Online counseling has taken the therapy world by storm and we have seen a significant change in responses to the word “therapy” in the past few years. As someone who has been in the mental health field for nearly 20 years, I’ve seen people go from recoil and embarrassment when I tell them what I do for a living to interest and intrigue. Mental health providers have gone from people you didn’t want to invite to the dinner party to celebrities that get quoted at that very party (@therapyjeff and @ornaguralik to name a few). Today there is an interesting article in the NYT Magazine about whether therapy really “works”. Therapy has been difficult to study in a quantitative way since it’s inception. We don’t have concrete language or structures to study like we do in biology or engineering. We can’t even all agree on what basic emotions feel like or how often is “reasonable” to feel said emotions. One takeaway from this article that I do agree with is that what seems to matter is the relationship a client has with the therapist can make the most difference. The clinicians on our team are firm believers in the “client-centered” method first described in this way by Carl Rogers. This means we spend time getting to know our clients, what is important to them, who is important to them, and what their hopes and dreams are. Our goals are the client’s goals, and we can help to define those and work together on how to get there.
mental health counseling