Thank you so much for this article Richard. You saved my life today as I am experiencing severe cognitive dissonance due to CBT even after terminating therapy. After two years of bad CBT therapy, I am still suffering the destructive impact of a narcissistic therapist who projected all her social stereotypes and subconscious negative feelings onto me (she had suffered from postpartum and had not resolved her issues in my opinion) and wanted to promote my social stability, order, temperance and subservience. Meanwhile, she did not deal at all with countertransference and I felt like I had to keep dodging tennis balls in a court where I had no opponent/partner but I had to keep going. She also crossed boundaries several times with requests to cooperate on a professional level, to offer her my own professional services, talking about her family and children and problems – I guess she was lonely – and other such violations. After two years, I realised the therapy was not only unsuccessful and wanted to terminate, but when expressing a wish to do so because it did not suit me, she proposed I take medication so as to verify the typical formula CBT+drugs=success and to validate her job as a therapist (and a bad one at that). She even made me go back to a job environment in which I had started having panic attacks, even after I clearly expressed several times that I did not want to go back. And this confrontational approach led to more panic attacks, surprise surprise! I am an artist and so for me, CBT was detrimental as it did not take into account my personality, my creativity or spirituality and actually defiled these elements of self. I will forever be against CBT, due to adverse personal experience in me and others I have talked with, even though, perhaps in the case of a moral and empathic therapist, CBT may be helpful to some. But, there should definitely be an individual-based approach and consideration to personality, values, belief systems, cultural traits and behaviours. CBT is not a PANACEA! Also, if a therapist has become cynical or ego driven over time and self-centred, it is their moral responsibility to give it up and do something else. Thank you for having an alternative view on this “deified” form of therapy and thank you for allowing me textual space to express my opinion freely.
Thank you so much for this article Richard. You saved my life today as I am experiencing severe cognitive dissonance due to CBT even after terminating therapy. After two years of bad CBT therapy, I am still suffering the destructive impact of a narcissistic therapist who projected all her social stereotypes and subconscious negative feelings onto me (she had suffered from postpartum and had not resolved her issues in my opinion) and wanted to promote my social stability, order, temperance and subservience. Meanwhile, she did not deal at all with countertransference and I felt like I had to keep dodging tennis balls in a court where I had no opponent/partner but I had to keep going. She also crossed boundaries several times with requests to cooperate on a professional level, to offer her my own professional services, talking about her family and children and problems – I guess she was lonely – and other such violations. After two years, I realised the therapy was not only unsuccessful and wanted to terminate, but when expressing a wish to do so because it did not suit me, she proposed I take medication so as to verify the typical formula CBT+drugs=success and to validate her job as a therapist (and a bad one at that). She even made me go back to a job environment in which I had started having panic attacks, even after I clearly expressed several times that I did not want to go back. And this confrontational approach led to more panic attacks, surprise surprise! I am an artist and so for me, CBT was detrimental as it did not take into account my personality, my creativity or spirituality and actually defiled these elements of self. I will forever be against CBT, due to adverse personal experience in me and others I have talked with, even though, perhaps in the case of a moral and empathic therapist, CBT may be helpful to some. But, there should definitely be an individual-based approach and consideration to personality, values, belief systems, cultural traits and behaviours. CBT is not a PANACEA! Also, if a therapist has become cynical or ego driven over time and self-centred, it is their moral responsibility to give it up and do something else. Thank you for having an alternative view on this “deified” form of therapy and thank you for allowing me textual space to express my opinion freely.