Strange Therapy Methods

[What_The_Frick]

Have you ever gone to a therapist and left thinking they were stranger or messed up than you?

I recently went to see a new therapist, and while we were talking, he asked for specifics memories from my childhood. I mentioned one that I have no feelings good or bad about and never did, and he was insisting this memory changed me for the worse. I totally get how you can have things happen and you dont think that they are affecting you 10 years later when they really are, but this guy was making some tiny thing that happened, seem like I was repressing some traumatic memory. He then had be hold these 2 small circles that were hooked up to a controller he was using to alternate vibrations in my hands which he said would move the memory from one side of my brain to the other. This is literally how this went…

*Therapist: Think about the memory.

Buzz(right hand)- Buzz (left hand) - Buzz (RH) Buzz (LH) and about 5 more times.

Therapist: now how do you feel about the memory?

Me: the same

Therapist: OK think about that.

Buzz(right hand)- Buzz (left hand) - Buzz (RH) Buzz (LH) and about 5 more times

Therapist: How do you feel now?

Me: the same.

Therapist: what Im trying to do is switch your shame with guilt.

Me: I am not ashamed.

Therapist: OK think about that.

Buzz(right hand)- Buzz (left hand) - Buzz (RH) Buzz (LH) and about 5 more times

Me: I dont understand how this works. If you feel guilty about something you can change it. i cant change the past so why would I want to feel guilty? The real issue I want to fix is how do I stop doing stuff when I know I am wrong but keep doing it.

Therapist: Im trying to change your relationship with your Mom.

Me: our relationship is fine.

Therapist: No the past relationship, and you change what your doing through therapy.

Me: OK… *

You think this was long? Imagine another 45 minutes of that.
Any one have similar stories?

[Rhythmdvl]

E-meter?

Maybe you should enjoy South Park some more.

Okay, now think about that.

[Spice_Weasel]

Arrrgh! I freakin’ hate flake psychologists. I would support the removal of this person’s license immeidately. Can you imagine a medical doctor getting away with this crap? But somehow it’s okay for a therapist to pull shit out of their ass and claim to be an expert after 20 years of pulling shit out of their ass.

I once tried EMDR to treat PTSD. I asked the therapist how it worked. She said she didn’t know. I asked her about the research backing up the treatment. She could provide me absolutely no information. Our relationship didn’t last very long.

ETA: And while we’re at it, you know what really sucks? When you contact a therapist asking for an evidence based intervention, specifically saying, ‘‘I’m looking for a CBT therapist,’’ and they basically lie to get you in the door, and once there you find out they don’t know shit about the therapy you want. HATE!

[wheresmymind]

Your “therapist” is a quack. That type of gimmick in a therapy session would send me looking elsewhere. A therapist should ask questions and listen carefully, and little else. In my (limited, but successful) experience with psychologists, the best ones seemed to be the ones who said the least.

[monstro]

My therapist has done Rapid Eye Movement Therapy with me on a couple of occasions. It works kinda like the buzzers. You think of a bad memory and then follow this row of flashing lights with your eyes for a while. Then you tweak the bad memory gradually, letting the “thought” sink in while you stare at the flashy lights some more.

I did the buzzers once too. They reminded me of vibrators. I remember crying afterwards because it was just too weird for words.

They’re all in her bag of tricks. Fortunately for me, she’s got a lot of them so I wasn’t stuck with just those. I’m glad it took a long time for her to bring them out. If I had started off therapy doing those things, I would have been totally freaked out.

[perfectparanoia]

@monstro

My therapist has done Rapid Eye Movement Therapy with me on a couple of occasions. It works kinda like the buzzers. You think of a bad memory and then follow this row of flashing lights with your eyes for a while. Then you tweak the bad memory gradually, letting the “thought” sink in while you stare at the flashy lights some more.

I did the buzzers once too. They reminded me of vibrators. I remember crying afterwards because it was just too weird for words.

