Comments on: Counselling

By: Shrinkwrapped

Shrinkwrapped — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:26:11 +0000

Apologies, I meant to say “a sign they’re not coping” not not coming. Oopsie!

By: Shrinkwrapped

Shrinkwrapped — Sun, 04 May 2008 14:15:08 +0000

The article that you point to refers to critical incident stress debriefing. It was thought to help people who have witnessed or experienced a highly traumatic event to process what had happened to them and reduce post-traumatic stress. However, it doesn’t work and seems to produce worse outcomes. I suspect this is because it denormalises the perfectly natural distress someone experiences after a trauma, leads them to worry their distress is “not normal”, negatively appraise it as a sign that they’re not coming and increase the risk of more chronic post-traumatic stress leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

However, it does not refer to non-directive, person-centred counselling such as is often offered to people with no diagnosable mental health difficulties. I have no experience of this kind of counselling either personally or professionally, and know it only as a control therapy within RCTs of directive psychological therapies (e.g. CBT for depression) where it seems to do better than no treatment but not as well as active therapy. PTSD is a bit of an exception here, is it does seem to present some difficulties in this population. I’d be interested if you know of any other research suggesting other negative effects.

By: Nutty

Nutty — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:55:54 +0000

I’ve had a variety of talking therapies ranging from Jungian psychotherapy to CBT. The most effective therapy I ever had was ten sessions of counselling (I think basically Rogerian) with a student at the local rape crisis project. It did what it said on the tin. It helped me to deal with something that I needed to talk to someone about. You can’t discuss the details of everything with your family and friends.

By: Tim A

Tim A — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:55:50 +0000

Posted in ‘Torture’? Surely shome mishtake?

By: TheShrink

TheShrink — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:23:38 +0000

Counselling (as a specific therapy, Nondirective Counselling) has a woeful evidence base for outcomes. Indeed, after widespread us in General Practice, research found that the effect of Nondirective Counselling was nil, or not measurable. So it’s not a great cure, then.

But like any intervention it’s not without it’s side effects.

Messing with someone’s mind is serious business and as such talking therapies should be seen in the same light as SSRIs or ECT. There are risks and benefits, but therapy for one and all sounds like madness!