Huw Green is correct that psychotherapy “occupies an increasingly central place in our culture” (So you want to try psychotherapy. But what does it actually do?, 2 November). However, in my own experience as a clinical psychologist, most people referred to secondary mental health services are really desperate and not merely pondering being “somehow stuck” like Sam, the example therapy patient in Green’s article. Nor, in my experience, are most too bothered about whatever the therapy is called, as long as somebody can help them.
In describing various ways of practising psychological therapies, Green focuses entirely on the individual, their internal processes and the one-to-one situation of the therapy room. But there are far more powerful factors affecting people outside of the therapy room – the social and material circumstances of their lives. If somebody is distressed and wondering whether there is something wrong with them, they might well do better by starting to look at the things happening in their lives which are contributing to their distress.
Rather than being bewildered by the vast variety of approaches on offer, the Midlands Psychology Group, of which I am a member, encourages people to develop outsight. This might be done with a professional, but the person buying into that might want to ask themselves what needs to change in order for them to be able to live a better life. And that change might not be something inside themselves.
Dr Penny Priest
Ludlow, Shropshire
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