Everyone knows about therapy, but some still have questions on how to get started. To answer those “frequently wondered questions”, I spoke with Dr. Jill Levitt, a founding member of the Feeling Good Institute in Mountain View. Dr. Levitt is a therapist who focuses on treating people with anxiety and depression through cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT.
She uses a model of CBT called TEAM-CBT, which centers around creating an atmosphere of trust and empathy between the therapist and their patient. Dr. Levitt also teaches at Stanford University School of Medicine, and when she’s not treating patients, she is a mom on the go who understands better than anyone, the power of practicing self care. We asked our readers to anonymously submit any questions for Dr. Levitt so we could address their concerns about mental health.
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One question we received from multiple people was, “how do I know if I need to go to therapy?” A lot of readers were saying, “I’m kind of anxious, but it’s not too big of a deal. How do I know if I need to go in and see someone?” So what would you say to those people who are thinking about it but not sure if it’s right for them.
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I think one question I would ask myself is, “how much distress am I experiencing?” If you feel anxious from time to time but feel like you’re managing it well and it’s not interfering in your life and not interfering in the choices that you’re making, maybe you wouldn’t feel motivated to seek therapy at that time. But if you’re experiencing anxiety or depression and it’s interrupting your sleep, getting in the way of your relationships, or it’s affecting the choices that you’re making- it’s a sign that it’s time to get some help. If you’re starting to avoid situations because of feeling anxious or depressed, that’s another sign it’s time to get some help.
It’s best to go to a therapist when you feel motivated to work on your problems. Your problems don’t have to be huge in order for you to feel motivated to work on them. I would just ask myself, “Am I willing to put in the time? Am I willing to meet with someone for one hour once a week and do homework and actually work on some of these problems that I’m having?” You don’t have to have acute, debilitating anxiety to feel like it’s time to go to a therapist. Ask yourself, “are my symptoms bothering me enough that I feel motivated to work on it?” And if so, that’s a good time to go to therapy. As long as you do have kind of some specific concerns or some goals for therapy. I wouldn’t just go to therapy to have someone to talk to. But if you feel clear that certain things are bothering you that you’d like to get some help with, and you feel motivated to work on those things, then I think therapy can be really useful.
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We’ve also received a lot of questions about burnout and how to cope with work-related issues. How does someone deal with burnout if they don’t have the means to quit their job and don’t think they have time for therapy?
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The way that I think about it is, “what are the thoughts and behaviors that are causing someone to feel burnt out?” And how can you address them? So, if someone is feeling burnt out, I would ask them, “what are the thoughts that go through your mind when you’re feeling burnt out?” Are they telling themselves that they’re not doing a good enough job? Or they need to be doing more? So in fact, it’s not the work they’re doing that’s tiring them, but the way that they’re thinking about the work they’re doing. That’s an instance where I would help them refocus and work on their thoughts. The other piece is behavioral which is, “are you working too hard?” Generally when I’m working with people who are feeling burnt out the first thing we start working on is boundaries- leaving work at work and making sure that you carve out time to sleep, eat well, exercise, meditate, or whatever things you need to do to take care of yourself. I also think that because now we have phones and constant access to the internet, it makes people think that they have to be working around the clock but you’re going to be more effective if you’re carving out time for yourself. You can just sit down and say, “this is the time that I’m not working and I can decompress.” So I think if someone doesn’t have the funds or time to carve out for therapy, they can still evaluate what their thoughts are that are getting in their way and also evaluate their choices and actions and decide to make healthier choices to help them to feel better.
Q
That ties into the episode of the Feeling Good Podcast you were on, “How to Say No” where you talk about establishing boundaries for yourself. A lot of people have a really hard time saying no, so what is a general script that you would advise people to stick to, especially if the work is starting to be really strenuous? What’s something that they could say to help them set boundaries at work?
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I’ve actually had the experience of a lot of patients who think that it’s not okay to say no to things at work and it turns out when we work together and they actually do say no to things, everything is fine. I was recently working with a woman who’s a lawyer at a firm and she thought there was no way she could say no or even delegate things that were being sent her way. And it turns out that there was a completely neutral or even positive reaction to her setting boundaries and saying, “Actually I can’t work on this because I’m working on this other thing this week, or I can’t work on it but how about we ask Joe to work on it this week?” People need to try it out and see what happens. I think we all have the assumption that we can’t say no to things and that awful things would happen if we were to set boundaries or say, “I can’t do that”. In fact, a lot of times, communicating that you have limits is respected in the workplace.
