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The year is 2023 (the last time I checked, anyway). AI is coming for our jobs, "Alexa" has stolen our wives and children, and I can’t find where I left my house keys. And more than ever, in an attempt to “stay sane when the world seems crazy,” as The New York Times puts it, people are getting therapy.
Therapy! A very delicate thing with a complicated definition that’s changed so harshly over the past few years that its practitioners are still nursing the whiplash. A therapist was once a bespectacled practitioner in a well-fitting suit, listening in quiet stillness as their many patients filed in and out. Now, a therapist is an automated interface programmed with cognitive behavioral data, an icon on a Headspace app, or a trendy, tattooed Millennial with shaved sides and a cardigan. They all rub their necks, sore from the pain of jostled identities and bewildering landscapes. But like the therapists of yesteryear, they remain quiet, assuming that these are the times and they should simply get with them.
This brings us to our post – ours, not just mine, as I am just a humble writer who will hopefully have the input and expertise of the many brilliant and exceptional clinicians reading this right now. There’s no denying that therapy has undergone a pretty extensive evolution since its’ inception, from traditional psychoanalysis to Gestalt therapy, humanistic therapy, cognitive behavioral, and much, much more.
Therapists have always been a colorful and interesting lot, quibbling over theories and trying to leverage the latest research to inform their practices. So, if therapy constantly changes, why write a post about therapist culture now? What makes today different from last year, 10 years ago, or 50 years ago? The answer is simple: because, for some reason, it’s not being talked about anywhere else.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, things are quite different in the therapy world than they’ve ever been. In the last 20 years, with the popularization of the internet, once-small communities of therapists have expanded globally. And in the past three pandemic-tainted years, as mental health in the general population has declined, therapists are scrambling to keep up. Now, we have modality crazes, with new acronym training every week – the more certificates you have, the more you feel like a better therapist.
Freelancers like myself are paid to write eloquently phrased websites that aspire to connect with prospective patients before you’ve even had a phone call. Therapists are expected to be marketing experts, billing departments, social media managers, IT specialists, voracious readers, constant upskillers, skilled writers, small business owners, conference attendees, scheduling whizzes, and – of course – therapists, all at once. And this unspoken contract is one the therapist signs the day they receive their license in the mail. The competition is stiff, scary, and overwhelming.
That’s why examining therapy culture now is of the utmost importance. How often are we able to scale back, change the magnification on the microscope and see the organism in its entirety; its’ shape and size, the way it moves, and how it grows and changes? And were we to get a good look at this phenomenon from a distance, how would that impact how therapists build their practices and relationships and, ultimately, aid their patients’ psychic development? If therapists know one thing, there’s little disadvantage to assessing, examining, and analyzing phenomena, including repetitions, enactments, and acting-outs. As long as we do it right, of course – with patience, curiosity, and perpetual enjoyment.
To find a therapist, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.
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If you’re a practicing clinician who’d like to share some of your thoughts about trends you see in how therapists interact, how they’re trained, how they assemble and maintain their practices, or how they market themselves, please feel free to reach out to me.
