So, you suffer from anxiety, depression, addiction, high stress or one of many psychological problems. And maybe you have, at last, decided to do something about it. How do you go about finding the right therapist for you?
As you read this blog, you will realise that I start off with some very vague answers. But keep reading. There is a more solid answer at the end.
What Types of Therapy Are There?
Loads! The list of therapy types seems to be endless – counselling, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), psychodynamic therapy, EMDR (Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing), Dialectical behaviour therapy … and so the list goes on. Of course, I also have to highlight hypnotherapy – being my field.
All these types of therapy involve talking, and so are collectively known as Talking Therapies. They will also involve other activities too, such as hypnosis (hypnotherapy), making deliberate eye movements (EMDR), analysis of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours associated with the problem (CBT) and so on. These activities are all designed to help you and form an essential part of the therapy, but at the heart of them all is – talking with your therapist.
Is Therapy Backed By Science?
Yes and No! Some of these therapies have reasonably solid scientific research that demonstrates that they help. Of course, just like medication, different therapies work for some people and not for others, even if backed by science.
The problem is that it is very difficult to do a proper scientific experiment to show whether certain therapies work well or not. This is because, if you take a group of people through therapy and a certain percentage are better after X number of weeks, then it is not possible to tell how many of those people would have got better on their own without therapy, or how many just didn’t get on with the therapist and so didn’t engage with the process.
Of course there are many other reasons why it is very difficult to provide a scientific proof that a particular type of therapy “works”. In the UK, the NHS (National Health Service) proscribes CBT (Cognitive behavioural Therapy) for many psychological issues, because it generally seems to have a good success rate. Early studies on solution-focused hypnotherapy are showing an even better success rate than CBT, but these studies have not completed yet, or gone through the scientific peer-review process.
How Do You Choose the Best Type of Therapy For You?
It depends! Therapy is not a one-size-fits-all activity. What works well for one person doesn’t for another. Some therapies are better for different types of issues, or different types of personalities.
The medical profession would like to have a standard solution for every type of problem, but it does not work like that. In my hypnotherapy clinic, I often see people who have tried a course of CBT or counselling and found it ineffective for them, so they have moved on to hypnotherapy. What works well for one person will not necessarily work for the next.
So How Do You Choose?
To summarise so far:
- What types of therapy are there? … Loads
- Is therapy back by science? … Yes and No
- How do you choose the best type of therapy for you? … It depends
It is all a bit vague, isn’t it.
I promised you some solid recommendations, and here they are:
- No therapy can guarantee success – so you need to try and see. If it works – it works. If it doesn’t – try something else.
- Whatever the therapy, it’s not going to work if you don’t get on with your therapist. So see if you can get an introductory phone call with them first to get a feel for whether you like them.
- Find out what other people think about the therapist and the therapy they offer. Read reviews, ask friends, or ask on social media.
- Check out their website and/or social media posts to get a feel for the things they deal with. If you don’t see your issue there – contact them and ask about it.
- Always check to see if they are properly registered with a relevant professional body – that way you will know if they are qualified and insured.
And Finally …
If you want to try hypnotherapy to see how well it works for you, you can Contact Me and I will be happy to have an introductory chat. You can read what other people say about me (type in “Tim Maude Hypnotherapy” into Google Maps and click on the “Reviews button”), check out my website, check my professional standing on the NCH website and the AFSFH website, or just ask on social media about me.
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