The three month working at TraumaClinic and at Good Hope Seminary High School are over now. It was challenging, I doubted a lot, learned a lot and challenged my mindset of thinking about therapy.
There are a few things my supervisors said to me during my time there.
One challenged the idea of therapy as I know it. In Germany, health insurances pay psychotherapy and because everyone has insurance they decide how long a therapy should be. As a behavioral therapist you get 45 hours for a patient to do therapy with. If you need more, you can file a motion of prolonging the therapy and get more hours.
My supervisor challenged this frame, in which I was used to thinking. It's tricky to actually achieve anything in therapy that way. The aim of therapy is to make patients able to deal. We try to help them deal on their own by telling them they need a therapist to do so. That is kind of paradox. Coming from there, my supervisor told me that he doesn't want to see patients more than maximum 5 times. If his input didn't help them till then, it is more than likely that he became part of the problem. How can you help someone onto their feet by telling them they can only stand with you on their side.
Got me thinking.
We also talked about why psychologists want to be psychotherapists. Because we want to help. Maybe. But one doesn't have to study 7 years and get another 3 years of training to help people. Like teachers, therapists have are motivated a lot by power. Power to have an impact. Power to nudge people to do something, anything.
That complicates the paradoxon of therapy, talked about earlier. So we tell someone he can only stand when we are there. That does satisfy the power motive of the therapist. Witches circle.
Another thing that will stick with me, was one wonderful insight of my other supervisor: we get the cases that we need.
I had some tough cases in my time at Good Hope Seminary. Some were easy to handle, many were fun, some really got to me. Those where the cases where I was glad to have Karin as my colleague and supervisors to talk to. In my training to become a therapist to be, I have to have courses of self-awareness. Some of my cases made me aware of some of my soft spots already. Like Heidi said: we get the cases we need.
There are a few things my supervisors said to me during my time there.
One challenged the idea of therapy as I know it. In Germany, health insurances pay psychotherapy and because everyone has insurance they decide how long a therapy should be. As a behavioral therapist you get 45 hours for a patient to do therapy with. If you need more, you can file a motion of prolonging the therapy and get more hours.
My supervisor challenged this frame, in which I was used to thinking. It's tricky to actually achieve anything in therapy that way. The aim of therapy is to make patients able to deal. We try to help them deal on their own by telling them they need a therapist to do so. That is kind of paradox. Coming from there, my supervisor told me that he doesn't want to see patients more than maximum 5 times. If his input didn't help them till then, it is more than likely that he became part of the problem. How can you help someone onto their feet by telling them they can only stand with you on their side.
Got me thinking.
We also talked about why psychologists want to be psychotherapists. Because we want to help. Maybe. But one doesn't have to study 7 years and get another 3 years of training to help people. Like teachers, therapists have are motivated a lot by power. Power to have an impact. Power to nudge people to do something, anything.
That complicates the paradoxon of therapy, talked about earlier. So we tell someone he can only stand when we are there. That does satisfy the power motive of the therapist. Witches circle.
Another thing that will stick with me, was one wonderful insight of my other supervisor: we get the cases that we need.
I had some tough cases in my time at Good Hope Seminary. Some were easy to handle, many were fun, some really got to me. Those where the cases where I was glad to have Karin as my colleague and supervisors to talk to. In my training to become a therapist to be, I have to have courses of self-awareness. Some of my cases made me aware of some of my soft spots already. Like Heidi said: we get the cases we need.
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