What was the most useful thing for you in therapy?

hadas

Share your experience as to what worked for you!

Torakx

I never had any kind of therapy.It was more my own hashed together ways from research.
But for me what really helped alot was being able to express myself anonamously and also gaining a very good understanding of myself which lead to self acceptance and pretty much fixed everything like a chain reaction.
Its been a month now still without a smoke or any addictive substance apart from sugar,pretty much all social phbias and depression and lack of motivation are gone have no issues(or cravings) at all really which is incredible if you knew me in september!
Theres mine anyway im sure it would have been similar had i been in therapy.Or would hope so.

hadas

Wow! Good for you to get to that place using other resources! What helped you understand yourself the most? What would you recommend?

Torakx

It took a few years of reading and online searches,so i would always advise people to get a counsellor or therapist really to take the short cut.
My issues were from what i gather, post cult syndrome combined with candida albacans(along with some other learned social phobias and personal complexes).The latter causes severe depression,anxiety,confusion due to toxins with leaky gut syndrome.doctors were killing me with meds because they could not spot it.
I guess health wise i WOULD reccomend personal research as it may have saved my life.Anti biotics(5 days injecting them into my veins in hospital at 17 due to a work accident,with absolutely no advice regarding pro biotics!!!) and a bad diet caused the candida.
The religion itself i wont mention which, but it is another area of psychology i would love to explore professionally and i still have family involved and all people i used to know gone because they cannot associate with me now that im out.

What finally did it for me was a realisation that i am actually very intelligent but in different ways aswell as normally.When i started studying the right brain traits it described me down to a T.
This changed my whole view of my supposed flaws and i was able to accept them as strengths and more importantly then accept myself fully deep down.This is still why i would like to learn more about left and right brain traits with regards therapies as it was the final key to triggering my complete turn around and self acceptance..i undrstood finnaly why i was so different from most! understanding to me lead to acceptance and forgiveness with everything in my life.How can we forgive if we dont understand why something happens or is done to us?

I also used some of what i learned in N.L.P to associate good feelings and my latest choices and attitude with my new mobile phone(with mp3 player) so that i would be encouraged to go out walking everyday and would remind me everyday unconsciously of my new way of thinking.
My motivation was actually my biggest problem and became a part of who i was nearly.but after i accepted that i am a "righty" i am able to see now how to learn better aswell as be incredibly selfaware,its a little scary!
When i sit on the bus the odd time i wil be conscious of why am sitting on the top floor roughly 2 seats back from the middle on the left of the bus.
I also now recogise when i drop into "alpha mode".like when im watching a movie and zone out or typing like this online and i hear someone talking to me but at the same time i dont.Thats my alpha mode or "subconscious" doing my typing for a few seconds.
Ah i have just too much to say about my crazy past and researches lol

But to attempt to cut it short, i basically learned about myself in so many ways that i was conscious of my unconsious to a large extent and was able to clearly see my habits and issues and when i hit 30 and smoked the last of my weed i just decided, this is the time if ever to just fecking kick my ass into gear accept im uber and just go out into the world and have fun with my free time unemployed.
I have never been happier and really want others to experience this too.
I would welcvome all advice that would get me into a job i can help people using my skills(mostly creativity and emotional awareness).
Lately i am getting really annoyed at homless people being in their situation.It makes me so angry inside and i might look into volunteering with this free time.It would be yet again another way for my to create a cyclical effect of good positive feelings of accomplishment while also doing something worthwhile and taking me further out of "the box" that seems to be mainstream life.

Pebbles68

Parts therapy. I don't know how many therapists use it but it made a huge impact on me. It was amazing. The only way I can describe it was as if the therapist was chairing a meeting and inviting anyone who wanted to speak to join in. So there was fat me, angry me, scared me, slim me taking turns. And it really made an impact. I was expressing feelings, pointing out faults and negotiating with myself. It may sound crazy but fat me was in control and had all the energy so fat me agreed it was healthier to let slim me have more energy and listen to scared me and angry me. I think it worked for me because I was deciding for myself what was right and not being told what to do. I had tried every diet under the sun and nothing worked. I learned my weight was a defense thing. I grew up without a dad, in my head I was never going to fall in love and be left alone and hurt. Unconsciously I didn't want to be slim and attractive.

