Member-only story
Unrealistic Beliefs About Therapists and Psychotherapy
One of the greatest obstructions to healing is having unrealistic and unfair expectations of what a therapist does and what one can get from psychotherapy. These unreal beliefs lead to frustration, anger, and not following through with treatment.
In this piece, we shall take a long and hard look at these beliefs, what the truth is, and how to avoid falling into the trap of believing unrealistic things about therapists and the therapy process.
The Top Three Unrealistic Beliefs About Therapists
While there are as many false beliefs about therapists as there are clients who see them, we are going to concentrate on only three.
On top of the list is the conviction that a therapist will tell you all you need to know to get well and will have a list of things for you to do so you can do them and check off each step as you go until one magic day you wake up cured.
This thought process is untrue because it is not the responsibility of the therapist to tell you how to live your life. Yes, they receive training to be a kind of seeing-eye-dog, leading you to heal but no, they will not tell you what to do. If they told you what to do, they would be telling you to live their own lives instead of helping you find your own.
