Is modern psychotherapy too shallow?
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Dr. Jonathan Shedler, an expert in psychoanalysis, believes that modern psychotherapy has indeed become shallow in the past few decades. He argues that there's been a shift towards increasingly brief, superficial, and cost-effective interventions, often marketed as "evidence-based" and "scientific" forms of treatment. However, these methods primarily focus on managing symptoms and surface-level thoughts and behaviors, neglecting the deeper psychological issues that give rise to these symptoms. According to Dr. Shedler, effective psychotherapy should involve understanding parts of ourselves that are not in our immediate awareness to avoid repeating harmful patterns in life 1.
This perspective is echoed by other experts like Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, who highlights that while modern mental health practices often focus on medications and traditional talk therapies, there's a significant need to explore alternative methods that address the right-brain phenomena and other dimensions of trauma. Van der Kolk suggests broadening the approach to include various other therapeutic activities, like tango dancing, which may be more effective for some individuals compared to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) 2.
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