Torakx

Pebbles68 wrote: »

Parts therapy. I don't know how many therapists use it but it made a huge impact on me. It was amazing. The only way I can describe it was as if the therapist was chairing a meeting and inviting anyone who wanted to speak to join in. So there was fat me, angry me, scared me, slim me taking turns. And it really made an impact. I was expressing feelings, pointing out faults and negotiating with myself. It may sound crazy but fat me was in control and had all the energy so fat me agreed it was healthier to let slim me have more energy and listen to scared me and angry me. I think it worked for me because I was deciding for myself what was right and not being told what to do. I had tried every diet under the sun and nothing worked. I learned my weight was a defense thing. I grew up without a dad, in my head I was never going to fall in love and be left alone and hurt. Unconsciously I didn't want to be slim and attractive.

Wow this is very interesting! thanks for sharing that.
Would you be able to expand on it too? or even pm me with info or keywords so i can then do searches to learn how this therapy works and is practised.
It sounds a little similar to how i think now about my hold phobias.
Each day i can choose to be the old me or the new me.I also picture sometimes stuff i learned like how memories are stored with creases in the brain and that thought patterns follow these deeper learned creases over time much easier.When i want to be new me i need to force these new creases to create habits.So i have access to both if i choose now lol.
I dont know if im right fully but i do know it worked for myself.
Id love to hear more about your story here or pm if you like to share.
I am always trying to think of new ways to tackle this stuff.

hadas

I want to share what didn't work for me...I saw this guy and he seemed distant and disengaged. When I told him I was pregnant he was really happy to hear it and congratulated me - and this is when I decided I needed to see a women that I could better relate to. I think how I felt was really important. I needed to feel safe and heard and I also wanted someone who will share and engage and be part of the process. The next lady was super. She shared her insights, her ideas, her experiences with me and I felt very safe and free to explore. She also pointed out to a few things that were part of my family system - things that I had no control over and happened even before my time but yet still influenced my thoughts and decisions. That was great because it set me free to make my own choices rather than acting on misguided or misunderstood feelings.

I really like the "parts" system. Sound very Gestalt - this is very useful. Thank you for sharing!

Pebbles68

Torakx wrote: »

Wow this is very interesting! thanks for sharing that.
Would you be able to expand on it too? or even pm me with info or keywords so i can then do searches to learn how this therapy works and is practised.
QUOTE]
I don't think I can expand on the therapy and how it works. Just google parts therapy and see what you get.
I'm almost afraid to say this, I know some therapists on here are very dismissive of hypnosis but the parts therapy I did was one session during my own hypnotherapy. If you were to ask me why it worked I would say it was because I was in hypnosis while doing the therapy. I was actually discovering my own problems and emotional baggage. I know that suggestion while in hypnosis has little or no value but I think the value for me was that all the changes in behaviour (suggestions) were coming from me and because they were my ideas I accepted them. It's a strange thing but I remember deciding that I was goiing to allow myself to be brave enough to allow love into my life. Suddenly I didn't need to make myself overweight and unattractive. In ten months I went from a size 18/20 to a 12 but it was so much more than weight I lost; my temper and moods are so different. I used to be a control freak and like a dog with a bone, I was happy to argue anything with anyone. Now? What's the point? Life's too short.

hotspur

Parts therapy is a hypnotherapy technique. The "parts" were originally from ego psychology and so were the id, ego, and superego. These days the parts are whatever different aspects of the person may be in conflict e.g. the part of person which wants to smoke and the part which wants to quit. Parts therapy would facilitate a dialogue between the parts. It has some similarity to some Gestalt work.

Roy Hunter is the main hypno guy teaching parts therapy. But he's a moron. It isn't a mainstream therapy.

