Right. I’ve read that discussion, along with the MASH song one, but I also don’t like to make assumptions. Well, at least not when it comes to people’s mental health.
I once called my psychologist to cancel an appointment because I was sick. I was running a fever, aches and pains, sneezing. He got really pissy. “So. You’re too sick to see the doctor, eh?” Then he hung up on me.
Show up, sneeze on him, throw up on his chair and then shit on his floor.
That’s incredibly rude, I hope you dropped him like a hot potato. That sounds like what I’d call an incredible rupture in your alliance, one that’s unsalvageable.
Psychologists, as with any professional, are people too. They can be quite terrible human beings. One would hope that the training and supervision would weed out the real incompetents, but just glancing at the regular public listings of all the psychologists being sanctioned for ethical breaches (e.g., sleeping with their clients), I know that bad seeds are certainly slipping through.
It’s why my advice on finding a therapist remains: try several if you have to, until you find a good match. I wouldn’t hesitate to drop a therapist after 2 or 3 sessions if you haven’t felt that “click”.
As someone who works in a clinic, people do call to cancel because they’re too sick to go out. I mostly find it funny. I figure being “sick” is code for either diarrhea or depression, because as someone who’s been depressed I know all about making up excuses to not get out of the house.
Pretty pissy of that psychologist. I think people who even bother to call and cancel are a-ok in my book.
Actually I went to my next appointment and offered to pay for the missed day. He didn’t accept it. We continued on for a few months until I didn’t feel like I was making any progress and quit.
Of course you are not biased in any way when making these statements. Naturally. Completely objective outside opinion, there.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Personally I feel tele-medicine is a huge boon to the future of all human society. Not all things can be handled that way – surgery, for example and obviously – but therapy? Absolutely.
Errrmm… how did you obtain that link, may I ask? It’s broken because it does not contain a topic ID number. Sorry for OT, but that’s quite weird.
You’re protesting a little much, man. The fact that human to human communication involves a lot of tiny cues that we can only pick up in immediate physical proximity is pretty settled, afaik.
Yes clearly this is why telephones are useless and nobody ever uses them for anything. And don’t even get me started on video. Nobody learned anything from another human being by watching a video, ever.
Okay. Let me know when you’re done fucking that chicken.
The point is, for that 5% extra fidelity in nuance that in person live interaction would provide, you want to throw out the other 95% that video and audio already provides?
jennifer-lawrence-okay.gif
I don’t disagree that in some scenarios it might be better, like a murder investigation, but to argue that tele-therapy is completely useless and only in person therapy can ever work is 💩 — my argument is that anything that puts therapy in front of more people that need it, flexibly, and at a reasonable price, is a net gain for humanity.
Or, y’know, protect your shingle and your high priced in person meetings. Whatever works for you.
As far as I can tell tele-therapy is as effective as tele-college. You do the math.
Yeah and let’s talk about the price of college tuition.
Fuck that shit. It is a broken system. And if you don’t understand why, you are part of the problem.
Man, I have been in a college and got a degree. I would go to an online college about as fast as I would go to an on line surgeon. Fuck that shit. It’s not about cost. It’s about quality.
Ooh, ooh, I got this! It’s because you don’t like to talk to people on the phone isn’t it?
I have never made the claim that remote therapy is useless. It is not, there is a decent amount of reported evidence that shows it to be quite effective for some people and some problems. As I said, I have used, and will continue to use, tele-therapy with some clients.
I am also personally quite hurt by your assumption that I am motivated by a desire to protect my turf and personal finances when I recommend that you try the standard form of psychotherapy if you can. In fact, I offered my recommendation quite deliberately and in full accordance with the ethical practice that I do my best to maintain. It would, in point of fact, be considered unethical for me to advise or provide any course of treatment with my own financial gain in mind. I would also like to mention, in passing, that all the therapists I know charge the same amount for a session regardless of how it is delIvered. An hour of my time is an hour of my time.
I really do think that you would benefit most from face-to-face encounters with a trained and skilled therapist, and wish you nothing bu success in your pursuit of wellness. With that, I’ll bow out of this exchange with as much grace as I can still muster.
You are really good at mustering grace, sir. Bravo.
I think you’re being unnecessarily hostile. I think @Ephraim has ethical and professionalism reasons behind his statements.
I have no experience with therapy. I’ve always worked in occupations where you bury all the horrible things you see until you drink yourself to oblivion or kill yourself. But, perhaps, the 5% fidelity is where the heart of the matter is. After those initial findings, remote discussions could be more appropriate.
Or what @Ephraim said while I was typing.