Research has shown quite clearly that for the majority of people looking for a therapist, the rapport he or she feels is influenced more by compatibility of personality, than professional qualifications, experience, age or gender.

 

This is not to say that the latter qualities are unimportant, indeed they are!

 

However, most would agree that: if you experience a strong aversion to a particular therapist, it is highly unlikely that you will want to engage in a working relationship with this therapist.

 

Good Therapy Australia, a not-for-profit health promotion charity, has designed a therapist profile page and directory search facility that maximises the chance of a “good match” between therapist and client.

 

Their website – www.goodtherapy.com.au – includes information on the various approaches to therapy. Educating one’s self about the different orientations can be helpful because what appeals to one person will not necessarily appeal to everyone.

 

While some therapists work primarily with dialogue – the session is essentially a conversation – others, who have trained in complementary modalities such as Art Therapy, Gestalt, Psychodrama or HeartMath; may incorporate therapeutic processes that engage us in a number of different ways.

 

These processes, often experiential in nature, enable us to become more aware of the emotional/physical/mental blocks that keep us stuck.

 

Whether you are struggling with depression, anxiety, or self-destructive patterns, what you ultimately find helpful will depend on your openness to moving beyond your present situation, and the quality of connection you create with your therapist.

 

To explore what is meaningful for you, you may want to participate in Good Therapy’s online surveys: Looking for a Therapist; The Therapeutic Space; Questions for Therapists.

 

http://www.goodtherapy.com.au/flex/surveys/253/1

 

Also, an article that addresses some of the issues relevant to Choosing a Therapist:

 

http://www.goodtherapy.com.au/flex/choosing_a_therapist_title/101/1

 

END OF ARTICLE

I think this provides some excellent insight and advice. I would also suggest asking the following questions after the first visit:

 

1. Did the therapist strive to fully understand your situation?
2. Did they outline a plan you had confidence in?
3. Did you trust them and feel positive about returning?

 

 A good GP can be a fantastic guide to a good therapist as they regularly hear the feedback of patients who have been referred. Another source of psychologists that have a special interest in depression and anxiety and are in your area can be found at www.beyondblue.org.au

 

My recommendation is that if your therapist doesn’t tick all the above boxes after your first visit you should find another. This is much easier said than done when you are feeling very low which brings me back to my first point, that you should seek out a therapist before it gets to a crisis situation.

 

What has been your experience in finding a therapist? Do you have any suggestions? What do you like best about a therapist? What do you like least?

 

Please add your contribution by responding to this blog. Your responses are anonymous as you just need to enter your first name and email address (which won’t be published).Your suggestion could really help someone else.

 

Kind Regards

Graeme

 

 

Tags: anxiety, depression treatments, finding a mental health professional, finding a psychologist, finding a therapist, psychology, therapists

Article in The Economist June 27th, 2009 - Page 89

A friend recently made me aware of a very interesting article in The Economist.

The hypothesis

Randolph Nesse, a psychologist and researcher in evolutionary medicine at the University of Michigan, likens the relationship between mild and clinical depression to the one between normal to chronic pain.

Dr Nesse’s hypothesis is that, as pain stops you doing damaging physical things, so low mood stops you doing damaging mental ones - in particular, in particlar pursuing unreachable goals. He asserts, that pursuing such goals is a waste of energy and resources. Therefore he argues, there is likely to be an evolved mechanism that recognizes certain goals as unattainable and inhibits their pursuit - and he believes low mood is at least part of that mechanism.

The evidence

In a study published recently by Carsten Wrosch from Concordia University in Montreal he studied depression in teenage girls. They measured the “goal adjustment strategies” of 97 girls aged 15-19 years over the course of 19 months. They asked participants about their ability to disengage with unattainable goals and re-engage with new goals. They also asked them about a range of symptoms associated with depression, and changed over the course of the study.

Study findings

Their conclusion was that those that experienced mild depressive symptoms could indeed disengage from unattainable goals. It also found a remarkable corollary:those women who could disengage from the unattainable, proved less likely to suffer more serious depression in the long run.

Mild depressive symptoms can therefore be seen as a natural part of dealing with failure in young adulthood.

My take on this theory

As I have highlighted many times before, it is so difficult to make conclusive statements about “depression” as the term covers a multitude of conditions. Having said that, my gut tells me that there is something to this theory. I guess that comes from my own personal experience. On each occasion I have experienced a severe depressive episode, it has often been close to a downturn in the economy. I formally worked in recruitment, which is an industry very closely linked to the health of the economy and is also very accountable.

When I began missing my budgets, rather than blaming the economy, I tended to blame myself for not working hard enough. This also would explain why those with perfectionist personality traits are so vulnerable to depression - you can never achieve the goal of perfection.

It also reinforces my belief that when you are depressed you should set “whisker goals”. These are small attainment goals that put you on a path of “wins” that often have a positive impact on self esteem. It is also essential to celebrate these small wins so your brain knows that it is doing something right. A small celebration could be buying yourself a coffee, gelato, chocolate or your favourite magazine.

Your thoughts please?

I would be very interested for others to share their opinion regarding this theory. Please do so by responding to this blog.

Kind Regards

Graeme

www.IamBackFromTheBrink.com

Tags: depression, depression help, depression treatments, goals, rational thinking

GUILT AND DEPRESSION

In the latest seminar series on beating depression I am running, a participant asked a very important question which is listed below. My response also follows. If you have any comments about your own experience with guilt and depression, please respond to this blog.