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The exercise that comes to mind is the paradoxical role play, especially the one you and David Burns did on the same podcast, where you played the role of your own fears and said, “if I say no, then you’re going to be really disappointed in me and you know I really respect you and I don’t want you to be disappointed in me”. I feel like everyone experiences that to some degree because they want their employers and their co-workers to respect them so they say yes to everything and take everything on at once.
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I think if you are someone who’s always saying yes to things, people think of you as someone they can keep giving things to, rather than thinking of you as a person who actually has limits. In a way, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Setting boundaries also sets the tone for a professional relationship or a friendship that has boundaries. The exercise you mentioned, you can also do a role reversal in your head where you can imagine that you had a friend or colleague who said, “oh, I’m sorry I can’t do that because I’m doing this other thing”, would you judge them? Would you look down on them? That’s an exercise you can do where you role reverse and then you think, “how would I feel if I were in the other person’s shoes?”
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Another question we received from a reader was, “what do I do if I hate my therapist?” which is something I think people actually struggle with when they’re first starting to get into therapy and aren’t sure what to expect going in.
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You definitely don’t want to be seeing a therapist that you dislike because therapy is so contingent on the relationship you have with your therapist. Empathy and connection is necessary–it’s not sufficient for change, because you need to do a lot more in therapy than just have a therapist who’s a good listener, but at the very least you need to have a therapist you like and who you feel connected to. At the same time, I would not just run the other way if I did not like my therapist, I would tell the therapist what it is that you don’t like and see how the therapist responds. For example, it may be that a patient feels like a therapist isn’t active enough and is just listening and isn’t helping enough and maybe communicating that to the therapist will have an impact on the course of therapy. I recommend telling your therapist what specifically you’re not happy about and see if your therapist can address it effectively. If they can’t, then I would say move on because there are so many therapists out there and if you don’t feel like the therapist is really helping you, then why would you continue to see them? So the answer is, tell your therapist directly what it is you are not liking about therapy and see if the therapist can address it, if not, move on!
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This leads me to my next question about what people should be looking for; what are some qualities people should look for in a therapist?
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I would want a therapist who is caring and compassionate and who I can connect with but I also would want a therapist who has expertise in helping me with my particular problems or concerns. If you’re a patient and you’re having panic attacks, you want to make sure you’re seeing a therapist who has tools to help someone with panic attacks. If you’re struggling with depression, you don’t just need a warm and caring therapist, you need a therapist who is actually going to offer you specific tools and techniques to overcome your depression. At the Feeling Good Institute we do measurement-based therapy. Having a therapist who actually measures your symptoms at the beginning and end of every session is crucial. We also use a measure of the therapeutic alliance so at every session I know “Is my patient getting better? Is therapy working?” It also answers the question, “how is my patient feeling about me and about the work that we’re doing together?” and that way we can course-correct immediately to make sure that we’re doing effective therapy and to make sure that our patient feels understood. So, look for a therapist who uses measurement, has specific tools and techniques to help you, and who you find easy to connect with.
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Now that people know what to look for in a therapist, what are some of the specific practices therapists can focus on and how do people find these therapists? Say, for example, if someone is struggling with anxiety, they don’t want to just go to any therapist, they want to find someone that can really help them.
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It is hard to find the right therapist! There are at least two important ways that therapists can differ-one way is the kinds of patients they specialize in treating. For example, I specialize in treating anxiety disorders and depression. Other people specialize in treating eating disorders or addictions or couples therapy– things like that. If you’re aware of the type of problem you’re having like an alcohol addiction, eating disorder, or an anxiety disorder, then you definitely want to try to find a therapist who specializes in treating that disorder. Another way therapists can differ is their approach to treatment. At the Feeling Good Institute, we do TEAM-CBT and that’s a particular type of treatment. Other people do DBT or psychodynamic therapy. You want to look for a therapist who specializes in the type of problem you have and who has specialized training to treat that problem. And how do you find that? If you need to use insurance then generally you actually have to start by contacting your insurance company and getting a list of providers that are in-network. Psychology Today also has profiles of therapists and they explain their areas of expertise, and so I think it’s worth it to do your research to look into and read about the therapist. I always would ask myself, “where did they train? what kind of training do they have?” Word of mouth is really helpful, so if you go to your primary care doctor and you ask them, “who do you recommend for anxiety?” or “who do you recommend for alcohol abuse?” There are some professional organizations like APA, the American Psychological Association, or ABCT, which is Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, that have therapist directories. The directories on those websites also have therapists with more specialized training- like if you go to a CBT website, you’ll find therapists who affiliate with the CBT model.
