Thread on the confusingly many diff kinds of therapy and what we should do about it:. The public must be very confused about what they will experience when they see a psychotherapist. They hear many acronyms and names: EMDR, ACT, AEDP, EFT, DBT, CBT, Rogerian, etc. It takes. .

RT @wtf_is_life_pod: When liberating the ineffable from our deepest states of being, is it not the poet who ferries the unfelt into experie….

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RT @JonathanShedler: New carousel is up! . (link below 👇)

Are too many therapists in the pocket of Big Exercise?. Paid off by lululemon and 24 hour fitness.😂.

RT @proud_penelope: When I worked in family preservation/child crisis, it was not uncommon for the school counselor or school-based therapi….

of doing the work of psych change. This is not anti-exercise. It’s just pushback against the idea that recommending exercise is the main medicine for clinical depression.

And in fact it may simply be shaming, negatively impactful and impinging in the therapy relationship, etc. In these cases, psych growth and restoration of the SEEKING system is hard. Starting exercise (or music class) is more a sign that the work is going well than it is a way.

Telling these people with more serious SEEKING problems, who have more of a clinical than sub clinical level of depression -or music class, yoga- to exercise is NOT helpful. It is like telling someone to be less anxious. You can tell them but it doesn’t do anything.

such that their SEEKING system can’t and won’t engage even if they go out and buy a bike, ride, etc. And if the SEEKING system is more thoroughly, strongly impacted, it would be hard to even generate the in-the-moment motivation to go out and ride the bike.

Why do I say that distinguishing the benefits of play from the benefits of physical exertion is important?. Some people can benefit from being advised to and nudged to take up a new form of play, whether it be exercise or music or whatever. But some people have a bigger problem.

The idea that physical exertion alone reduces depression is hard to reconcile with the difficult (though importantly complex) experience of hard manual labor. Give it a try if you doubt it.

I strongly suspect that the main driver in improved mood from taking up exercising is that you’re finding new ways to play. By contrast, take up -or imagine taking up- ditch digging. It is physically very demanding. It works cardio and muscles. (Which may have some MH benefits).

Here is some brief material on SEEKING and depression:.

for adults. Thus when people start exercising, I think it simply must be the case that their SEEKING system (a part of the brain that is involved in depressed states) is being activated. It’s new, it’s exciting, it’s playful to start working out.

I am fascinated by how people who are in to “exercise culture” (for lack of a better word) as opposed to people who work hard physically for a living feel about physical exertion,. One thing that’s important is that exercise is not just physical, it’s socially sanctioned play.

A note on exercise. depression, and why recommending exercise for depression is not always helpful.

RT @awaisaftab: “@paulsummergrad comes closest to “my kind of psychiatrist” here, including when he speaks of his personal and professional….

This is what passes as a serious criticism of psychotherapy.

Sometimes I think we will eventually need a law saying it’s illegal to impersonate a person to protect people from the overwhelming power of their own psychological projections leaving them open to delusion and manipulation and exploitation.

COACHES THEM. (Personal coach, guru, etc is a better description than therapy app here.). Making the app more impersonal, more like wikipedia tailored to your specific question is a start but more will be required.

“I can imagine a future where a lot of people really trust ChatGPT’s advice for their most important decisions. Although that could be great, it makes me uneasy.”. EVEN THE GUY SELLING IT IS LIKE “I AM WORRIED ABOUT PEOPLE WHO THINK MY TALKING APP LOVES THEM AND PERSONALLY.