Very Bad Therapy

Do client fees impact therapy outcomes? How should therapists talk with their clients about money? Should mental health care be a basic human right? We have lots of questions and few answers as today's guest Arianne joins us to share her story of money tension in therapy. Plus, Carrie and Ben read listener mail, gripe about therapist Facebook groups, and debate the ethics of prioritizing income maximization over all else as a mental health professional.

VBT Copenhagen meetup: Ruby, tirsdag 17. december kl. 16:30

Show Notes:

• Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon
• Donate to Karsh Center
• The Money Taboo: Its Effects in Everyday Life and in the Practice of Psychotherapy
• Treatment Effectiveness and Its Correlates in a Marriage and Family Therapy Training Clinic
• Does paying a fee for psychotherapy alter the effectiveness of treatment?
• Quid pro quo: fee for services delivered in a psychology training clinic
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

In the 1940s, a new ad campaign appeared on the silver screen to promote psychotherapy. Yes, the extant videos are as spectacular as you imagine. In this month's journey through the decades, Carrie and Ben break down archival footage to laugh, marvel, and look curiously at how the American public was sold on psychoanalysis. Now tell me about your mother.

Show Notes:

• Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon
• Popular Depiction of Psychoanalysis in Late 1940s
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Dr. Chris Hoff hosts The Radical Therapist podcast and YouTube channel. He joins us to discuss postmodern assumptions in therapy, how a strict focus on social justice can lead to familiar diagnostic pitfalls, and the importance of maintaining curiosity to combat confirmation bias. Plus, we explore the benefits of creating a culture where failure is valued and Chris shares his advice for early-career clinicians.

VBT in Focus is a series of sporadic episodes in which Carrie and Ben have the privilege of chatting with their favorite thinkers in the field of psychotherapy. Thank you for listening.

Show Notes:

• Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon
• The Radical Therapist podcast and YouTube channel
• Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?
• An Attempt at a "Compositionist Manifesto"
• Cheerleading in Therapy?
• What Can't Be Fixed (The Moth)
• 4 Ways of Knowing in Counseling & Therapy
• Transformation Now!: Toward a Post-Oppositional Politics of Change
• The Queer Art of Failure
• Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair
• The Politics of Forgiveness
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

A small percentage of clients experience negative effects from therapy. Why is it so difficult for therapists to identify this phenomenon when reflecting on past or present work? Norwegian psychologist and author Jørgen A. Flor joins us to explore the myth of side-effect free therapy and discuss a moving story from today's guest Jamie about unambiguously harmful treatment.

Show Notes:

• Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon
• Donate to NARAL
• Skadelige samtaler - myten om bivirkningsfri terapi
• Jørgen A. Flor's Website
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

"If you say yes to this, we'll have to end our therapeutic relationship." The context of this quote is explained in this week's episode about therapist self-disclosure, dual relationships, and a much-deserved misconduct report. Seriously y'all, be aware of how your social and political identities have the potential to impact clients and don't burst through boundaries like the Kool-Aid Man. Even Woebot gets sad when therapists act on self-interest.

Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon

Show Notes:

• Donate to Mental Health America
• Woebot
• Therapy robots are already here
• The Truth About The Codes Of Ethics: Dispelling the Rumors that Dual Relationships are Unethical
• Opening Up: Therapist Self-Disclosure in Theory, Research, and Practice
• The role of therapist self-disclosure in psychotherapy: A qualitative review
• Self-Disclosure
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

In the 1930s, a handful of aspiring medical luminaries imagined that mental illness could be fixed by cutting into the brain. In this month's history exploration, Carrie and Ben seek to understand why this seemed like a good idea at the time and what led to the procedure being banned a few decades later. When the awarding of a Nobel Prize is subsequently considered "an astounding error of judgment," bad things probably happened.

Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon

Show Notes:

• Violence, mental illness, and the brain - A brief history of psychosurgery: Part 1 - From trephination to lobotomy
• Frontal leukotomy and related psychosurgical procedures in the era before antipsychotics (1935-1954): A historical overview.
• The Extraction of the Stone of Madness
• Open Dialogue: A New Approach to Mental Healthcare
• A Systematic Review of the Soteria Paradigm for the Treatment of People Diagnosed With Schizophrenia
• NPR: My Lobotomy (Podcast)
• Lobotomy (Wikipedia)
• Trepanning (Wikipedia)
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Adventure therapy: nature, healing, strength, and camaraderie. And sometimes emotional abuse, strip searches, forced compliance, and more. What is happening in this niche of psychotherapy where our guest Will's story is simultaneously shocking to us and not at all surprising to those within the field? Join us and our expert guest Will Dobud on a truly compelling trek through the wilderness of adventure therapy.

Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon

Show Notes:

• Donate to Friends of the Rainforest
• Based on a True Story (Podcast)
• International Adventure Therapy
• International Adventure Therapy Group (Facebook)
• Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group (TAPG) (Facebook)
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

On today's episode, our guest Ashley recalls her experience as a graduate psychology student looking for therapy in part to process feelings of disappointment with her education. We take this opportunity to get intimate with the research on graduate psychology programs and confront the elephant in the room: these programs don't seem to work. If you have ever doubted the usefulness of your graduate education, this episode is for you.

Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon

Show Notes:

• Donate to Global Empowerment Mission
• How Cognitive Biases Impact Therapist Development: The Importance of Self-Awareness in Graduate Psychology Education (Ben's Thesis)
• Specific vs Nonspecific Factors in Psychotherapy: A Controlled Study of Outcome
• Outcome and Process Differences Between Professional and Nonprofessional Therapists in Time-Limited Group Psychotherapy
• Does Psychotherapy Supervision Contribute to Patient Outcomes? Considering Thirty Years of Research
• Perceived Impact on Client Outcomes: The Perspectives of Practicing Supervisors and Supervisees
• Inside the Practicum in Professional Psychology: A Survey of Practicum Site Coordinators
• Graduate Study in Psychology: 1971-2004
• Administering Practicum Training: A Survey of Graduate Programs' Policies and Procedures
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Professionalism in psychotherapy is often hard to define, but it probably doesn't include being twenty minutes late to a client's first session and sharing unwanted Bible passages. Katie Vernoy joins us in advance of the Therapy Reimagined Conference to share her knowledge and make sense of all the confusing therapist behavior we hear in today's interview with Ofra.

Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon

Show Notes:

• Donate to the ACLU
• Katie Vernoy's Website
• Therapy Reimagined Conference 2019
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Dr. Ben "Manfred" Caldwell joins us in make-believe 1920s Berlin to discuss Max Eitingon and the surprising origins of psychotherapy supervision. We also explore examples of bad supervision, why contemporary supervision appears to have no impact on client outcomes, and what supervisors and supervisees can actually do to make our field better. This is episode three of twelve in our monthly series exploring very bad therapy through the decades.

Support Very Bad Therapy on Patreon

Show Notes:

• Does Psychotherapy Supervision Contribute to Patient Outcomes? Considering Thirty Years of Research
• The Ingredients of Supervisor Failure
• The Beginnings of Psychoanalytic Supervision: The Crucial Role of Max Eitingon
• When bad supervision is good
• Deliberate Practice for Psychotherapists
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story