06/12/2020
Depth Therapy, mind/mood therapy, no therapy: what's best for you when you're feeling down, feeling fear or feeling both?
Many of us who have an interest in counseling and psychotherapy have heard the terms "transference" and "countertransference". As a therapist, what part of a client's painful past is being transferred onto me? Am I the loving grandfather who protected the client from the verbally abusive father? Am I allowing the client to turn me into the protective grandfather because this countertransference feeds my ego? Do either of us recognize that these subconscious activities are present in the therapeutic conversations. This last question is, of course, the most important. A lot of healing is possible through identifying what the client and the therapist are putting on each other. The client may subconsciously cast the therapist in the role of the kind, safe, surrogate grandfather to make sure the therapy session keeps memories of mean dad at a distance. However, the pace of genuine healing may accelerate if the therapist is, at times, seen as mean dad (while still maintaining a safe environment). If mean dad is transferred by the client onto the therapist, past, painful events with dad can be "duplicated" through the therapist allowing this transference to proceed. Memories can be played out in the present that can allow the client to, at least, feel some power, some efficacy or some new perspective that can alter the image of cruel, unloving demon-dad to flawed, ineffective and, now, disempowered dad.
For some clients, this degree of depth exploration may not be necessary. Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy can help clients develop greater emotional control by identifying their difficult emotions as the result of distorted thinking. Homework is provided to identify negative moods in the moment and then try to capture some automatic thoughts that drive the emotion. To recognize a distortion in the thinking can help to reduce the power of the emotion that followed from the thought. One's background and upbringing may help to explain habituated patterns of thinking that can be described as "badmouthing myself to myself". The attempt is to re-habituate the brain to more reality-based manners of thought and self-talk.
Without doubt, some feelings of depression and anxiety may need no counseling nor psychotherapeutic interventions at all. Our thoughts, our moods, our doubts, fears, hopes and joys all reside within our bodies. Sometimes we need nothing more than to get out of our heads, get off the couch and move our bodies. A depressed mood has difficulty existing alongside a half hour of aerobic exercise.
I've listed three possible responses to recurrent, depressed moods and free-floating anxiety. Regarding the first two, Tom Galvin Counseling Services is prepared to be of assistance. Regarding the third, to just get the body moving, well, that's up to you.
