If CBT performed as well as David Burns suggests, we’d really have no need for therapists. Alas, it turns out that cognitive problems aren’t a factor in a lot of mental health. I state this as someone who’s read all the literature and spent 8 years floundering in CBT oriented therapy without much changing but the practitioner. It’s not a cure-all or even a cure-most, but it’s treated as such because it has properties that match well to medical insurance billing practices.
> And of people I know who see a therapist, practically none can tell me what exactly they are doing or what methods they are doing or how anything is structured.
I could tell you that as a client, but that’s because I’ve read into it. This is sort of like asking an ER patient to describe the shift management system of the clinic they went into.
This has been my experience. When it comes down to it, CBT is just more effective version of “try hard harder”.
What’s really aggravating is CBT was never designed to be a general, cure-all therapy and I think the people behind it know this. But try explaining nuance to a public that doesn’t want to hear.
> And of people I know who see a therapist, practically none can tell me what exactly they are doing or what methods they are doing or how anything is structured.
I could tell you that as a client, but that’s because I’ve read into it. This is sort of like asking an ER patient to describe the shift management system of the clinic they went into.