# Effectiveness of psychotherapy - survey



## philomath (Aug 10, 2006)

No doubt this topic has been addressed before, but I'm a little new here and was wondering about SA-sufferers' experience in psychotherapy. Seems like there should be a "therapy" section on this board somewhere. If you've been in therapy, could you say a bit about: 

1) your SA-related problems that brought you to therapy

2) what kind of therapy you started (e.g., cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, etc.) 

3) how long your therapy lasted

4) problems you experienced in therapy 

5) what you found most helpful/least helpful in therapy

6) whether you experienced any improvement

Thanks.


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## umbrellagirl1980 (Dec 28, 2005)

1. i began therapy about 4 years ago after being diagnosed with major depression and social anxiety. i had moved to a new city and though i succeeded there at first, i eventually closed myself in my apartment for weeks laying in bed unable to face the world. my family found out, intervened, and insisted i begin therapy. 

2. it was a combination of types i guess; it was never explicitly spelled out. some talking about family/the past, some CBT type homework assignments each week. 

3. about a year

4. the biggest problem was my inability to be honest with the therapist. she would assign a task, for example, go into a store and ask an employee a question. and i would tell her i had done it whether i had or not. often i could not bring myself to do the things she assigned. but instead of telling her the truth and working on that, i pretended that i had done them. i just couldn't bear to let her down. my need to please people, to tell them what they want to hear, was really a problem here. i had the same problem in the past with a nutritionist who was treating me for an eating disorder. i couldn't be honest about my lack of compliance with what they wanted. i wanted them to feel as though they were succeeding with me. to the point where i couldn't let them down by telling them the truth. 

5. most helpful - i left her office after each session feeling positive, confident, and as though i had gained helpful insight into myself. least helpful - she let me direct our sessions and my homework assignments myself a little too much. i think it would have been more helpful if she had pushed me harder, demanded more of me. she let me get away with choosing assignments and topics of conversation that were more safe to me and therefore less helpful. 

6. perhaps a little. during the time i was in therapy i think my anxiety was slightly improved. however there don't seem to have been any lasting effects; 3 years later i'm more or less back to the way i have always been.


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## Roberto (Aug 16, 2004)

1) I was 13. I made a discreet (frivolous) indication of having suicidal thoughts. I was generally weird and anti-social.

2) Humanistic (?) :stu It was open dialogue

3) Seven years~ :yes 

4) No problems, really.

5) Talking to someone was good for me, but it kind of sucked because I was spending money to do it. We never talked much about my problem because I didn't really have to deal with it at the time. I never declared an objective for myself.

6) Yes. I feel that I developed a greater understanding of my problem (as well as other non-related stuff) and at the same time kind of got to know a pretty cool guy.


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