I was wondering if you would be talking about guilt at all? I was just about to send my question on guilt when you said your goodbyes, so serves me right for not having the courage to do it earlier. I just wondered…. what strategies do you have, if any, for coping with the guilt you feel when you aren’t able to do chores / tasks / exercising / all those things you’re supposed to do for yourself and others ? I find it’s so overwhelming. I sit there knowing I have something I’m meant to do, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t do it. Because I can’t, and don’t do it, the guilt then sets in, so I have that burden on top of the burden of knowledge of not completing what I was meant to.

Does that make sense? I find the guilt to be a real issue.

On the positive side, after week 1 of the seminar, I have committed to walking with my dogs. I managed two walks ( took the dogs along ! ) and made it to four walks in the second week. This is the third week but I haven’t been out YET…..I hope to get the four walks in though. So, thank you for that encouragement. I hope to add socialising because I’m a master at isolating myself. Working on that. My intention is to just do one thing at a time with the ultimate goal of getting well and back to work.

I trust you’re getting excellent feedback following each week’s seminar Graeme, and it’s good to hear you covering the needs of carers because the poor things really do work very hard. While I’m looking forward to next Tuesday, I am also very sad that it’s the last in the series. It’s been so beneficial.

Jenny, VIC

Dear Jenny,

 

Thank you for raising this issue.

Inactivity and guilt is so central to people living with depression. From my own experience with depression I know how hard it is to get out of bed in the morning.

 

Everyone’s situation is unique but I would like to make the following observations/suggestions:

 

BE GENTLE ON YOURSELF

Give yourself credit for what you are already doing. You have started exercising. If you miss a day, don’t bash yourself up, but just resolve to do it tomorrow. Depression drains you of your self esteem and it doesn’t serve any purpose to get more whips out to lash yourself. Besides it was unbelievably hot in Melbourne last week (and the tennis was on!!)

 

FOCUS ON ONE DAY AT A TIME BUT PLAN A WEEK AHEAD

This sounds a bit contradictory, but let me try to explain.

When we are not well, we can only see the million problems we have to solve to sort ourselves out but the truth of the matter is, that we only have today.

 

I found it very helpful in my recovery when I was asked to plan my week ahead – to work out when I would exercise and see other people. There was something about scheduling it with my carer in the diary that made it seem more definite. Knowing that I had to report back to them in a weeks time also made me more committed. Once that weekly schedule was worked out I then tried to only worry about the day.

 

TRY TO THINK OF WAYS TO GET YOU WALKING EACH DAY

Decide what time each day you are going to walk and stick to it..

Is there a friend who can accompany you on some of those days?

Try to be really observant on the walk.

Maybe consider keeping a walking log. What did you notice today? Were there any animals, birds, unusual scents, colours or sounds? If you went with a friend, what thoughts or feelings did you discuss?

 

Each day just focus on getting to the front gate. Getting there is at least 50% of the effort.

 

Make the daily walk the only thing you have to do this week. Having a walk often has an energising effect.. People with depression say it often serves two purposes. It gives them a sense of achievement for the day and it often enhances their mood. Both these outcomes are good for diminishing guilt. This then often provides the energy for other things (but you don’t have to do anything else).

This week try to walk for 6 days. Getting to the front gate counts as a walk.

 

OTHER RESOURCES

I found an excellent article on handling guilt at:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/14689-handling-guilt/

 

 

Hang in there Jenny.

Kind Regards

Graeme

Tags: depression, exercise, guilt, resilience

Through me time with GROW, I have learnt about the “4 Stabilizing Questions”. I have not only found these to be extremely helpful to me but have also seen them work well in the lives of hundreds of others.

These questions are asked when you are worried or stressed about something.

THE 4 STABILIZING QUESTIONS

1. WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT?

It’s amazing how things can seem out of control when they are swimming around in your head. Talk with a friend about what specifically you are worried about. Writing the problem down can also be very helpful. Properly clarifying this can definitely make the problem seem smaller.

2. HOW LIKELY IS IT? IS IT CERTAIN, PROBABLE OR ONLY POSSIBLE?

This question highlights that you should only invest time on those things that are certain or at least probable.

3. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT?

Don’t invest time and energy into things that are not important. GROW has another saying - “Be content to be discontent in many (minor) things”.

4.WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?

Important problems start to shrink when you take action. Remember action is the enemy of depression and anxiety. Try this approach and let me know how you find it by responding to this blog.

Kind

Regards

www.IamBackFromTheBrink.com

Tags: anxiety, depression, stress, worry

In my research for BACK FROM THE BRINK TOO many people wondered about how you go about choosing the right psychologist. You GP is often a great source of guidance. There are also sites like www.goodtherapy.com.au  which provide a lot more information than Yellow Pages to help you make a decision. The best way to evaluate a person however is to have a first visit and view it as a test drive:

After the first visit you should ask:

1. Did the session feel worthwhile?
2. Did the psychologist understand my situation?
3. Did they seem genuinely interested in helping?
4. Did they outline a plan I had confidence in?
5. Do I trust the psychologist and want to return?

If after answeing these questions you don’t feel comfortable with the psychologist you should endeavour to find another. It is far too important to find someone you have confidence in than to be concerned about hurting anyones feelings. This area is covered in much greater depth in BACK FROM THE BRINK TOO which will be in good bookshops from September 9.

Kind Regards

Graeme

Tags: anxiety, depression, evaluation, psychologist