A humorous account of a successful therapy

I listened to the following story on the radio and found it really touching. It's by Dan Kennedy, the host of The Moth podcast and the author of the books Loser Goes First and Rock On: An Office Power-Ballad. While Dan often tells his own stories, usually they aren't about such personal subjects.

I like the story because we have all of these different ideas of what good therapy is. Research has shown that while there are quite a wide variety of approaches to therapy, most seem to work pretty well, and the specific approach doesn't seem to matter as much as the quality of the chemistry/relationship between the therapist and the client.

This seems like an example of a successful therapy in which a good relationship, some life experience, a quirky sense of humor, and some common sense seemed to work very well. Dan even mentioned how his therapist, Milton, was a social worker (LCSW) and provided "counseling."

My step mother is an LCSW and I really respect this approach as well. I asked her what one of the most important things to look for in a therapist was, one time, and she said a good sense of humor. I love just how basic and simple that is. When I asked why, she just said that you're going to be going through some tough times, and humor makes it easier.

Another thing I liked was that the therapist taught him how to feel his feelings when he needed to and also how to move forward when he needed to. That spoke to me because that is a balance that I think is crucial. It's also one that I put a lot of effort into learning to find in my own life.

Here's the video. It may be hard to relate to the narrator, but I love the way he isn't afraid to let his truth shine through.

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I'm curious to hear, how does this account compare to your sense of how a good therapy should work? Is it about how you think things should work?