Five Common Mistakes Made By Therapists

Many factors influence the development and outcomes of psychotherapy, including these five common mistakes made by therapists. There is a widely shared idea that recovery after therapy is the responsibility of those seeking help. Sticking to this idea, however, is a big mistake, since many variables affect a patient and they have little or no control over them.

The characteristics that explain a therapeutic change are social support and the strength of the person’s self (that is, the extra-therapeutic change); the specific techniques used in therapy ; the placebo effect or expectations, and the therapeutic relationship where the therapist’s mistakes can have a major impact.

Along with the extra-therapeutic change, a therapeutic relationship between the psychologist and their patient is a very important element in achieving change.

Thus, it becomes important to expose certain mistakes made by therapists that may threaten the therapeutic alliance. This factor represents approximately 40% of the progress a patient makes through psychotherapy (Corbella and Botella, 2004).

Five Common Mistakes Made By Therapists

The following list is based on a chapter of Introduction to Psychotherapy: Common Clinical Wisdom by Pipes and Davenport that presents some of the most common mistakes made by therapists.

1. Trying to solve the problem without really understanding it

This is one of the most common mistakes made by therapists. Although certain types of therapy, such as psychoanalysis, seek a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s problems and invest time and effort in understanding their narrative, the truth is that not all therapies do.

Much of this therapy takes place in contexts where the minimum result for each session is synonymous with quality. The less time it takes to finish a therapy, the better the therapist.

Therefore, in response to the imperfections of psychologists, some may observe superficial information. Then they will limit the problems and intervene without considering other areas that are not relevant.

When a patient attends a session in a bad mood, for example motivated by bad grades, the therapist will make an evaluation and plan an intervention. For example, they may consider their perfectionism, irrational thoughts about what it means to fail, and give them emotional control techniques for when it happens again. In short, they will not even consider important components.

In this way , the patient may have an eating disorder and they have not even discussed it because the food issue never seemed problematic. It may also be that when they told the therapist that their eating patterns deteriorated after poor results, the latter assumed that this phenomenon was only a consequence of poor grades.

An intervention that has not been given a good evaluation will fail. Nothing happens when the therapist does not use the time it takes to evaluate and instead is carried away by the anxiety of starting an intervention as soon as possible.

2. Inappropriate behavior of therapists

Despite what one might think of general culture, the verbal and non-verbal interventions of the therapist in a session must have functional value. Although humor, talk, satire, and jokes are often helpful in deepening a therapeutic alliance, therapists should exercise caution.

They need to consider these types of interventions with a goal, be it to confront or calm anxiety or to ridicule or expose ideas to gain insight.

The therapist must also control his laughter, at the same time as it amplifies a type of patient intervention. It is necessary to examine the content of a joke, as the purpose is usually to point out something specific.

How does it relate to the patient’s problem? And above all, do they want to joke with it? For example, as a therapist, you talk to someone who can not take anything seriously and has trouble dealing with anger. So at one point they jokingly show a rabid attitude. If you laugh, you reinforce the idea that such tantrums are not important.

This is also extrapolated to control the therapist’s own laughter when they want to reduce their own anxiety. If the therapist is not sure if a patient finds it difficult, they laugh to calm down, but convey the message that what was said is funny. This can confuse their patient. Thus, they will not feel safe in the therapeutic alliance.

3. To pressure the patient to fail

Spectacular change and rapid achievement are not the norm. However, a therapist’s enthusiasm or urgency can hasten therapy in this direction when it is simply not possible. It could be because they are trying to expand the social network, experience new experiences or perform actions that are not really valuable.

Forgetting or dealing with issues that may seem simple, but are not for patients, is one of the most common mistakes therapists make. Maybe encouraging the patient to make more friends is something they are not prepared for. In contrast, attempts can go wrong as the person lacks the skills to conduct a conversation. Or maybe because they are unable to control their anxiety in certain environments.

The lack of results on many occasions is not the responsibility of a patient, but the responsibility of their therapist. This is because the procedure must be intelligent and ensure that all the tasks and recommendations they suggest fit the patient’s needs. It is very important to consider the pace here.

4. Try to be the patient’s friend

A therapist has not invested years in psychotherapy training just to be someone who listens and gives advice. Therefore, many experts agree that they should not become friends with their patients. It is not suitable for their therapeutic conditions and it complicates confrontations. In addition, because the tasks in therapy can be understood as optional and the client may be angry at the therapist’s expectations as a friend. This is one of the therapist’s mistakes that is very difficult to correct.

Therefore, professionals must avoid specific actions that lead a patient to believe that the therapist is their friend. For example, do not comment on the client’s appearance unless it is a therapeutic issue. Never borrow money and do not give advice on what should and should not be done. In addition, there shall be no social gatherings outside the office.

5. Poor approaches to interventions

There are several types of interventions that can cause a patient to move away, distort messages and feel useless. If they feel this way, and the feeling does not change throughout the rest of the sessions, it will be ineffective. Do not forget the iatrogenic effects of therapy on a patient.

Although it is normal for a therapist not to criticize directly, the patient may feel judged when you are impatient. Similarly, when you tell them that they are not interested in change or that they are behaving badly.

There will be times when a therapist can come into contact with people that the patient does not. It is risky and counterproductive to be so explicit. In fact, it is better to embrace and try to understand what they are saying and immerse themselves in their feelings than to tell them that they are wrong.

Conclusion of mistakes made by therapists

Finally, therapists should avoid certain phrases that make their client defensive, such as: ” Complaining will not change things “, “You are too defensive” or ” Stop feeling sorry for yourself “. Instead, focus on the difficulties that the patient presents and not so much on correcting their values, as this will make the therapy less difficult. Taking care of the therapeutic alliance is an important goal in this framework, so that emotions such as enthusiasm, ignorance or ego do not push the patient away.

We hope you enjoyed reading about five common mistakes made by therapists!