Niklas Serning spent 20 years to exercise psychotherapy. Now there are many doubts about the method. And is pleased to have walked away.
“I set aside the theory theory, and I think I’m now a better therapist because of that.”
“After decades to practice psychotherapy, I believe this has little scientific base and often causes damage“.
The words, direct and without hesitation, are from Niklas Serning, an accredited psychologist of the United Kingdom, who is also… psychotherapist. Or it was.
In his article no, the expert begins by saying that there are millennia that exists the art of “being there for the other”. Between sages, shamans, priests, more recently the psychotherapists appeared.
“A series of attempts to create a science of psychotherapy from this. But there is very little science in this“, The newspaper.
Psychotherapy, a recognized profession, in Portugal, is based on psychological knowledge and tries to help the person be aware of the origin of their problems -then solve them with changes. We seek, until the past, old relationships, family contexts, is sought… is not the same as a psychology session.
Of course, to be a psychotherapist, it takes experience, intelligence, wisdom and knowledge.
Childhood: Is it?
But over the years, Niklas has been losing “faith” In this therapy. With experience, with concrete cases (and with readings), began to realize, for example, that events of infancy and parenting rarely interests when we look at what is happening todayor when we analyze what we are today, or our behavior. The family environment/context has very little influence on its current personality, he argues.
And it is based on the second law of behavioral genetics to support your idea: the influence of genes on human behavior is greater than the family environment.
The psychologist does not hesitate: “Perhaps the vast majority of therapeutic teachings are wrong about why people suffer“.
Sigmund Freud followers ensure that our personalities and our sufferings are a consequence of the way we were treated as children. It can happen, yes.
“But It may be totally wrong“The psychologist warns.
And then, if this association is really wrong, the psychotherapist recommends treatments that can be “largely useless and potentially harmful ”. Therefore, advises Niklas, It is better to “examine these theories more carefully before, as a profession, we cause more damage. ”
Childhood is part of the process, it is an internship. But we are learning all the time. THE suffering is also related to how we relate to the world and to our current circumstances.
In fact, the expert even considers “a little arrogant” Considering that suffering stems from childhood is a universal, always true thesis.
The psychologist does not escape a central question: We pay so much money for so many therapies – that they don’t work that well.
Niklas Serning ended up aligning in what appears written in the book by Abigail Shrier, published last year. The author, graduated in philosophy, warns that the therapeutic culture exerts a toxic effect And often prejudicial about culture in general.
Children
And then the scenario becomes dangerous when dealing with children. The idea is to speak, go to the bottom of the problem, to the origin, to feel better. But children are much more likely to identify with feelings and it is much more likely to “fall into a hole of increasing anguish.” To the children leave the session more anxious than when they enter. “You can’t play with anxiety in the sandbox.”
Also, the question is: “Why do you ask children to sink into difficult feelings? This interrupts the natural process of resilience of children and finding the good. ”
By the way, for finding risky and being against a central premise of children’s psychotherapy – helping children explore difficult emotions – Niklas began to Refuse work with children. He began to focus on the parents and the wider system around the child.
10% worsen
A data that is not usually revealed: 10% of customers get worse after starting therapy – In such cases, therapy may not only be useless, but actively harmful, reinforces.
“I believe that The real therapeutic work is to combat the resentimentthe. Resentment is the core of all my ills, the pain itself is not. Resentment arises when we are in pain, but we believe we have the right not to feel pain, ”says the psychologist.
He concludes: “Having abandoned empty theories and having informed the client that no magic resolution will come on my part-that their lives are their responsibility-I feel grounded in millennia of wisdom, on a lineage of people who offer support on how to live ”.
