And most of them were superficially likable. They would say things like “we care”, or “we got your back”, but I felt a pervasive undercurrent of unprocessed anxiety and in some cases anger.
Us trauma folks are hypersensitive. I don’t miss much when I am paying attention.
And it struck me to consider what a typical psychotherapist does all day. They sit in an office, and people come to them for advice. They sit in a place, in other words, of social power, power which is unchallenged in a typical day. Therapists might disagree with one another, in group practices, but the fundamental need they all have to be in charge, and being paid to tell other people how to live their lives, is unchallenged and latent.
My goal continues to be to create something which works better. I have hurdles, troubles, and work to do. I did an I Ching reading which rang true because it said “you’ll get there eventually, but you will pay your dues, motherfucker.”
But I’ve lived in this system. I’ve seen it up close. And my honest opinion is that priests do Catholics more good than most therapists. Rabbis for Jews, and preachers for Protestants. Because they teach faith, and faith is the beginning of everything.
Consider this: if you went to fifteen therapists with the same complaint, how many treatment approaches do you think you would get? Is that the mark of a mature science?