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If things such as substance abuse were mentioned to a therapist, are they required to report it?
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No, therapists are not required to report substance abuse. Everything that occurs between patient and therapist is required by law to be kept confidential, with only a few limits. Those are: if the patient seems to be a risk to himself (in the case of suicidal intention), or a risk to others (if the patient describes the desire to hurt or kill a specific person), or if the patient tells the therapist about a child who is being hurt or abused or neglected, or an elder who is being abused or neglected. These are the only conditions under which a therapist is required to report a patient or contact a family member of the patient, depending on the nature of the situation.
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Why do I only get angry/upset with my inner circle including family and my partner?
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I can’t say why a specific person might be angry with their particular family member, but a possible reason that people tend to feel most upset with the people they are closest to is that we usually trust our family members or close friends not to leave us or abandon us, and so we are less inhibited with them and feel safer expressing anger or negative emotions with them. We are on better behavior with those we don’t feel as close with because our bond with them feels more tenuous. We can let it all out with those we love and trust. Another possible explanation is that we have higher standards for those we love and feel close to and having higher standards means that we are going to feel more easily disappointed with them and as a result feel frustrated or angry more frequently. It’s certainly not adaptive though! Ideally we would all work hard to treasure the people that are closest to us and to work hard to feel close and connected rather than angry and frustrated with them.
Q
Another reader says, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do with my life going forward. It’s so much and I feel so insecure, small and insignificant in the real world. How can I help this feeling of overwhelming fear and anxiety?” What would you say to them to help them navigate through this problem?
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First, take it one step at a time, you don’t need to decide everything today. Just decide where you want to start. What are you interested in? What do you like to spend your time doing? What is available to you? What are you good at? What do you value? Go ahead and put one foot in front of the other and take action in some direction, even if you don’t know if it’s the right direction. Make a list of things you need to do to get where you want to go and do at least one thing every day. People can feel very overwhelmed and paralyzed by decision-making. In fact, it’s far more effective to simply make a decision and move in the direction of that decision then it is to stay stuck in your head, wondering what you should do and thinking that there’s a perfect answer. Don’t sit around ruminating— take action! And if you feel overwhelmed, get support from loved ones, friends, mentors, or a therapist!
Q
Can you describe how you’ve seen the evolution of your patients change over the past few years? Because mental health is a bigger topic in the media, more people are talking about it, and more people are open to seeking help. It’s slowly starting to become destigmatized. So have you seen the attitudes of your patients change? And have you seen the levels of resistance that they come in with change over the past few years?
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I’m seeing a lot of engineers with social anxiety and people with perfectionism come in for therapy now that maybe wouldn’t have in the past. In other words, they’re high functioning, they’re not having trouble getting out of bed, they’re going to their jobs, they might be in relationships, but they’re stressed or they’re unhappy. I do see more people coming to therapy now, who maybe don’t have debilitating symptoms, but recognize the fact that they’re not sleeping well, or they’re performing well at work but at a personal cost, or they’re constantly feeling like they’re not enough. I’m seeing a lot of those kinds of patients in my practice. I also think that cognitive therapy in particular is really appealing to people in Silicon Valley. I like to think of cognitive therapy as debugging the mind and so many people here are familiar with this idea of debugging the code or improving quality. The therapists that train in the TEAM-CBT model with the Feeling Good Institute help patients with specific problems get better quickly, and I think that is really appealing to people in the Bay Area as well.
You asked about resistance and I think it goes hand in hand with the idea of therapy becoming destigmatized. People are more open to getting help and they’re coming because they want to- not because someone else convinced them to come. It’s great because I feel like change is really possible when you have a motivated patient, someone who’s willing to be open and to look at the problems they’re having and work hard between sessions to really implement strategies and bring about change.
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I think it’s also a generational thing as well, because I know in my generation, we have the mindset that, “oh, something is wrong- I should do something about it.” Whereas older generations, they’re more likely to say, “you just have to learn how to deal with it, everybody has their own stress in life”.
