What Do All of those Words in This Therapist’s Psychology Today Profile Mean?
Recently I received an exasperated text from a friend of mine who was trying to find a new therapist due to their insurance changing. The text read “Quinn, why is every therapist insufferable in their Psychology Today profile? I’ve been researching therapists all day. I am sure these are nice people but these profiles are meaningless. I find myself needing to also look up all of these modalities because I don’t know what any of them are?” While I would not describe any of my colleagues as ‘insufferable”, I do agree with my friend that there has become a standardization of language on our collective online profiles that can read as lofty, wordy, vague, or inaccessible. I am guilty of it myself sometimes. Phrases like “I help clients actualize” or “find their true self” can trigger a response of “What the hell are you talking about?” from people not in the profession.
There is certainly a bias within our field of the assumption of knowledge. To use my own profile as an example, I include the sentence “I want to give you the space to explore your identity, explore your relationships, and explore your inner-most self.” What does that actually mean? It sounds a little vague right? To be blunt, it means I am going to ask you questions that encourage you to think deeply about yourself and how you relate to others, and that I am going to notice patterns of behavior and thoughts to try to help you make realizations. A very classic example of this would be something like saying “Have you noticed that every time you hang out with your friend Bob you sleep poorly? Why do you think that is?” In this I notice a pattern that you may not have noticed, and give you the space to respond and figure it out.
These profiles seem a little inaccessible for the same reason that you, the reader, probably feel a little strange when you write a cover letter. It is ultimately self-promotion and trying to make oneself sound impressive without coming across as boastful or arrogant. And of course, there is the issue of modalities. Most therapists will list their theoretical orientation(s) on their profile as though you know what these things actually are. Psychodynamic, Person-Centered, Existential, Feminist, Family Systems, Adlerian,CBT, DBT, ACT, IFS and another dozen abbreviations litter the profiles of virtually every mental health professional. We have gotten it into our heads that people know what these abbreviations mean or will somehow know the names of any number of Austrian Psychiatrists who died over seventy years ago.
As such, I am going to try to be part of the solution. In the next blog post you will find a brief explanation of what those theoretical orientations are and what they mean. Ultimately, you cannot really understand a theory from a short summary. All of these theories have hundreds of textbooks written about them, and therapists spend thousands of hours mastering them. However, that does not mean that you should go in blind. There is a utility in having a baseline understanding of what to expect in sessions. One final note before diving in–Most therapists are somewhat eclectic (or “integrative”) and draw on several orientations. Not every theory is a fit for every client, and thus most therapists have learned a few different orientations in order to be able to work with different clients. With that in mind, click here to learn more about what a provider’s theoretical orientation/approach means in therapy.
