Psychotherapy and the importance of listening

[Forest]

As some of you may know, I'll be speaking at the third TMS conference, this fall, in New York. (The pic they used for my bio is really terrible.) In order to better understand the other speakers and also out of general interest, I've recently been reading about psychoanalysis. It's a fascinating subject, if very dense.

Anyway, this afternoon I found myself at Lewis Aron's web site. Dr. Aron is a coauthor of Dr. Fran Sommer Anderson's (who is one of Dr. Sarno's most trusted psychologists) and is a psychoanalyst notable for his role in the development of relational psychoanalysis. I liked a quote from Dr. Aron that I found on his web site about the nature of psychoanalysis. Dr. Sarno writes in The Divided Mind that 20% of those accepted into his program need psychotherapy to get better (p. 150), so I thought I'd share the quote with the rest of you.

"That is what psychoanalysis is. That is what we offer: We listen to people in depth, over an extended period of time and with great intensity. We listen to what they say and to what they don't say; to what they say in words and to what they say through their bodies and enactments. And we listen to them by listening to ourselves, to our minds, our reveries, and our own bodily reactions. We listen to their life stories and to the story that they live with us in the room; their past, their present, and future. We listen to what they already know or can see about themselves, and we listen to what they can't see in themselves. We listen to ourselves listening. Psychoanalysis is a depth psychology, which means that we listen in depth and teach our students to listen. Whatever managed care says, and whatever drugs are prescribed, and whatever the research findings, people still want to be listened to in depth and always will. That's why there will always be patients who want and need an analytic approach and why there will always be therapists who need to learn it."

The quote reminded me of some reading that I've done about something called "The dodo bird verdict." The dodo bird verdict is the claim that all different approaches to psychotherapy are equally effective. Studies that gather data have offered some support for the verdict and, insofar as it is true, it supports the hypothesis that simply listening with compassion is one of the most important parts of psychotherapy. As Dr. Aron is arguably at the cutting edge of psychoanalytic research, it is nice to see consonance between his characterization of psychoanalysis and this interpretation of the empirical research.

As for the rest of us, I think that it reinforces the idea that when looking for a therapist, the relationship with the therapist is primary and more important than the specific theoretical orientation of the therapist.

Also, I would argue that this affirms what we do here in that, as peers, we are always listening to one another. I know that I've learned a tremendous amount through participating in the online community, and hope that others profit as I have.

 

[Livvygurl]

WOw, that is so cool that you are speaking at the TMS conference!! Yay, Forest!

 

[veronica73]

There's something so important about just being truly heard.

And, I think it's a good picture!