First, do no harm.
Despite the DoDo bird’s insistence, not all therapies are created equal.
This won’t be a post explaining evidence based practice, or common factors, or how diagnostics should impact our therapy plans, or how psychodynamic therapy gets an undeserved reputation just because CBT is easier to manualize. (All possibilities for another day!) For today, I think it’s worthwhile to talk about how sometimes we had really interesting ideas and they turned out to be wrong. Some therapies have evidence demonstrating not just that they don’t work as well as other therapies, but that they don’t work at all or they actively damage clients! YIKES!
Examples that might surprise you?
- Critical Incident Stress Debriefing for PTSD
- Grief counseling for normal bereavement
- Relaxation treatments for panic disorder
Check this article by Scott Lilienfeld out here.
Comment below if there’s one of those other topics you’d like me to write about, or if you have ever gotten training in any of these harmful therapies, or (heaven forbid!) you know someone who uses them.