A
I think we are dealing with a generation of optimizers, people want to get better at things, to be more efficient, or to improve themselves, and TEAM-CBT is a great way to optimize. People think “if there’s a problem — I’m gonna fix it” and that would drive someone to go to therapy, right? Or they say, “I’m not sleeping well” or “I get really anxious before I give a presentation and I’d really like to not feel so anxious”. And they come to the conclusion that they have a problem and that they can see a well-trained therapist who can help them fix it. So, yes, I agree with you, measurement-based therapy is a great fit for the mindset of your generation!
Q
Some people can’t afford therapy but there’s a lot of other options outside of traditional treatment methods. I know there are different apps, like headspace for meditation, but there are also ones where you can talk to a digital therapist and talk to other people who go through the same problems. What’s your opinion on which ones are credible? And which one would you recommend as an alternative to therapy sessions if someone can’t afford traditional therapy or doesn’t have the access?
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I do think that short term therapy is very effective if you can find a therapist who does CBT and who treats the kinds of problems that you’re looking for help with. I very frequently have people come to me for therapy that say, “I really want to work on my public speaking anxiety.” Or, “I’m having panic attacks and I really want help in getting over it. Do you think that if I come to therapy, and I work hard that I could get over this in a couple of months?” And the answer is yes, definitely! People don’t need a huge budget for therapy. People should consider going to therapy for two to three months and working with someone who really specializes in what they’re looking for help with. CBT is incredibly effective and can be a lot more cost-effective in the long run as compared with functioning suboptimally. The other thing is in terms of access, there are a lot of excellent therapists who offer video therapy as well. Here, at the Feeling Good Institute, we can offer therapy through confidential video conferencing software. Therapists in California can offer it to patients in California and we also have therapists across the country and in Canada who can see patients through our larger video therapy program, so access to care is easier with video therapy. However, if someone has literally zero budget for therapy and they can’t use insurance or they don’t have insurance and they can’t do any kind of therapy- I think the self-help books are actually a good place to start and a lot of them have audiobooks now too. I often recommend David Burns’s books like Feeling Good, which is very commonly used and people find it incredibly effective. There’s also a book he wrote that’s called When Panic Attacks that I think is really helpful for people with anxiety. He also has a great podcast: The Feeling Good Podcast. And then, in terms of lifestyle changes things like working on sleep hygiene and getting to sleep at a reasonable time, consolidating your sleep, taking screens out of the bedroom, and exercising regularly. These are all things that are affordable and can make a really big difference. I often recommend that patients who have stress, worry, and anxiety try meditation. Some people really like it, some don’t. A lot of my patients really like the app headspace. I have a couple of patients who use an app called iCBT, but they use it in conjunction with therapy with me. It’s an app that contains CBT specific therapy worksheets that can complement therapy.
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What makes TEAM-CBT different from other forms of therapy practices?
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TEAM-CBT is really a framework for doing effective therapy rather than being one specific manual for one specific problem. The “T” in “TEAM” stands for testing, which means that we use measurement throughout therapy to track progress and to make sure that we’re holding ourselves accountable for change so patients are making progress and we can show them they’re making progress. The “E” stands for empathy, which means that all therapists who practice this kind of therapy have been trained in empathy skills that allow us to connect quickly and easily and fluidly with patients and to offer really warm and caring support. The “A” stands for “agenda-setting” which means that our therapists are trained to address resistance and to help patients to boost motivation for change. A lot of patients come to therapy feeling ambivalent about making change or about working hard in therapy, so we use a lot of strategies to help reduce resistance and boost motivation. And then the “M” stands for methods which are primarily cognitive and behavioral. TEAM-CBT is based on cognitive behavioral therapy- that’s the CBT part. But it builds on traditional CBT by focusing on strong empathy skills and on dealing with resistance and motivation. CBT differs from traditional talk therapy dramatically- we focus very clearly on the thoughts and behaviors that are driving the problems. We want to understand patients’ past and childhood and things like that because those experiences inform the present, but the therapy itself is really focused on making changes in the present by helping the patient to challenge and change negative or anxious thinking and change behaviors which leads to symptom reduction and better functioning.
Q
You mentioned the rapid recovery model that takes about two to three months for patients to work through with their therapist. Can you describe the process- what it would look like for someone who is just starting out and what the sessions would look like? Can you walk me through what the entire thing looks like from beginning to end?
