Navigating the sea of options for therapy can seem daunting. Often, people cycle through many different therapists who just do not seem to help. Some even go through months or years with a therapist who does not to get to the root of the problem. 

You may not know what to look for or have enough familiarity with the ins and outs of therapy. There is a difference between a psychiatrist and psychologist. Psychiatrists are trained to study brain chemistry and prescribe medication. A psychologist is trained in theory and uses talk therapy or other forms of therapy to heal mental anguish. Which one is best for you depends on what your issue is. For example, someone who has bipolar disorder whose moods can be  regulated by medication may have a better experience with a psychiatrist

Why Hasn’t Therapy Worked For You?

In this article, several mental health professionals explain why some people don’t find therapy helpful. Here are some reasons why therapy may not be working: 

• Unhealthy underlying factors might be skewing the client’s perception of therapy: “We struggle with mental health issues because we have unhealthy underlying factors – those thoughts, beliefs, actions, situations, and circumstances that motivate unhealthy behavior. As such, our unhealthy underlying factors can skew our perception of therapy.”
• The therapist addresses the symptoms instead of the problem: “Once I found good answers to my symptom’s problem, I could more successfully focus and move on to the offending behaviors as I identified them.”
• The patient does not voice concerns: “Just as with any relationship, we are proponents of open dialogue. If you have concerns, raise them with your therapist. Good therapists encourage honest and open conversation, and have your best interests in mind.”
• The patient may expect all the work to fall on the therapist: “Therapists convey information and provide guidance, encouragement, feedback, and support, while at the same time keeping the client on track to success. But all of the work required to make underlying factors and behavioral change is the client’s responsibility.”
• Rigid behavior: “For example, black/white, all or nothing, and rigid behavior can cause a client to discontinue therapy because he may believe the therapist is wrong. Most often, it’s not that the therapist is wrong but that the client doesn’t agree with the approach the therapist is using to move the client away from their black/white, all or nothing, and rigid behavior. Or, the client is not yet ready to admit that these behaviors are not healthy and need to be let go. All despite the fact that it is these very unhealthy behaviors that are causing the mental health issue in the first place.”

Not everyone wants to heal. Some people only seek to say they’ve been to therapy to get it over with. For example, a husband and wife are feuding, and the wife asks her husband to go to therapy. He doesn’t bother researching, picks any old therapist, and comes back saying it was a huge waste of time. Ineffective therapy is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people do not want to be helped, then therapy will not work, even with an incredibly skilled therapist. 

What To Look For

While there are therapists that may not be right for you, there are many proficient therapists who can assist in your healing. According to this article by David N. Elkins Ph.D., here are some qualities that indicate a therapist is effective:

1. “An effective therapist gathers routine feedback from clients relative to how the client feels about the therapy and the therapist. In other words, instead of being “therapist-centered,” effective therapists are “client-centered.” The client is regarded as a partner who knows, better than the therapist, whether therapy is working. In short, effective therapists engage the client as a full partner in the healing process by routinely checking with the client to see how the therapy is going.
2. An effective therapist is interpersonally sensitive and skilled. Effective therapists listen. They extend empathy, acceptance, and care in ways that are emotionally healing.
3. An effective therapist is culturally aware and realizes that every relational encounter is, in a sense, a multicultural encounter. Effective therapists have cultural humility and are open to learning from their clients.
4. An effective therapist supports and activates the self-righting potentials of the client. In other words, effective therapists do not take away the client’s power by insisting that “doctor knows best.” Instead, they realize that the client’s own potentials are the power center of effective therapy and they do everything possible to support and activate those self-healing potentials.”

From a Mind Map Perspective

In some cases, the What The Freud cycle of repeating past injuries leads us to choose therapists who are not right for us. Our parents set the bar, and if you truly believe your parents didn’t set a high bar for your attunement and care, you might unconsciously pick a therapist who is low on empathy, ethics, skill, and has no game plan. 

Psychological Healing Center clients often say that they have been in therapy before, sometimes for months or years. They say it helped, but when asked what they learned, they do not have much to say. Therapy is about learning something about yourself. The Mind Map System is a game plan; it is an organized pathway to healing. Mind Map therapists require deep digging skills, sharpness to connect the dots, and a client centered attitude.

Most therapies do not deal with the cause of the problem, only the symptoms. We may not want to look at the cause because we do not want to deal with our childhood wounds. Some people will pick therapies that don’t dig deep at all. Some therapists even want to avoid these topics due to their own wounds. A therapist that doesn’t delve into the source of pain may be missing an extremely important part of the problem. Without dealing with these issues, therapy is not as effective. Mind Map therapy involves multi generational healing starting at the cause of the problem. Mind Map Therapy is structured to take you from the root cause of your pain through your defense mechanisms and breakdowns to a paradigm shift into health in 10 sessions.