Two senses of “psychotherapy is political” are often conflated. The first is the notion, popular lately, that psychotherapy either allows or demands political advocacy in the therapy room itself. The other is recognition that political factors influence the nature and practice of psychotherapy. It is a conceptual error to confuse the two, and a […]
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Currently, therapy apps featuring a nonhuman “therapist” aim fairly low at best, and at worst willfully mislead the public. However, the advent of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT-4 brings exciting potential for genuine depth psychotherapy delivered by AI — and many challenges and potential pitfalls as well. Since “therapy” has no precise […] When one of America’s most prominent psychiatrists expresses deep disdain for depth psychotherapy, especially when that criticism is misinformed and hopelessly outdated, it should concern all of us. Dr. Tom Insel directed the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) from 2002 to 2015. Formerly a psychiatric researcher “at the cellular level,” he studied medications […] When a mental health clinic, online referral service, or private practice offers “evidence based” psychotherapy, that certainly sounds like a selling point. It suggests solid science supports the therapy offered — and that competing services lack this support. But what does this phrase really mean? “Evidence based medicine” first appeared in the medical literature […] “Complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) is a category that includes all the methods of physical or mental healing that do not fall under the umbrella of western medicine. Examples include comprehensive healing traditions from other cultures, such as Chinese or Ayurvedic (Indian) medicine; herbal remedies; and a wide variety of mind-body treatments, such as […] In a world of diverse mental health treatments and treatment settings, psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy have lost their former prominence. Only a small fraction of patients have the time, money, and interest to engage in long-term, open-ended mental exploration — even if doing so would get to the root of their problems and lead to […] Despite my mostly psychodynamic approach to psychotherapy, I sometimes include cognitive interventions as well. I think of this as choosing from a variety of tools to suit the moment. Generally speaking, cognitive techniques (and psychiatric medications) aim for symptom relief, while psychodynamic work aims for structural personality change, with symptom improvement as a byproduct. There’s […] |
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