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The way I’ve always practiced therapy is in this short term model where patients come in and we spend the first session or two doing a really thorough evaluation and trying to understand what the diagnoses are- like panic disorder, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or depression, so we can start to focus in on what the patient is looking for help with. The sessions are fairly structured, we use measurement at each session, so we’re tracking progress- the patient and therapist together can see that change is occurring and if change isn’t occurring, we can quickly course correct. The sessions consist of setting an agenda together of what we want to cover in that session and then teaching tools and techniques for changing whatever it is the patient is looking for help with. Most importantly, for rapid recovery to occur, patients need to be doing homework. A big part of therapy is teaching skills in session, but then your patient is responsible for applying those skills between sessions. At the beginning of each session, I review the homework my patient did during the last week and look at the progress that was made, and then we build upon that by teaching new tools and techniques or reinforcing the tools the patient has already learned. Our sessions feel warm and connected, while also feeling structured and methodical. Patients make meaningful change in a short period of time. It’s really exciting and inspiring to see!
Q
Are there any methods and tools that you find harder to apply in your own life? A lot of people have the impression of their therapist where they don’t do anything wrong, they have their whole life together and that’s why they help other people. Is there something that you personally struggle with?
A
Well the idea that therapists are perfect is ridiculous, right? We’re all human beings. I’m lucky in the sense that I’ve had an opportunity to learn all these tools myself all along the way. Ever since graduate school, I’ve had many, many years of “free therapy”. The most influential technique that I think really dramatically changes people’s lives is the concept of exposure therapy. It’s the idea of when you’re anxious about something, avoiding it is the very worst thing that you can do and that facing your fears is ultimately the most useful strategy. So usually you’ll want some sort of support or guidance in facing your fears. But for me and the way that I live my life and the way that I parent my kids, and the way that I respond to friends is always remembering that avoiding situations and avoiding feeling negative emotions is actually what makes everything worse and what allows anxiety and depression to have a really negative impact on your life. For example, when you contacted me for this interview, believe it or not, I felt kind of nervous about doing it. To me, it’s like, “of course I’m going to do that even if it makes me feel kind of uncomfortable” because I don’t want to live my life trying to avoid discomfort and in essence, also avoiding great opportunities and human experiences. The thing that I think is the hardest actually, is a particular communication skill. We have this technique that we teach patients when they’re dealing with conflict or dealing with criticism, that’s called disarming. It’s essentially finding truth in what the other person says, even if it feels unreasonable or unfair. For me, that’s been a total game-changer in my relationships, whether it’s with patients or loved ones. When someone is criticizing you or upset with you, you feel an urge to defend yourself and to correct them, but in practicing disarming, you want to let your guard down and say, “Hey, you know, you’re right. I did screw up. That’s true”. Even though I have been practicing this for years, it’s still hard! Let’s imagine that I was late to meeting someone at dinner and they said, “Hey, you’re 15 minutes late”. Well, I might feel the urge to say, “Oh my God, there was so much traffic. You wouldn’t believe what happened today. I tried really hard to make it on time”, but instead saying “you’re totally right, I kept you waiting. And that was probably really frustrating for you. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to be so inconsiderate” or something like that. So for me that is still hard, I always have to remind myself- don’t be defensive, be open to criticism. It’s so rewarding to practice disarming because you realize as soon as you can agree with people who are criticizing you, there’s an immediate de-escalation. But your instinct is to defend yourself.
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You also mentioned your studies in undergrad and grad school, did you always know this is where you wanted to end up? Or was there a certain professor or specific class that made you want to change course or sparked your interest?
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That’s a good question! I am an unusual person in this regard. I remember in middle school I was interested in human behavior. I was always the person who talked to people when they were sad. My parents have told my children, “Your mom knew that she was going to be a psychologist from the age of eight”. I even remember reading books about couples therapy when I was in high school because I just thought it was fascinating. That being said, I ended up going undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania and they have a very strong CBT program. For me that was a total game-changer because, before college, I knew about therapy, but I didn’t know about cognitive behavioral therapy. So as an undergrad I was able to learn about cognitive therapy and evidence-based therapy and the specific tools you can learn as a therapist to help patients, and that had a huge impact on me. I decided to go to grad school to get my Ph.D. in clinical psychology so that I could learn how to do cognitive behavioral therapy. My grad school mentor, David Barlow, taught me all about exposure therapy, which was mind-blowing and then when I moved to California 12 years ago, I began training and teaching alongside David Burns, who has been incredibly influential to me in both my career and my personal development. David is one of the original creators of CBT and has built on the CBT model to create this framework that we now teach at Feeling Good Institute called TEAM-CBT. He is an amazing clinician and teacher and has inspired me to not only work hard for my patients, but also to work hard to train other therapists.
