Seven years of therapy?

When Freud first started the idea of psychoanalysis it provided a longterm support system.
Maybe because it was thought that some problems lead to permanent damage, not susceptible to 'cure'.
Perhaps like Greymar's example.
Other types of psychological problems are less destructive, and can be helped by more short-term types of therapy.
We take an american weekly magazine and I've noticed they're much more into therapies for all ages and all sorts of problems than here in the UK
It's a thriving business there.

It depends whether the 7 years is helping or not (a previous post suggested it was about a specific situation that wasn’t in which case yes a change of therapeutic approach may help).

A lot of jobs require you to have regular supervision where you reflect on responses to things and how they made you feel & discuss issues. Some counselling can be of that sort of thing just at a personal level and tbh there’s not necessarily ever going to be a reason to stop doing that if it’s helpful.

I went to counselling to help me move on from the shock and fear of very serious life threatening illness. After @ 9 months I felt ready to move on and brought it to an end. However we are all different with different experiences and responses. 7 years seems a long time though; maybe a different type is needed or something

No, you are not going over the same things. A registered counsellor, is a person with integrity who supports you to grow.

I don't know if this helps you, OP,, but I can top Harry in the therapy stakes. Sexual, emotional, physical abuse and neglect and attempt not to transfer to the next generation, means pretty much a life time of support, which I pay for. Don't regret a penny.

I had counselling last year, 8 years after a very traumatic divorce which left me broken. The time was just right. I honestly don't think, if I'd had it any earlier, it would have been such a benefit to me. In a way, it was almost like I had to get myself to the end of the road and they then have me the tools to get round the corner.

I had 12 sessions in total and she just spoke common sense but it helped me get everything into perspective.

I think someone having counselling for 7 years could be being ripped off because you couldnt get that on the NHS. Either that or they dont want to feel better and are happy to keep paying.

In 2015 my DH was finally diagnosed with PTSD and he got just a two week live in course at Combat Stress. Which was useless. His own GP arranged for him to see a NHS counsellor for anger management problems. He was lucky because he got one of the last people to be able to get 12 weeks counselling straight off on the NHS. This lady really worked wonders with my DH and turned his thinking right around. My DH still has PTSD but her work helped him so much and he can cope much better now. I will forever be grateful to her because I now have my loving husband back.

Talking to friends is totally different to talking to a skilled therapist. Friends may well want to empathise by telling your their problems, offer their own opinions and suggest what actions to take rather than giving you the opportunity to work things out for yourself. There is also the possibility that they may not maintain confidentiality and once you have told them something deep and personal it may well change your relationship. You can't untell it. It is very common to be tearful at some stage - you wouldn't be there if life hadn't thrown a spanner in the works. If it's not helping after 10-20 sessions then perhaps it's time to call it a day or find a new counsellor. If you've had a lifetime of trauma it may well take longer to unravel. PH's case is very different as he is trapped in a life that he didn't choose and it's very difficult to break away from.

I agree with you Daisymae wholeheartedly.

Seven years does seem a long time, but leaving the exact period aside, counselling allows someone to share their feelings with a private but objective person who has been trained to listen (and most people in the UK aren't good at listening).

As someone up the thread has said, before there were counsellors available, people went to a vicar or priest (who might then abuse them!) or they distracted themselves by beating their wives, kicking the dog, getting drunk, over eating, beating their children and generally being bitter and difficult to others.

There are many types of counselling and many types of problems. I really don't think you can generalise. There is also the question of resilience which may be down to personality, circumstances, having someone, just one person, who cares for them in childhood or other resources (such as a reasonable income) which help them to feel content and able to find a job and live a normal life without abusing others.

We've got huge problems with pornography, child abuse and loneliness in this country, I don't think deciding there's something wrong with people who ask for help and use counsellors is very useful.

Bingo - I think a goal of therapy should be to move on & be free to live a full life. It sounds in that case as if the person needed a change in therapy style. I don’t think there’s necessarily a problem with 7 years of therapy if you are moving on and feeling you are getting to where you want to be. If you are getting stuck going over the same thing time after time maybe it is time for a different approach (a good therapist should recognise that though & call an end to something that isn’t helpful).

I was thinking the same thing. Counsellors have their place and I am sure that some will have people going over old ground forever. Life is painful and we have to live with that. The best therapist would give someone the tools to deal with issues and move on. Otherwise there's no healing involved.

I dont believe talking about any problem for 7 years will make anyone feel better about it .I am involved with a group of bereaved parents ,there are some who can move on and get on with life ,keeping the loss in the background and others who fill every waking hour of every day with their pain...It all has to be about THEIR loss and they take every opportunity to make sure we know their loss was worse then all the rest of us put together.
When they refused to let someone not in the group put their dead childs name on the memorial I left .I know grief is selfish,I've been there, but this woman is 20 years down the line and she should understand that every dead baby is just as important as hers .I'm now of the opinion that talking about it constantly is just picking at the scab ,it will never heal if you dont let it .

Isn't 'therapy' all about digging up blanked out memories and facing up to them? Isn't that how we're supposed to come to terms with our bad experiences and help ourselves to serenity?

I am probably wrong, because my brush with counselling was extremely brief, but surely all you are doing is going over and over the same things.

There was someone on mumsnet this morning whose thread seems to have disappeared who had therapy for 7 years because she was badly treated as a child by her mother - she still feels absolutely dreadful about it. Therapy does not seem to have helped her. She was asking if she should try to get police to prosecute her mother now. Most replies were not to do so. I was going to suggest hypnosis so she could just ''blank out'' the memories - but the thread had gone.

In the US, happiness is a pursuit, encompassing every avenue one might choose to acquire it throughout the course of their lives- Therapy is simply one path among multitudes-

I went to a counsellor years ago post divorce. She talked about my childhood and I told her of the abuse I went through. She cried in front of me saying it was the worst experience she had ever come across.
I left feeling just intense guilt at having upset her and never told anyone again.

Beat their wives, secretly drank, slept with unsuitable people, cried themselves to sleep every night, looked forward to dying..

What did people do years ago when there was no such thing as therapy or counselling ?

That can certainly help in some cases tinetogo. I have friends who I can offload to - but if I didn’t or if my problems were more significant it would be helpful to pay someone. Friends may not have any understanding of some situations or can get worn out!!

Good friends can’t always help a person to move forward

Therapy costs nothing when you have good friends who you trust.

Counselling is extremely useful getting the problem/s out of your head is a major step forward and then finding and discovering coping strategy’s together with the counsellor is a huge stage and yes to continue the counselling /support while you are working through is very necessary and of course you re not constantly talking over the original problem or (picking at the spot)
Seven years I wouldn’t expect though, that feels to me as if the necessary work hasnt been done properly and although everyone is different and some will take longer than others if you aren’t well enough after seven years I d change methods or counsellors

In my early twenties I had a virus which seemed to leave me very low and depressed. My doctor thought it may have been connected to a traumatic experience a few years before, and suggested having a chat with a counsellor.

I think I went about three times, I felt that she asked me lots is stuff I felt was irrelevant, and what probably was relevant I couldn’t talk about.

Also it made me cry, which I didn’t like, but realise now, may not have been a bad thing

I think at the time I felt the whole thing embarrassing, and didn’t tell anyone.