Workaholic: Therapy?

[SomeoneElseEntirely]

A friend is a workaholic. She wants to change. She's about to change jobs (probably) so it's a good time to change habits.

Would CBT be a good therapy for this? Or would another be better?

How should she go about finding a therapist?

And is it possible/practical to be anonymous in therapy, pay by cash, not give a real name etc etc? (I know, patient confidentiality, but my friend is a bit funny about all this.)

I am a workaholic and am seeing someone through work to deal with this, the counelling/ advice I am having definelty has CBT elements to it.

Not sure about being anonymous to your counsellor who would respectyour confidentiality, the whole point of counselling is that you are honest and open.

I know, I know. But I think she'd only be comfortable being honest and open if her identity was hidden, iyswim.

I don't share the confidentiality concerns, but whatever, I think the therapy could help. I guess I'd rather the therapist didn't focus on that end of it, just accepted it. Surely, in Britain, therapy is still considered odd enough that some people are weird about it all?

TBH I don't really see the help I am getting s therapy just a chance for me to llok atstraegies to address my work life balance, although it has elements of therapy as we look at why I feel the need to work the way I do.

I think everybody cold benefit from some form of therapy to be honest,

You can find a therapist by looking at the BACP website - they list therapists in your area. This is where you will find a qualified and/or accredited therapist.

This is only my opinion so feel free to disregard but I find that pure cbt therapy (it's usually short term) is good for phobias and be aware of and 'reprogramme' negative thinking. Her doctor can get a CBT therapist and she will get six free sessions on the nhs. There will be a wait for this.

With someone who is suffering from workaholism and possibly has some paranoid symptoms maybe she would be interested in finding out what that's all about and would like longer term therapy and then she should choose a qualified or accredited therapist from the BACP privately. If she doesn't have a lot of money then there are plenty of organisations/charities that will provide longer term therapy on a means-tested basis (same quality of therapist as someone who works privately - I'm a therapist and I work privately and also provide hours for free for 3 charities).

The most important thing is to find someone you like and trust and someone you can open up to.

I'm also in the school of anyone-can-benefit-from-therapy - I had to go for three years while I was training! and still have to go in an out when my client load is particularly high and emotionally draining.

There is no stigma attached to having therapy if you're in the therapy world as it's all about emotional health and safe guarding your clients.

Hope your friend finds someone she trusts.

Paying for it is not a problem. She's not comfortable going to her doctor to get a referral, but she'll happily pay (cash) to a therapist.

I'll point her at the BACP website, I'm sure she can find someone appropriate there. Particularly as she's talking about not going via the NHS, finding someone with appropriate credentials is pretty important! I know that 'counsellor' isn't a protected term, not sure whether 'therapist' is?

I'm not sure she is paranoid, so much as quite private, and with a negative attitude about therapy. (Ok, and a skeptical attitude about patient privacy, which she's come by fairly legitimately, from what I know, albeit in another area.) I'm sure she realises the therapist won't think less of her for being in therapy!

Presumably therapists don't specialise strictly in CBT or regular therapy, anyway?

Ok, rule of thumb - there is no difference attached to (and they are not 'protected' terms) therapist/counsellor/psychotherapist but a possible perceived difference to short or long term therapy.

There are essentially 3 theoretical schools in this country (3 types of therapist) - there are others but they are more in a minority.

1. CBT - which the nhs/government pushes because it's cheap (only six sessions allocated per person). They DO only do/specialise in cbt techniques, the training is sometimes shorter/they may not be members of the BACP.

2 and 3. Psychodynamic and Person-centered - can both be short or long term. And there can be a combination of these two schools ie. integrative therapist. Some of these practitioners also incorporate CBT techniques as part of therapy - these schools of thought see cbt as an 'add-on' and not all of the therapy.

As for privacy - the BACP ethical framework is protected by law and the limits of confidentiality will be explained in a first session (the limits of confidentiality refer to terrorism and the childrens act).

I am not using the word 'paranoid' in a pejorative sense at all - in any situation where you can't 'be yourself' and there are many in everyday life - many masks that we wear - they all point to some areas of ourselves to discover.

And a negative attitude to therapy is something to explore too - can be wrapped up in a negative attitude to themselves (why am I so useless/crap that I need therapy etc etc).

You're a good friend to her.

Thank you, that clarifies things a lot. I can point her at this thread, and she can see the options open to her.

Am I right in assuming that the people who are trained in CBT only, and aren't members of the BACP, are likely to have less professional monitoring etc?

What are psychodynamic and person-centred therapies? I'm really only familiar with the old world of therapy, traditional psychoanalysis, I guess, as I did some readings on it at uni.

The BACP website is easy to use, and there seem to be some appropriate therapists in the right area (at least one of which mentions privacy as a feature ).

Whatever type of counsellor you are you should have supervision - it is a professional requirement and your friend should only see someone who explains that they are supervised. Supervision means that the client content is discussed but without identifying characters - so for example when I bring clients to supervision it's without their name and identifying information.

I would be very wary of a counsellor who wasn't having supervision. I would hope that cbt practitioners are supervised - if they work for the nhs I'm sure they would be. In private practise or in agencies while it's not a legal requirement it is absolutely a professional one and the BACP has minimum guidelines per month for supervision.

As for the difference in psychodynamic and person-centred it's too much to go into and that's why I said find someone you like and think you can have a good relationship with. There is as much similarity as difference between the two and what they have in common is that they think that the relationship is most important.

The government are working towards everyone being professionally qualified - at this time though it's very much up to the client to check the following if hiring someone privately who is not a member of the BACP:

1. supervision
2. length of training undergone - there are always going to be practitioners who have only done a one year course and try and practise as counsellors
3. membership of other professional bodies like the ACC (Association of Christian Counsellors)

I don't want to give you woolly answers but there is so little difference between psychoanalysis/psychotherapy/counselling now. When one of the famous psychotherapists trained 40 years ago he was in analysis 5 day a week for 7 years - now it's very much course dependant (some courses specify anything from 0 - 500 hours in therapy). But even the courses who don't specify hours in therapy still require trainees to prove personal development.

Really glad you found someone for her