You know as a trainee social worker in the early 1980’s one of the ‘sacred cows’ promoted at what was in now the University of Central Lancashire was that of not nurturing dependency of clients upon oneself. Promoting and developing strengths, enabling, growth etc etc were and still are ‘core values’ of social work and quite rightly so. Dependency nope! As I progressed through my career I recognised that sometimes long-term relationships with clients were helpful in terms of knowledge, the relationship itself, stability etc but only where there remained an ethical professional value to the relationship.

As I moved from social work into mental health teams and some seven years ago into private practice I sustained an awareness of the issues around dependency and have come across a number of clients who have and are ‘doing the rounds’ from one therapist to another. This concerns me when I happen across this and I am mindful to question what is going on. (There is much to read on google about this …. just try ‘addicted to therapy’ and see how much comes up!)

 

This concern arose in the summer when a client presented for weight loss and where other issues of low self esteem, stress, pessimism re the future were evident. A young woman who objectively did not need to lose weight recounted a variety of ‘therapeutic’ experiences and therapists one of whom had led her to question her own intelligence. Clearly a bright and able woman my client was wrestling not only with a trouble past but with to put it bluntly very poor and clumsy support from those she had sought help from.

 

I worked with ‘T’ over a period of four months. Much of this was around unpicking some of the damage done by ‘therapy’ and building her self confidence. Finally she realised she didn’t need to see me or anyone else at all! Result! She had been drawn into a cycle of seeking help endlessly. ‘Dependent’ on therapy and you know why? Well simply no one had told her ‘there is nothing wrong with you’ and no one had had the ethical / moral compass to encorage her to give herself permission to trust in herself and to utilise her own abundant inner resources. If your reading this ‘T’ …. well done you and thank you for allowing me to share your words below:

 

I have a few additional learning needs and Russell gave me a great amount of support in according to my Dyslexia. if needed he would allow me to have additional time in the one to one sessions.

He would let me record the sessions and would email me a summary of each session to help me process the information.

Also, I had telephone support if and when it was needed.

Russell helped me see things from a more positive perspective and given me a new out look on life. He helps you to believe in yourself and to let go of old belief systems which no longer work for you.

He helped me accept and understand my past.

He helped me understand my relationship around food and was even happy to co work with a nutritionist I had been seeing.

He is committed and even tailored the Hypnosis recording in according to my needs so I could make it personal to my belief system.

I highly recommend him. T

Russell 24 11 16

Addicted to therapy… a happy ending!
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