Myth number 1: Therapy is focused on the past.
First of all, I am going to comment on this from Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy perspective as there are indeed approaches in therapy that focus on the past. However, this myth cannot be further from the truth for CBT Therapy. From the very beginning clients are encouraged to set their goals for future and although the roadmap for therapy is constructed based on past information, the therapy is mainly focused on here & now and how client’s difficulties are affecting the person now. Of course, there are some tools which are revisiting the past however they are only used when it is relevant for example when client’s social anxiety was triggered by a particular traumatic event or when working on trauma. Other than those specific circumstances, most therapy tools are focused on the present and future.
Myth number 2: a therapist role is to tell you what to do
I often heard from some professionals ‘unlike therapists or psychologists, I am not going to tell you what you should do’ – implying this is what a therapist or psychologist does.
Again, this is exactly the opposite of what a therapist does, at least an ethical one.
Of course it is a natural response that when we are going through tough times and we feel lost and stuck, we may experience tendency to want for someone else to tell us what to do. That is why we often ask our friends or family for advice.
However, The therapist’s role is to provide you with tools and space for you to be able to find your own answers. You know best your circumstances and trust me, even if it seems it would be easier to get someone to tell you the best decision to make, you would not want the therapist to provide you with answers. Therapy can definitely bring you closer to the answers but this is facilitated in a non judgemental way through providing the space for your own reflection process.
Myth number 3: Therapist’ role is just to listen
Although this is a significant part of the role, as we need to truly understand the perspective of the client to be able to construct effective treatment plan , the tools used especially in CBT therapy are encouraging change and achieving the goals the client and the therapist set in collaboration. The opportunity for the client to process their feelings or make sense of their difficult experiences is a very important part of the therapeutic process, however, a therapist will then try to facilitate change, improvement in the symptoms or clarity for the client, if this is what they want to achieve. And again, it very much depends on what the client wants to get out of therapy – very often the clients want to process things and discuss with someone not associated with the particular events, but it is not necessarily true for every person.