They’re all in her bag of tricks. Fortunately for me, she’s got a lot of them so I wasn’t stuck with just those. I’m glad it took a long time for her to bring them out. If I had started off therapy doing those things, I would have been totally freaked out.

This is what my therapist wants to do. While I admit I am highly skeptical, she has managed to find my ‘trigger points’ that I didn’t even know were there. So, so far, so good.

[Rushgeekgirl]

My therapist wants to try EMDR too. I didn’t know it was quack-ish. Now that worries me. I’ve been doing CBT but it’s not really making much of a difference when it comes to my main problems.

[Spice_Weasel]

@Rushgeekgirl

My therapist wants to try EMDR too. I didn’t know it was quack-ish. Now that worries me. I’ve been doing CBT but it’s not really making much of a difference when it comes to my main problems.

It’s not totally quackish. There is some good evidence that it works, but the major criticism is that it’s just like CBT with a bunch of goofy stuff thrown in.

The few times I did EMDR it made me feel like I was tripping. Not that I know what that feels like.

[charmstr]

An interesting Scientific American article describing EMDR and comparing it with other forms of therapy is here. The upshot is:

What is effective in EMDR is not new, and what is new is not effective.

[Maastricht]

@Rushgeekgirl

My therapist wants to try EMDR too. I didn’t know it was quack-ish. Now that worries me. I’ve been doing CBT but it’s not really making much of a difference when it comes to my main problems.

EMDR is not a quack therapy. (link through Wikipedia)

Empirical evidence and comparison

In a 2007 review of 33 randomised controlled trials of various psychological treatments for PTSD, EMDR was rated as an effective method, not significantly different in effect from Trauma-Focused CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) or SM (Stress Management) treatments. EMDR did significantly better than other therapies, according to patient self-reports. The International Society of Stress Studies practice guidelines categorized EMDR as an evidence-based level A treatment for PTSD in adults. A number of international guidelines include EMDR as a recommended treatment for trauma.
Research on the application of EMDR therapy continues, and several meta-analyses have been performed to further evaluate its efficacy in the treatment of PTSD. In one meta-analysis of PTSD, EMDR was reported to be as effective as exposure therapy and SSRIs. Two separate meta-analyses suggested that traditional exposure therapy and EMDR have equivalent effects both immediately after treatment and at follow-up. A 2007 meta-analysis of 38 randomized controlled trials for PTSD treatment suggested that the first-line psychological treatment for PTSD should be Trauma-Focused CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) or EMDR.
A review of rape treatment outcomes concluded that EMDR had some efficacy.
Another meta-analysis concluded that all “bona fide” treatments were equally effective, but there was some debate regarding the study’s selection of which treatments were “bona fide”. A comparative review concluded EMDR to be of similar efficacy to other exposure therapies and more effective than SSRIs, problem-centred therapy, or treatment as usual.

[ralph124c]

Has anyone undergone rolfing?
I thought it might be similar to “ralphing”!!

[perfectparanoia]

After working so long to find a therapist who is smart enough to keep up with me, I will do just about anything she suggests.

[grude]

My parents when I was a child took me to a psychologist or therapist for children, just to head off comments this was a actual legit practice in a large hospital.

They took me when I was about six years old because of suspected ADD and basically misbehaving in general, I was put on ritalin but my mother took me off because I was basically high 24/7 and not sleeping.

I have confirmed with both of them that they were with me the entire time in the room and I was never alone with the psychologist, that this did occur and they were as baffled as me but didn’t question it.

He talked to them, talked to me, and then asked them to undress me completely and had me do weird exercises like walking in a straight line and balancing.

:dubious: So what exactly was this?

This wasn’t a GP, and like I said they confirm it happened and that they were with me in the room the whole time(same way I remember it.)

[Rachellelogram]

mever nined.

[lavenderviolet]

@grude

He talked to them, talked to me, and then asked them to undress me completely and had me do weird exercises like walking in a straight line and balancing.

