Therapy can be a powerful and effective resource for people to use. Do you think a lot of people use therapy for the right reasons? No, not really. When people don’t use therapy for the right reasons, they might feel worse and blame the therapist. People misuse therapy for a variety of reasons which causes issues. I came up with 6 reasons why you shouldn’t go to therapy. Some of these reasons are the therapist’s fault and some are your own fault. Let’s begin with the first reason why you shouldn’t go to therapy.
It’s Expensive
Do you want to see a therapist for 12-20 sessions and pay $50 per session? That is a lot of money to get help and I gave an example of a low price. According to GoodTherapy, some therapists may charge as much as $200 or more per session, but most will charge $75-$150 a session. That means you’re paying about $1,500-$3,000 for therapy. There are plenty of resources that you can try for free without having to pay for this kind of money. One example would be counseling centers that offer a sliding scale payment. The sliding scale takes into account your income to find an appropriate price for you. Some sliding scales go as low as $5 per session which is really beneficial for those that don’t have a lot of money.
You’re Not Taking It Seriously
What’s the point of going to therapy, if you’re not taking it seriously? If your friends or family recommended you to go to therapy because they thought something was wrong with you, commit to it. It’s no point to waste your money and time for something that you don’t really want to do. If the therapist gives you a homework assignment, complete it! It is there to help you practice a new technique that they believe will be good for you. If you feel like nothing is working out for you in therapy, tell the therapist and let them know how you feel. Therapy doesn’t work by itself! You have to actively participate and believe in the techniques used. If this sounds like something that you can’t do, don’t go to therapy. It’s as simple as that. Your time and money isn’t wasted and so as the therapist.
You Don’t Need Therapy
A lot of people go to therapy because they’ve been experiencing some type of stress or depression. They feel like something is wrong with them, so they look for something that the believe will work best for them. Low and behold: Therapy. I have one small question for you to answer. “Have you tried anything else before you decided that therapy was the right choice?” If your answer was yes, then I need at least 5 things you tried for about a week each. If you don’t have that, then your answer to the previous question is no.
It’s important that you look out for other resources and social support for help before you go to therapy. For common mental health problems like depression and anxiety, it is possible to handle that on your own. You can try journaling to manage your negative thinking patterns. Meditation and exercise are also good self-help techniques that you can use to help you instead of therapy. Try everything that you can possibly think of that can help you before you think therapy is your only option. The truth is: there is plenty more options out there, you just don’t know about them or never heard of them before. Start looking and start healing.
It’s Not Fully Effective
Remember earlier when I was talking about how effective therapy is if you take it seriously? Well that isn’t necessarily true. No matter how seriously you take therapy, it won’t work 100% of the time or be 100% effective. In fact, the effectiveness of therapy is far less than even 70 percent. CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy is about 60% effective for clients, which sounds bad to me. Granted, it’s more than 50%, but think about it the other way. 40% of people did not find therapy effective.
These people are still looking for help because therapy didn’t work for them. This is the most effective therapy as well. If we look at talk therapy for a second, we see that it is 30-50% effective, according to the New York Times. That’s just not enough information for me to believe that therapy is worth it. If it was more effective, then maybe but the next reason to not go to therapy adds fuel to the fire.
The Effects Don’t Last Very Long
Go back to the CBT example I gave in the last reason. Did you know that the effects only lasted for 12 months? That is considered long-term effects as well. Personally, I wouldn’t pay about $1,500-$3,000 to have a 60% chance of feeling better for 1 year. You also have to take in to account how long therapy actually last. If you go to therapy for a total of 12 sessions, that is the equivalent to going to therapy for 3 months. 5 months if you go for a total of 20 sessions. Some therapy methods like psychotherapy take much longer that 20 sessions. It’s just not a good return of investment for me. If the effects lasted for at least 3-5 years, then I might reconsider. For the meantime, it’s best to try other resources to see if you improve.
The Therapist That You Have Is Bad
No one likes a bad therapist. It’s inevitable that you will encounter a bad therapist. These therapist either show more sympathy than empathy, ineffective, or just lack the proper training to help you. Most likely if you’re feeling like your therapist isn’t helping you that much, you can inform the therapist. By doing so, the therapist can refer you to someone that has more experience, which is a good and a bad thing. It means that you’re getting quality help from another therapist, but you have to start all over again. This means more time and money spent in therapy. It’s best to avoid getting that bad therapist by not going to therapy at all.
Just because I made this post, don’t think that I believe that therapy is a waste of time. It will be a waste of time for some people and beneficial for others. My next post will be about the reasons why you should go to therapy and the benefits that therapy will bring to you. I hope this post opened your eyes to see that therapy isn’t as good as it seems to be. It’s important to take a step back and ask yourself if therapy is really worth it for you.
