By: Michael Hickey, Ph.D.
Have you ever heard the statement, “I don’t believe in therapy”? As I was preparing some material for an upcoming Awareness Week in an effort to help raise awareness and destigmatize mental illness, I thought about the times that I have heard this comment both in my personal and professional life. This may come as a surprise (but hopefully not) – psychotherapy is not a mythical entity like a leprechaun or the Tooth Fairy. Contrarily, evidence-based psychotherapies such as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) are scientifically proven to help people with a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems. When people say they don’t believe in therapy, they might as well be saying they don’t believe in the law of gravity. This can perpetuate archaic beliefs about the utility of psychotherapy and may often result in people not seeking the help they can benefit from due to unfounded stereotypes. As a practitioner of REBT for over fifteen years, I have a difficult time hearing this statement, as I have seen an immeasurable amount of our clients improve significantly throughout the years in our practice at the Albert Ellis Institute (this being only a small sample given the 60+ years of history and thousands of practitioners of REBT internationally). So the next time you hear someone state that they do not “believe” in therapy, please join us in helping to raise awareness. As we know in the practice of REBT, we cannot make someone change their beliefs, but we can engage in and encourage well-informed discussions to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and psychotherapy.