Any chance that it was a PSYCHIATRIST not a psychologist? If this was the person who prescribed your medication it was almost certainly a psychiatrist, not a psychologist.
Psychiatrists are medical doctors just like a GP is, and therefore it would be well within their scope of practice to do a physical exam as part of their evaluation. It sounds like he was probably just doing a neurological exam when he asked you to walk in a straight line and stuff like that.
So my best guess is that it was a psychiatrist who did a pretty thorough physical exam, not some kind of pedophile.

[Poysyn]

@Maastricht

EMDR is not a quack therapy. (link through Wikipedia)

EMDR worked for me and I had pretty severe PTSD symptoms, but like anything, it doesn’t work for everyone. That’s why PTSD is so tough to treat.

[Soylent_Juicy]

I went to a chiropractor many years ago on a recommendation from a friend. Along with his back-cracking practice he had this machine that he designed…I forget exactly what it was supposed to do, but he hooked you up to this machine with electrodes and turned the dials, and then somehow figured out what herbal product you needed to round-out your system or something. He sold me “bee pollen” pills to take once a day. (I remember thinking that they DID work for whatever my apparent issue was, but that could have been psychosomatic.) He ended up not being allowed to use that machine on patients anymore after an inspection from some sort of Powers That Be.

[gracer]

@grude

My parents when I was a child took me to a psychologist or therapist for children, just to head off comments this was a actual legit practice in a large hospital.

They took me when I was about six years old because of suspected ADD and basically misbehaving in general, I was put on ritalin but my mother took me off because I was basically high 24/7 and not sleeping.

I have confirmed with both of them that they were with me the entire time in the room and I was never alone with the psychologist, that this did occur and they were as baffled as me but didn’t question it.

He talked to them, talked to me, and then asked them to undress me completely and had me do weird exercises like walking in a straight line and balancing.

:dubious: So what exactly was this?

This wasn’t a GP, and like I said they confirm it happened and that they were with me in the room the whole time(same way I remember it.)

This sounds somewhat similar to a “therapist” I visited when I was very young and it was suggested I might be dyslexic*. The therapist convinced my parents I was indeed dyslexic and told them to bring me over once a week for “therapy”. It consisted of me doing weird exercises. I distinctly remember her waving a Santa on a stick at me, rolling around on a giant ball, also walking up & down and balancing. After a few sessions I told my parents what we were doing in the sessions and then I read a huge book in a few hours and they realised it was quackery.

Still don’t know what kind of quackery, or how she was actually going to “cure” dyslexia.

*I have no idea why or who thought this. I have always been a very fast reader, and I learned to read young. I think it was just early day for dyslexia.

[Fuzzy_Dunlop]

@grude

He talked to them, talked to me, and then asked them to undress me completely and had me do weird exercises like walking in a straight line and balancing.

:dubious: So what exactly was this?

This wasn’t a GP, and like I said they confirm it happened and that they were with me in the room the whole time(same way I remember it.)

It was part of a neurological examination, not therapy at all. You probably needed to be undressed so he could observe your muscles working. The balancing and walking straight are to make sure you can do those things normally. Did he test your reflexes and ask you to show him you’re capable of basic feats of strength like gripping his finger or pushing his hand away?

[DSeid]

EMDR not only works but the most recent research shows that it “may offer an effective option for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is more rapid than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)”.

both those who received EMDR and those who received a form of trauma-focused CBT known as brief eclectic psychotherapy had reductions in symptom severity. However, the EMDR-treated group also showed a significantly faster recovery. …

… “The main take-away message is that both treatments are equally effective, and that the patient and clinician can choose a certain treatment based on their preferences,” said Nijdam.

“If a patient values fast symptom reduction, EMDR is the treatment of choice. If a patient feels the need to make meaning out of the traumatic experience and learn from it, brief eclectic psychotherapy is the best choice,” she explained.

However it works (for PTSD), it works, and works differently than traditional CBT.

The op’s experience OTOH is another story.