The issue of self-harm is gaining a higher profile, in the UK at least, but it still remains to some extent a hidden and misunderstood problem, as evidenced by the stereotype of a teenage girl cutting her arms in a dark bedroom.
Although a therapist is a professional, this does not mean that being deferential to them is in your best interests as a client. If you feel that you are not making progress, or that your therapist does not ‘get’ you or what you are saying, it is time to speak up.
Doing something totally different — whether that means meditating, going for a walk, or quite literally, cleaning — stepping outside the obsessive thoughts and calculations brings that clear, bright, refreshing feeling back.
An extensive study by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research concludes that PTSD and depression play a larger role than previously acknowledged in symptoms suffered by soldiers returning from war.
This is often one of the first questions in the mind of a prospective client when they meet a therapist for the first time. The therapist often gives an answer along the lines that each “case” is individual, but how often does this answer sound like a platitude?
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