Therapy, Healing and Spirituality: Part 1 – Promises and Disappointments
Today there are many people who are disillusioned by their experience of therapy, healing or spiritual practices. The promise of alternative and complementary approaches to healing or enlightenment was great in the 1970s and 1980s. Here, at the beginning of the 21st century, 40 years of results deserve a review.
But does anyone really question therapy and healing practices? Today, people continue to flock to reflexologists, aromatherapists, NLP practitioners, counselors, etc., presumably convinced that handing over their money and spending an hour or so of their time will lead to some desired result.
what we want
What’s the score? Well, I recently saw a movie to market alternative therapies that attempts to answer this question clearly. What we want, and look at the ‘we’ that always makes us (oops!) think we’re being subtly or blatantly patronized, even though we’ve learned to love and accept the sense of belonging and inclusion or exclusivity it gives us . — is happiness, health, money, or attractiveness (defined as “sexiness”). Relationship, career, meaning, purpose, and difficulties—those kinds of things apparently don’t matter that much, although most therapists would have us believe they do.
With such lofty goals, you’d think the jumble of self-help books, psychospiritual gurus, and weird and wonderful methods would have some effect, wouldn’t it?
A variety of therapies
Well, judging by the variety of approaches, the proliferation of methods and schools, and the great promises made by them, perhaps not. Because, after all, if these approaches were effective, the appetite for new approaches would not be so great.
On the other hand, if these ways and methods were ineffective, wouldn’t the growing number of seekers and clients of healing and self-improvement dry up, or at least show signs of decline?
An impossible link?
It is reminiscent of the impossible link of law enforcement agencies having to justify the request for increased funding while also showing that they are effective because crime numbers are falling. If crime figures are falling, the police must be doing their job. If crime is increasing, why increase police funding? Alternatively, if crime is falling, why not reduce police funding? Why increase funding if the police are ineffective?
There is no easy answer. If spiritual and psychological healing practitioners were subjected to the same scrutiny, what would they say to support their claim that they are providing an effective service, while each year more and more people, and often the same people, keep coming back for the same service? ? thing?
a curtain of secrecy
In fact, the alternative/complementary sector has done quite a bit of what the police do in this near-impossible predicament: play with terms, ‘doctorize the numbers’ and create new ways of looking at the problem to convince us of the indispensable services they offer. and the illusion that they are delivering the goods. A curtain of secrecy is drawn over the real events to justify the ending.
This curtain includes returning responsibility to the patient, client, student or adept (“if you were truly committed, you would succeed”). In psychotherapy, the term used is resistance (“your unconscious is resisting its growth process”). Or it is “if we work a little deeper, we will find the right remedy for you”, or “the healing has begun” to justify alternative, often bizarre and inept healing methods.
How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb?
These comments evoke the specter of the old therapy joke from the 1970s: Ask, “How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb?” Answer: “One, but the bulb must Really I want to change!” (Ba-ass!)