Thanks for this excellent column, Allan. For a few years I have been strongly encouraging my adult daughter to seek therapy because of her track record of disastrous relationships. Now, she is the victim of a tremendous house fire where she lost everything and escaped through a window with only her nightgown. She is devastated and traumatized. But again, she won’t seek mental health support. Very sad.
At the same time, my wife has a serious degenerative neurological disease. It has many physical, mental and emotional ramifications. Yesterday we saw two new doctors at Columbia who strongly recommended CBT. Hopefully she will be more responsive than my daughter has been.
After a 20 year hiatus, I am seeing my aging therapist again as I confront the issues above and the challenge of maintaining my own independent, joyous and fulfilling life though increasingly serving as a caregiver.
Again, thanks for this and all your insightful and heartfelt essays.
Marc what do you mean. There is no question that she should seek psychotherapy help. I am quite certain because it takes no genius to see it clearly that she has to have PTSD posttraumatic stress disorder. Yes if it helps tell her that you have a friend who is a retired psychologist who strongly urge her to seek psychotherapy
Thank you for this post. I appreciate the value of strong mental health and the value of those who are trained to help people recover from trauma or just life in general. I spent my career in public schools, the last 20 years as a middle school counselor. I spent my days with students and parents (and sometimes staff) who were struggling. My job was to listen, to provide support, and to know when to refer the person in front of me to more qualified professional. I loved my work and appreciated that I had people that I could trust to refer students to.
The hard thing about mental health care (and, frankly physical health care too, to a degree) is accessibility. For the most part, you need to have resources to avail yourself of mental health care. Sure, some programs are there for some support but if you are a working person , for example, who is not necessarily considering suicide but who is struggling in life, often you have to pay out of packet for services and they are priced out of range. I wish that could change.
Yes, somehow I knew you would. How is that ever going to happen w/o te US adopting a stronger health care program for all? That’s a rhetorical question. :)
Thanks for this excellent column, Allan. For a few years I have been strongly encouraging my adult daughter to seek therapy because of her track record of disastrous relationships. Now, she is the victim of a tremendous house fire where she lost everything and escaped through a window with only her nightgown. She is devastated and traumatized. But again, she won’t seek mental health support. Very sad.
At the same time, my wife has a serious degenerative neurological disease. It has many physical, mental and emotional ramifications. Yesterday we saw two new doctors at Columbia who strongly recommended CBT. Hopefully she will be more responsive than my daughter has been.
After a 20 year hiatus, I am seeing my aging therapist again as I confront the issues above and the challenge of maintaining my own independent, joyous and fulfilling life though increasingly serving as a caregiver.
Again, thanks for this and all your insightful and heartfelt essays.
Marc what do you mean. There is no question that she should seek psychotherapy help. I am quite certain because it takes no genius to see it clearly that she has to have PTSD posttraumatic stress disorder. Yes if it helps tell her that you have a friend who is a retired psychologist who strongly urge her to seek psychotherapy
Exactly
Thank you for this post. I appreciate the value of strong mental health and the value of those who are trained to help people recover from trauma or just life in general. I spent my career in public schools, the last 20 years as a middle school counselor. I spent my days with students and parents (and sometimes staff) who were struggling. My job was to listen, to provide support, and to know when to refer the person in front of me to more qualified professional. I loved my work and appreciated that I had people that I could trust to refer students to.
The hard thing about mental health care (and, frankly physical health care too, to a degree) is accessibility. For the most part, you need to have resources to avail yourself of mental health care. Sure, some programs are there for some support but if you are a working person , for example, who is not necessarily considering suicide but who is struggling in life, often you have to pay out of packet for services and they are priced out of range. I wish that could change.
Gracie, I have the same wish. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
Yes, somehow I knew you would. How is that ever going to happen w/o te US adopting a stronger health care program for all? That’s a rhetorical question. :)