I’m considering therapy. I was in therapy for several years many years ago. Not primal therapy. I tried doing that on my own, with some transient success as I said in the post. The more conventional therapy had its moments too but ultimately it was a disappointment. I was still insecure after several years. But these new feeling-centered experiential therapies have become more and more popular the last few years. They’ve actually only come onto my radar in the last four months. I had pretty much given up on the project but was encouraged again when I came across them and started reading about them. It’s in reading about them that I realize that they’ve been gaining in popularity. It probably has a lot to do with neuroscience findings being more supportive of them than of heavily cognitive therapies.
And, the neuroscience findings support your assertion that empathy will do more than intellectual rigor (check out ‘The Polyvagal Theory’ by Stephen Porges—I’m slogging through it now—its very technical but so far very fascinating). But I have to defend myself on that. I didn’t mean intellectual rigor in the process of working out these problems. I meant intellectual rigor in figuring out what is the best way to go about working out these problems. And if the rational analysis suggests that an empathetic relationship is the way, well, then that’s the way.
I’m considering therapy. I was in therapy for several years many years ago. Not primal therapy. I tried doing that on my own, with some transient success as I said in the post. The more conventional therapy had its moments too but ultimately it was a disappointment. I was still insecure after several years. But these new feeling-centered experiential therapies have become more and more popular the last few years. They’ve actually only come onto my radar in the last four months. I had pretty much given up on the project but was encouraged again when I came across them and started reading about them. It’s in reading about them that I realize that they’ve been gaining in popularity. It probably has a lot to do with neuroscience findings being more supportive of them than of heavily cognitive therapies.
And, the neuroscience findings support your assertion that empathy will do more than intellectual rigor (check out ‘The Polyvagal Theory’ by Stephen Porges—I’m slogging through it now—its very technical but so far very fascinating). But I have to defend myself on that. I didn’t mean intellectual rigor in the process of working out these problems. I meant intellectual rigor in figuring out what is the best way to go about working out these problems. And if the rational analysis suggests that an empathetic relationship is the way, well, then that’s the way.