This is probably something that you should know about me as a therapist: I would never ask you to do anything I\u2019m not prepared to do myself. So whatever I suggest in therapy you can be sure that I\u2019m doing it now or\u00a0 I have been doing it in the past.<\/p>\n
For example, when I ask you to exercise, do cognitive challenging, be mindful, challenge dysfunctional core-beliefs or face situations that make you fearful you can rest assured that I know first-hand what I\u2019m asking you to do. It also means that my belief in the strategies that I give you is based not only on the available research but also on my personal experience.<\/p>\n
When I was studying at university, I was taught that if someone presented with Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) with a fear of germs the treatment was to expose them to progressively more anxiety-provoking situations (i.e., exposure therapy). This treatment works and seemed reasonable to me until we were told that to really drive the message home you ask the patient towards the end of treatment to rub their hands around in a toilet bowl in a public toilet and then leave without washing their hands.<\/p>\n
Yep \u2013 I\u2019m not making this up.<\/p>\n
The rationale for this treatment is, of course, that you go over and beyond normal behaviour to make sure that the fear is truly extinguished.\u00a0 Except that I would not be prepared to do that myself and has consequently never asked a patient to do it either.<\/p>\n
So you can do as I do not only as I say\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is probably something that you should know about me as a therapist: I would never ask you to do anything I\u2019m not prepared to do myself. So whatever I suggest in therapy you can be sure that I\u2019m doing … Continue reading