“Provocative Therapy: Kill or Cure!” Comments, Page 1

Just click to return to the article “Provocative Therapy: Kill or Cure!”.

11 Comments (2 Discussion Threads) on “Provocative Therapy: Kill or Cure!”

  1. Rogers has been unfairly caricatured. From the beginning he emphasised transparency by the therapist (not just agreeing with the client). It would be interesting to investigate this ‘forgetting’ by therapists. Perhaps they prefer hiding behind roles(?)

    My worry about this kind of therapy (which is not so different to some parts of gestalt practised by Fritz Perls, who was a real p*&^k on occasion – though by no means always) is that it appeals to power freaks.

    Victor Frankl has a theory that has a coherent place for humour.

    Exaggeration is a part of lots of the person-centred therapies. It sounds like a one-trick process. And it chooses those who will be helped by this trick. Which is great.

    As to the explanation. This seems circular. The person is helped by mobilising these resources, therefore the therapy evokes these resources. It doesn’t say how this is actually done. For this it would need to investigate perception and the way we make meaning.

  2. Thanks as ever for the thoughtful comment Evan (ever get the feeling we’re alone in a huge, draughty room?!)

    I totally agree with your point re Perls and other therapists who sometimes, despite their insights, come across as showmen on a power trip.

    I would also like some more explanation on how the resources are actually, speicifically evoked by this therapy. It didn’t seem actually to quite match up. This seems more of an extreme kind of zen therapy – more about just dropping the storyline.

    1. Hello, I am worried about this kind of therapy. I am bipolar and 3 years ago I met a therapist using provocative therapy on me, but I was never told what kind of therapy and it´s not a common treatment in Norway.

      At that time I was manic and I really followed through with all the “crazy” suggestions we were talking about. I think it happened cause we were both trying to prove something and testing each other out, In the end a game between the two of us. He was laughing and testing and I was doing the same back. The issues I had, grew bigger and bigger and in the end I felt hate and I believed the things he told me. I thought my family hated me, that I didn`t need medicines, I thought I could run away to Thailand and work…to prove something to my father, to prove that I wasn`t sick…

      It ended up with me running away to Thailand, leaving my family in anger and throwing away all the safety in my life, just to prove something to my therapist. I lost myself completely in a chaotic and different world, everything went wrong. I was playing with death and was almost killed in the end.

      I came back dead inside and traumatized, after 6 months of mania, in a country I didn`t know and without medication.

      I can understand how this could happen today, but it was not worth almost destroying myself and hurting the people I love. I spent many years after this incident, struggling with my conscientious and feeling like a monster because I hurt my loved ones. I`m lucky to be alive and that I`ve found my spirit again. I don`t blame anyone, but I think that this kind of therapy should be handled with care. I can see that it`s a risk that some therapists can fall into the role of playing God and I know for certain that provocative therapy shouldn`t be mixed with mania.

      Can you tell me some facts or studies about this therapy and bipolar disorder?

      By the way, I`m sorry if my English is bad written.

  3. Yeah, I do get that feeling of aloneness. On the other hand lots of other people also note that the commenters are few compared with the number of readers.

    I comfort myself with the numbers of readers and subscribers.

    I wonder if the ratio of commenters to readers is the same as readers of newspapers to those who write letters and emails. It would be good to have some data.

  4. As a Farrelly approved Provocative Therapy Trainer and good friend of Frank, I have never heard of this approach “killing” anyone, although many have discovered immense benefits…

    Before anyone “worries” about the potential implications of what they imagine PT could do, I suggest attending a live training, reading the original book and/or watching the released DVD material of this approach in action. Anyone studying PT would know it is TOTALLY different to Fritz’s work and any suggestions otherwise are quite ludicrous

    I use Provocative Therapy alongside other approaches with literally hundreds of clients each year, many of which had previously attended years of CBT without success. Frank will be in the UK to present his work on Nov 1 & 2 (see http://www.tranceformingnlp.com)

    REgards

    Nick Kemp
    Provocative Therapy & Provocative Change Works Trainer

  5. thanks for commenting, Nick!

    My tongue was very firmly in my cheek when I wrote the title there ;-) didn’t mean to imply that this form of therapy is actually lethal!

    Thanks for the info. As I stated (I hope clearly enough!) I really have the most superficial knowledge of the approach. I wasn’t meaning to introduce the approach on its own terms so much as to comment on how it sounds to me, from the outside, and the thoughts provoked, which are all mine.

    I am interested in learning more and apologise to anyone who might feel a helpful approach has been unfairly caricatured.

  6. Heidi, sorry to hear of your horrendous experience. It sounds like a professional disaster – not informing you of the type of therapy it was is completely unethical. I don’t have any information on provocative therapy and bi polar but I would imagine, and your experience illustrates unfortunately all too well, that provocative therapy and mania can be an extraordinarily bad mix.
    Glad to hear you have got your life together once more, despite the therapy and its dangerous consequences. Therapists ‘playing god’ whatever their orientation, can do a lot of harm.

Leave a Reply to Evan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
 characters available

In accordance with our Privacy Policy, your email address will not be published with your comment or shared in any other way. Please do not SPAM. Comments which solicit personal advice, are rude or inflammatory, are not about this specific post, or are otherwise not in keeping with our Terms of Use may be deleted at our discretion. If you would like to make a comment or ask a question about something other than the subject matter of this post, please do get in touch directly.

Overseen by an international advisory board of distinguished academic faculty and mental health professionals with decades of clinical and research experience in the US, UK and Europe, CounsellingResource.com provides peer-reviewed mental health information you can trust. Our material is not intended as a substitute for direct consultation with a qualified mental health professional. CounsellingResource.com is accredited by the Health on the Net Foundation.

Copyright © 2002-2024. All Rights Reserved.