The Hardest Things in Psychotherapy

A 12-post series on what the field misses and shouldn’t.

Series Announcement

Most writing about psychotherapy is about what works.

This series is about some of the most difficult parts of psychotherapy: clinical issues that are difficult to see and learn, and are not easy to manage.

These are not so much techniques, but issues that most of our training doesn’t prepare us for. There are some experiential truths about psychotherapy that take a long time to process.

After forty years in the room, I’ve come to believe that a discussion that often gets left out is this:

• How to be radically honest and therapeutic when we don’t know how to handle a situation, have no solutions, have no theory to help us, or when we make mistakes.

These issues often define what it means to be capable of the deepest psychological work with our patients.

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Over the summer, I’ll be publishing weekly pieces in this 12-part series written from inside the work, not above it. A preview of what to expect below.

Twelve Posts: The Hardest Things in Psychotherapy

1. Some Trauma’s Are forever. Saying So Is Part of the Treatment.

2. Witnessing Is a Skill. We Don’t Teach It.

3. What type of therapy do I want? It depends on your preferences.

4. Envy— I Want All of What You Have and All of Who You Are ( Part 1)

5. Envy— I Want All of What You Have and All of Who You Are ( Part 2)

6. The Therapist Who Can’t Be Wrong Is the Most Dangerous Person in the Room.

7. The Story You Were Given Isn’t the One You Have to Keep.

8. Being Seen Is Not a Technique.

9. Too Much Feeling, Too Little Feeling: The Therapist as Regulator.

10. Right Therapy, Right Time, Right Person — And Why We Keep Getting It Wrong.

11. What Free Association Actually Does.

12. Devaluation Is Not an Attack. Treating It Like One Is a Mistake.

We begin today with the first.

Some Trauma’s Are forever.

Saying So Is Part of the Treatment.

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Robert E. Feinstein, MD

Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, Educator, and Supervisor Contact: Feinster@RobFeinsteinMD.com

Owner & Founder Empathian LLC ( An Online Mental Health Education Company) Empathian.com

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