Shrink Yourself, New York : therapy in time of recession

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/52596/

Strapped patients are starting to give up their shrink sessions. “A lot of my patients are very anxious about the possibility of giving up their therapy,” says Alan Schwartz, a Chelsea psychiatrist. “Some of them are now going to internists for their meds. They are doing their best to maintain some sense of calm.” Harold Levinson, who specializes in anxiety disorders, says a fifth of his patients have put therapy on hold—at a bad time. “Not only are people under financial pressure,” he says, “but this is holiday season, when depression is at a high.” Stephen Josephson, a psychologist at Cornell and Columbia who has lost 10 percent of his patients, says he’s seeing “more severe symptoms, including suicidality.” There’s already some fee negotiation and spacing out of sessions. “But you don’t want to give therapy for free,” says Levinson. “It distorts the process.”

FREE
THERAPY

DISTORTS
THE
PROCESS

what's wrong with not wanting to give free therapy exactly?

then therapist becomes depressed

I don't have a problem with doctors refusing to provide therapy free of charge

but I have a problem with therapists who claim that free sessions would 'distort the process'

what the fawk does that even mean?

Maybe by making you feel like the therapist is doing you a favor?

fuck a therapist.
it's all about meditation and regular ingestion of psychedelics.

fuck a therapist.

I think this would definitely distort the process.

it's all about meditation and regular ingestion of psychedelics.

one of my best high school friends is doing this to deal w/ his shit, also questing across the US, seems to be working ok for him, i guess

depends what world you want to live in

Its all about medication and regular ingestion of paychecks (for the dr)

bump

i'm shopping around for therapists but i'm not sure how committed i am because 1) everything is expensive right now, and 2) i would be less depressed if i had more money

i thought maybe there could be a thread for self-applied therapeutic concepts that have worked for you personally & found this pretty good thread title.

so, internal family systems. this idea that you can be the father to your inner hurt child that your actual father wasn't. i'm really digging it. it works for me because it incorporates the inner hurt child that i can't ignore or deny and sets up a relation to another person that i also am and can strive to be. two people in one, both of whom i need in order to keep moving. love it.

As my relationship was falling apart last fall, the now-ex and I did a little shopping around for couples counseling, and I was shocked at how expensive can be

One woman I spoke with - who seemed very knowledgeable and kind - told me it was $275 per session (about 45-50 minutes), except the first session was a double one so that's $550. And the $275 a WEEK going forward (I was thinking it would be monthly) and that we really needed to commit to at least a few months.

In hindsight, I think things were doomed anyway so I'm kinda glad we didn't go through with it

In 2015 or 16, I had counselling through a system paid for by my then-employer where I had written exchanges maybe once or twice a week with a therapist. I found it helpful and imagine that it must have cost less than face-to-face or even phone therapy, but as I say, I wasn't paying.