Newcomer Did you get your shrink on?

[GustavoBA]

Headline story on the NYT website right now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/w...nes-need-therapy-pull-up-a-couch.html?_r=1&hp

How many of you actually have one and why is this so do you think?

 

[earlyretirement]

I never saw a therapist before (including the 8+ years I lived in Buenos Aires). However, the article is correct that many many locals go and they don't think anything of it and freely will tell all of their friends.

I had many employees and most of them saw therapists and they would openly talk about it. They would constantly ask to leave work to go to their appointments.

Personally I'd never want to hear about their therapy sessions but several times in the break room I'd get stuck hearing about how their sessions went and what their therapist recommended.

Not sure what it is about Buenos Aires where so many people have to go to a therapist but I've never lived in a city where more people went to a therapist.

 

[AndriuUSA]

Headline story on the NYT website right now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/w...nes-need-therapy-pull-up-a-couch.html?_r=1&hp

How many of you actually have one and why is this so do you think?

I personally have changed my views on therapy having lived in Bsas. I can personally attest to having visited a therapist here which is something I doubt I would have done had it not been so accessible and acceptable in Bsas. Like earlyretirement I have always had friends and employees share their therapy experiences - heck I even had one employee demand a higher salary increase because her therapist was costing her 450 pesos a month which baffled me at that time as all I saw was a mature grounded individual..who by the way now has a nice English boyfriend and doesnt go to therapy anymore..

Anyhow I digress...I went to find a therapist for what I considered to be a fear of flying...ironic as Id travelled to over 60 countries at this point but the fear had hit me at this point in Bsas and was affecting both business and personal travel. I had read an article on hypnosis and contacted the Institite Gubel which mentioned this treatment in its website and I wanted treatment in English. I was lucky enough to be assigned a great therapist - in all I saw him more or less weekly for a year. He was young and had a great sense of humor and often related his own stories to help give context to mine. His end diagnosis surprised me - anniversary syndrome - as my own father had died at 38 it seems as I was at that age I was projecting my fears of death and had selected flying as my fear of choice. We ended the treatment at 1 year more or less and I continue flying unrestricted today.

Basically I believe now in "point" therapy - ie the same idea as point training to address a specific need. One of my best friends was in therapy as she couldnt formulate positive long term relationships - she is now married to the most adorable guy and has her first child. Maybe all of this is pure fluke..but being in Bsas where the stigma is less made me open to try. I remain however cynical about anyone who does lifetime therapy ie who never graduates or completes their cycle as the only person who seems to benefit in that is the therapist..and that is quite common in Bsas acc. to my group of friends.

 

[earlyretirement]

I personally have changed my views on therapy having lived in Bsas. I can personally attest to having visited a therapist here which is something I doubt I would have done had it not been so accessible and acceptable in Bsas. Like earlyretirement I have always had friends and employees share their therapy experiences - heck I even had one employee demand a higher salary increase because her therapist was costing her 450 pesos a month which baffled me at that time as all I saw was a mature grounded individual..who by the way now has a nice English boyfriend and doesnt go to therapy anymore..

Anyhow I digress...I went to find a therapist for what I considered to be a fear of flying...ironic as Id travelled to over 60 countries at this point but the fear had hit me at this point in Bsas and was affecting both business and personal travel. I had read an article on hypnosis and contacted the Institite Gubel which mentioned this treatment in its website and I wanted treatment in English. I was lucky enough to be assigned a great therapist - in all I saw him more or less weekly for a year. He was young and had a great sense of humor and often related his own stories to help give context to mine. His end diagnosis surprised me - anniversary syndrome - as my own father had died at 38 it seems as I was at that age I was projecting my fears of death and had selected flying as my fear of choice. We ended the treatment at 1 year more or less and I continue flying unrestricted today.

Basically I believe now in "point" therapy - ie the same idea as point training to address a specific need. One of my best friends was in therapy as she couldnt formulate positive long term relationships - she is now married to the most adorable guy and has her first child. Maybe all of this is pure fluke..but being in Bsas where the stigma is less made me open to try. I remain however cynical about anyone who does lifetime therapy ie who never graduates or completes their cycle as the only person who seems to benefit in that is the therapist..and that is quite common in Bsas acc. to my group of friends.

I think it's great if a therapist helped you with a problem. I absolutely don't have anything against therapists or people that go to them.

I guess in some ways it's positive that people are so open to admit they go to therapy. I had friends in the USA that went to therapy but it was a deep dark secret that they didn't dare tell anyone, certainly not co-workers.

I do agree with you fifs2 that I'm not sure about how beneficial it is for people that do "lifetime therapy" but as you mention, that seems to be very common in Buenos Aires.

Sometimes it seems like people go just to go to therapy. Then other times I ponder if it's because of the stress that can be Buenos Aires.

I had a ton of female friends that were in their late 20's or 30's and not even close to getting married. I also had tons of male friends that were in their 30's to even late 30's that still had the Peter Pan syndrome and acted like they were still really young and no where near settling down and were really "mommied" with their mothers spoiling them and some still living at home in their 30's.

If I was living at home still in my 30's I guess I might need to go to therapy myself! LOL.