How to choose your therapy, the right therapy, reliable and solid… What are the advantages and limits of cognitive and behavioral therapies, EMDR, couple therapies, existential therapies or gestalt therapy… And then how to choose the good therapist, what are the right questions to ask yourself before consulting, and on what criteria to choose it?

How to choose psychotherapy?

For Catherine La Psy, psychologist, consulting is not quite the same as talking to a friend. The shrinks are trained, have specific techniques, methods. They do more than give good advice.

Psychology is a science and psychotherapy is a treatment of pathologies, suffering and symptoms. Psychotherapies are based on psychological means. There are hundreds of approaches based on very diverse theoretical corpuses. What to get lost when you want to undertake psychotherapy…

Inserm, in a report conducted in 2004 on the question of the evaluation of psychotherapies, retains this definition: “Psychotherapy is a set of psychological methods whose aim is to relieve suffering within a contractual framework .” For guests, the contractual framework is important.

What is the difference between a clinical psychologist, a psychoanalyst and a psychiatrist? Catherine La Psy explains that psychiatrists have studied at medical school. They first studied medicine and then specialized in psychiatry. They are doctors and can prescribe. The psychologists , themselves, studied at the faculty of psychology, which is then quite disparate. The fields are more or less scientific depending on the courses, which are not all harmonized. And the psychoanalyst, he’s someone who didn’t necessarily do those studies, but who did a certain number of things in a sort of school of psychoanalysis. So he is recognized by his peers as being competent in this approach. Psychoanalysis being a particular approach.

In humanistic psychotherapies , contrary to other psychotherapeutic practices, the humanistic therapist must not appear devoid of any experience, appear impersonal or devoid of reaction. The therapist’s self-disclosure would promote what is called the therapeutic alliance . It’s feeling good, good enough to be able to say what you have to say. Regularly, in the patient’s story, there are things that make them ashamed and that they dare not say so they have to have enough confidence to be able to say them without thinking that they will be judged. And then also to feel that with what they say and what they do,

Existential therapy is inspired by existential philosophy. The patient is led to ask himself existential questions. It’s about questioning big questions like why we are here, the meaning of life, death in order, in fine , to accept all that.

CBTs , cognitive behavioral therapies , are brief therapies, focused on the patient’s current problem. It is a very codified procedure. Someone who is afraid of mice or spiders for example can follow a TTC.

At the end of the program, there is also talk of EMDR , a very fashionable technique in France, based on the reprocessing of information by eye movements, in particular. This technique is based on specifically administered sensory stimulation, light or tapping. And under the effect of these stimulations, the body would generate chemical substances acting on the cerebral structures involved in the traumatisms.

As far as psychoanalysis is concerned , it is complex because there are many different schools. Catherine la Psy also talks about it in her book: “I am describing an analytically oriented psychotherapy session that I had reread by a colleague who practices this approach because this is not my case. I would say that you also need an ability to make connections yourself because if you’re really lying down and you’re with someone who doesn’t give a lot of feedback and doesn’t help you with what we call ‘elaborating’ in psychoanalysis, you will still have to have this ability. And for once, this is not necessarily the case for everyone.

The psychologist recommends choosing a therapist before a type of therapy: “My speech is to say: really choose someone with whom you feel good. Studies show that the therapeutic alliance is already, according to studies, almost 40% of the success of a therapy.”

Who should you be wary of?

How to detect dangerous practices, sectarian aberrations? We know today that many sects are surfing the market of ill-being and existential malaise. Miviludes makes very regular reports.

For Catherine La Psy, if you do not feel safe, this is the first sign that should alert you. For Sylvie Wieviorka, a psychiatrist, if someone promises 100% recovery, that’s also a sign. But you also have to be alert to the frequency of sessions, as she explains: “You have to say to yourself that anything that is out of common sense should alert people.

Aurélia Schneider, neuro-psychiatrist, adds that reputation, word of mouth, are elements that can be taken into account.

Sylvie Wieviorka is critical of personal development: “I think that everyone manages as best they can and goes where they want. I have no problem with that, but it’s the ideology of personal development that problem, that is, the idea that each of us. Tell him You have extraordinary potential. Unfortunately, that’s not true. Some people have more potential than others and I want to tell you how the develop. And then to make the objective of life to be rich and happy. I think that there is still a very, very important basic problem. It is this thing. And then, for me, personal development, there is a marketing aspect, it’s more to enrich what they promote than to help people, in my opinion.

Who to choose ?

As Sylvie Wieviorka says, the therapist must be reliable, on schedules for example, or on the attention he gives you. There are a number of messages that can give clues.