That’s not really therapeutic, except maybe insofar as it produces a more rewarding high than doing it by yourself. (Which is not really a benefit in terms of the overall system.)
To the extent it’s useful, it’s the part where evidence is provided that other people can know them and not be disgusted by whatever their perceived flaws are. But as per the problem of trapped priors, this doesn’t always cause people to update, so individual results are not guaranteed.
The thing that actually fixes it is updates on one’s rules regarding what forms, evidence, or conditions that currently lead to self-hatred should lead to being worthy of self-approval instead. Some people can do this themselves with lightweight support from another person, but quite a lot will never even get close to working on the actual thing that needs changing, without more-targeted support than just empathic listening or Rogerian reflection.
(As they are Instead working on how to make themselves perfect enough to avoid even the theoretical possibility of future self-hatred—an impossible quest. It’s not made any easier by the fact that our brains tend to take every opportunity they can to turn intentions like “work on changing my rules for approving of myself” into actions more suited for “work on better conforming to my existing rules and/or proving to others I have so conformed”.)
That’s not really therapeutic, except maybe insofar as it produces a more rewarding high than doing it by yourself. (Which is not really a benefit in terms of the overall system.)
To the extent it’s useful, it’s the part where evidence is provided that other people can know them and not be disgusted by whatever their perceived flaws are. But as per the problem of trapped priors, this doesn’t always cause people to update, so individual results are not guaranteed.
The thing that actually fixes it is updates on one’s rules regarding what forms, evidence, or conditions that currently lead to self-hatred should lead to being worthy of self-approval instead. Some people can do this themselves with lightweight support from another person, but quite a lot will never even get close to working on the actual thing that needs changing, without more-targeted support than just empathic listening or Rogerian reflection.
(As they are Instead working on how to make themselves perfect enough to avoid even the theoretical possibility of future self-hatred—an impossible quest. It’s not made any easier by the fact that our brains tend to take every opportunity they can to turn intentions like “work on changing my rules for approving of myself” into actions more suited for “work on better conforming to my existing rules and/or proving to others I have so conformed”.)