Odysseus

hotspur wrote: »

Parts therapy is a hypnotherapy technique. The "parts" were originally from ego psychology and so were the id, ego, and superego. These days the parts are whatever different aspects of the person may be in conflict e.g. the part of person which wants to smoke and the part which wants to quit. Parts therapy would facilitate a dialogue between the parts. It has some similarity to some Gestalt work.

Roy Hunter is the main hypno guy teaching parts therapy. But he's a moron. It isn't a mainstream therapy.

Hotspur have you any links for that, I would be interested to see the definitions of ego, id and super ego; to see what they where working from. Typical hypo stuff though what about the ego ideal and the ideal ego, where they lumped in with the ego because they have the word ego in it?

This is the type of stuff I have issues with 13 years on and I still struggle with or are learning about Freud's metapsychology and this type of stuff is usually covered in a short module. However, it does sound very close to aspects of Gestalt Therapy.

hotspur

There are no academic texts or papers on parts therapy that I know of because it hasn't emerged from either an academic or mainstream professional context. I can link a few fairly useless articles from Roy Hunter about it, but we're talking about someone with qualifications from degree mills including a bs PhD who is anti-educated professionals due to his having a chip on his shoulder about it. I doubt there is anything in the history of it of any genuine worth to someone like yourself.

He has a book called Hypnosis for Inner Conflict Resolution: Introducing Parts Therapy, but I've never read it. Here are some articles:
http://www.royhunter.com/articles/what_is_parts_therapy.htm
http://www.royhunter.com/articles/client_centered_parts_therapy.htm
http://www.infinityinst.com/articles/parts_therapy.html

Odysseus

hotspur wrote: »

There are no academic texts or papers on parts therapy that I know of because it hasn't emerged from either an academic or mainstream professional context. I can link a few fairly useless articles from Roy Hunter about it, but we're talking about someone with qualifications from degree mills including a bs PhD who is anti-educated professionals due to his having a chip on his shoulder about it. I doubt there is anything in the history of it of any genuine worth to someone like yourself.

He has a book called Hypnosis for Inner Conflict Resolution: Introducing Parts Therapy, but I've never read it. Here are some articles:
http://www.royhunter.com/articles/what_is_parts_therapy.htm
http://www.royhunter.com/articles/client_centered_parts_therapy.htm
http://www.infinity

Cheers thank for the links, you are a mine of info Hotspur. I'll have a flick through them now. I detest that anti-educational/anyone can do psychotherapy position. I started my training later in life [late 20s] I didn't even have my inter-cert when I started back in college, so I'm all for people having access to education.

The anyone can do it position is just dangerous. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but not in a professional manner. Do your degree, then your masters if possible a PhD, add 5-10 years of experience and then you may be in a position to hold a valid clinical opinion that may bring about a new way of working. Without the education/clinical experience well in my opinion people’s opinions are just that, an opinion, it can't even be stretched to an informed one. This quick fix culture does annoy me.

Anyway I wasn't going to post on this thread as I think peoples therapy is a private thing, however, since I have hi-jacked the thread.

In my training analysis one of the things I found "helpful" was moving on to the couch. Firstly it meant I didn't have a psychotic structure;) but being on the couch and engaged in free association is an interesting position. For those unfamiliar with it, free association means speaking your thoughts as the come to mind as they come to mind, I once said "for all I know you could be sitting there behind me firing one off":o A humourous example but reporting your deepest phantasies or thoughts aloud is not only a very hard thing to do; it does expose a side of you that most people never allow to see the light of day.

If used it exposes any counter-transference issues as if you think an intervention is sh!te or whatever way you express it, it is spoken. If not used people often agree with the therapist because they don't want to be seen as being impolite.

Cróga

Is parts therapy like the "mecosystem"? If so here's another therapy thats gaining credibility i believe, Internal Family Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Family_Systems_Model
amazon
Im still waiting on the book so i'll let ye know what i think when i get it. Has anyone any experience this?