Addendum – Mental Health and Treatment and the Goals of Mental Health Professionals

Addendum – Mental Health and Treatment and the Goals of Mental Health Professionals

I wanted to clarify issues brought up in a previous post or two on this blog.

The poster who calls herself Donna Hazel, if I am recalling and understanding correctly, was mistakenly assuming that I was absolutely demanding and insisting that if CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) or BA (Behavioral Activation) therapy helped me personally with depression (and my on-going anxiety) that it would and could also help an online friend of mine who has depression.

That is not so much what I was declaring, no.

I do not think it would hurt this now ex friend of mine, whom I referred to as “Emma,” to at least take a look at and consider some of the CBT and BA related links I sent her (some were articles, some were videos by therapists or psychologists on You Tube). (I will write more on this below.)

To her own detriment, I don’t think “Emma” even  bothered to view any of the videos or articles I linked her to; I think she just glanced at their headlines and was infuriated I was sending her something other than non-judgmental emotional support for a change.

Some mental health professionals are very sensitive to critiques of their field. I’ve seen this before on other sites where I write.

Some mental health professionals take criticisms of their profession in stride, while others take it as a personal affront, and they will leave cranky replies to your article.

(And by the way, no, you don’t need to have a college degree in some field to criticize it and to notice flaws with it or with some of its practitioners or their approaches.)

Yet other mental health professionals love to argue over which and what therapies they think “are best.”

Some psychologists and psychotherapists may dislike or disagree with BA or CBT – which is all fine and dandy.

GOALS OF TREATMENT

One of the goals in American psychology is to get a patient functioning.

I have learned that from college level psychology courses I took, and one can find this information online now, as well.