or PTSD, or if you would like more information about our therapy services, please contact us at (858) 354-4077 or at csamsandiego@gmail.com

References: 

Hollis, J. (1998). The eden project: In search of the magical other. Toronto, ON: Inner City Books.

Trauma, Panic, and EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

by Annabelle Parr

When you search Google Images for “therapy,” the first thing that comes up is a client laying on a couch talking, while the therapist listens and takes notes. Therapy typically does involve a fair amount of talking and listening, but rarely is it that simple. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a talk-based form of therapy that involves an active approach where therapist and client work together to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that affect the client’s mood.

Though most psychotherapy is talk-based, there are a few exceptions. One form of therapy that is particularly unique and relies on little talking is known as EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.

What is EMDR?

EMDR is a form of psychotherapy often used to treat trauma, where the therapist asks the client to imagine the distressing event while simultaneously engaging the client in some sort of bilateral stimulation. Typically, this involves therapist directed eye movements from one side to another, but it can also involve taps or tones.

How and why does EMDR work? 

It can be difficult to imagine how therapy might work without relying on much talking. But sometimes we cannot access all of the information that our brain has stored. If we can’t access it, we can’t talk about it. And sometimes, we can rationally understand something, but still feel stuck in painful emotions.

Trauma can be particularly difficult to process because the frontal lobe (the part of the brain involved in higher level processes, like thinking and language) is not always able to fully access the traumatic memory. So we can try to wrestle and reason with it, but find ourselves frustrated by a lack of progress as far as our emotional response goes. EMDR purports to help us approach trauma from a different angle, so that the brain actually reprocesses the way the trauma is stored.

EMDR changes the client’s relationship to the trauma.

Clients tend to find that their thoughts and feelings around the traumatic memory change fairly quickly with EMDR (EMDR Institute, Inc., 2016). There is often a deeper sense of being able to cope with trauma on an emotional level.

EMDR is now offered at CSAM.

CSAM is excited to announce that Dr. Terra Fuhr is now certified in EMDR. Dr. Fuhr explained that she decided to pursue certification because she saw several colleagues find great success using EMDR. Then she began to occasionally refer clients for simultaneous EMDR treatment, and saw firsthand the remarkable healing that it facilitated. She found that EMDR helped clients break through in places where they got stuck using only CBT. This effect was so powerful that she felt inclined to add EMDR to her mental health tool belt as a modality to help her clients, so that now she can offer EMDR in conjunction with CBT and ACT.

What can EMDR be used to treat? 

EMDR was originally used to treat trauma and PTSD, but today is applied to numerous other issues. Dr. Fuhr describes how helpful it can be in treating panic disorder. One reason for this is that clients’ most severe panic attack is stored as a trauma. Using EMDR to heal the trauma of panic can be enormously helpful in helping the client break out of the panic cycle. It can also be applied to “small traumas,” like an embarrassing moment, negative thinking patterns or feelings such as low self-esteem (EMDR Institute, Inc., 2016).

While there is some debate in the scientific community regarding the how and why EMDR helps, studies have offered support for its efficacy, and over the 25 years that it has been in existence, millions of people have been successfully treated using EMDR (EMDR Institute, Inc., 2016). EMDR can be offered on its own, or in conjunction with CBT or ACT. For some clients, it can be a helpful adjunct to their healing process.

CSAM IS HERE TO HELP

If you or someone you love might benefit from eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), or biofeedback for anxiety, depression, stress, or PTSD, or if you would like more information about our therapy services, please contact us at (858) 354-4077 or at csamsandiego@gmail.com.

For more information about Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, visit The EMDR Institute.

References:

EMDR Institute, Inc. (2016). What is EMDR? Retrieved from: http://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/