Q
That leads into the work you do now through your practice with the Feeling Good Institute, on top of being the director of clinical training, can you describe what your day is like and what your role is?
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I spend part of my time seeing patients and I really, really enjoy connecting with patients, and particularly helping people with anxiety disorders and depression. And then I also develop and design the curriculum for our training program. The Feeling Good Institute has two main missions- one is to help patients by supporting therapists in doing high-quality TEAM-CBT. The second is to offer cutting edge therapist training through our continuing education programs. We want to help patients by connecting patients with excellent therapists and we also want to help therapists become better at what they do because we can have a greater impact on patients by training therapists. So a good part of my week is spent either doing the trainings myself, or developing future trainings for others to deliver. I try to understand what therapists need to learn to be more effective in their practice, and then try to design courses that address that.
Q
What do you think about group therapy and is it an effective tool in your opinion?
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I think that for particular things, group therapy can be really effective. I think certain pieces need to be in place for that to happen. First, there needs to be a skilled and knowledgeable leader who connects a group of people that have the same kind of problem, and secondly, that the group is focused on learning skills. In my experience, it can be very effective to do group therapy, for example, on social anxiety. And the reason for that is that one can learn cognitive behavioral skills, and also practice them in the group itself. A lot of patients who have social anxiety may be averse to being in a group, but in fact, it’s the very thing they need to practice. There are also DBT skills groups. So there are a lot of different kinds of therapy models that aim to teach skills and those can be taught more effectively in a group setting. I think the main thing is that there is structure, a skilled leader, and the group is based on learning particular skills, rather than just being an unstructured support group.
Q
You’re also a mom on top of everything else. Is it one of those things where you can leave your job at the door and walk into the house and be just a mom? Or is it always going to be that gray area in between the two, especially when you’re parenting your kids or interacting with your spouse?
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I always try to manage my practice so that I can leave work at work. So that means take care of phone calls, take care of paperwork, do my work within the workday, so that then when I leave work, I can go home and be with my family and not be thinking about work. I also work in a somewhat part-time sense in that I’m not available in the evenings or on the weekends, and certain days I devote to teaching and training therapists rather than seeing patients. That’s my way of managing my practice so it doesn’t bleed into my personal life. If you are asking about the positives of being a therapist and how that affects my life at home, I think that you can’t turn off your therapist mindset, but I feel like that’s a good thing. I mean, you could ask my kids in a few years, and they might disagree! But I feel like the fact that I’m knowledgeable about cognitive and behavioral coping skills, is helpful, because I can teach my kids these things. My husband is a gastroenterologist and sometimes he has really challenging interactions with patients and he and I will sit down and he’ll ask me for help, and I can coach him on how to how to deal with really critical patients or patients who are really upset or irate. So again, I feel really lucky that I get to be a therapist and then I get to bring these skills to bear in my relationship with my kids, my husband, and my friends. It’s funny, because you were asking about dealing with patient resistance and I have a teenage son, and that is the epitome of resistance. I want so much to work together as a team and he of course wants to assert his independence. And so, what I’ve learned as a therapist is not telling my patients what to do, but asking them if they want help, and then offering help only when I am asked. I think that is actually really helpful advice for dealing with teenagers too. If my teenage son comes home from school and has a problem, I don’t immediately say, “oh, here’s what you need to do,” because I know he’ll say, “back off,” but I’ll ask him questions, or I’ll say, “Did you want my thoughts about that?” and if he says no, then I need to hold off. So I feel like a lot of the skills that I learn from being a therapist are really useful in parenting too.
It’s important to remember that everyone has different experiences, and some people may take longer to work on themselves and that’s perfectly okay.
Thank you so much to everyone who submitted questions, Dr. Levitt and I sincerely hope this will help people find the resources and support they need, answer some of their questions, and address concerns about mental health. As the ever iconic Megan Rapinoe said, “Putting yourself out there is hard, but it’s so worth it. I don’t think anyone who has ever spoken out, or stood up or had a brave moment, has regretted it. It’s empowering and confidence-building and inspiring. Not only to other people, but to yourself.”
// You can check our Dr. Levitt’s resources here: The websites that Dr. Levitt mentions are: feelinggoodinstitute.com, apa.org abct.org, headspace.com; or calling the number for the National Crisis Hotline: 1-800-273-8255; Photography by Peter Salcido.