What will therapy look like in ten years time?

The IAPT program is an error in the development and deployment of
psychological therapy. There is no push for a follow up program and no
provision for the severely mentally ill. No person with sound knowledge
of psychological therapies could recommend a single therapeutic
technique for all people.

It has exposed a large number of the public to the potential of
psychological therapies and has given people first hand experience of
the value of therapists. This gives the public 'buy in' for the idea of
treatment of mental ill health through talking.

In the future perhaps people will look to get the important aspects of
therapy into a national program. For example choice in therapist. The
therapist-client relationship is one of the most important aspects of
therapy. Many a person has had to sit through therapy with someone they
thought was a total dickhead. The future may see people trying
therapists rather than therapies.

CBT is one therapy in a sea of hundreds of therapies, many of which
aren't available on the NHS but may have potential for certain
individuals. The future may see a broad range of therapies available
like the broad range of psychiatric medication available to doctors and
psychiatrists who readily prescribe drugs rather than seek to understand
the cause and nature of an individual's abhorrence or distress.

A significant shift will be the length of therapies generally available.
Deeper rooted or complex problems are not easily fixed in a few
sessions. It may take that long for a client to gain trust and a
therapist to begin to understand the client.

I desperately hope that therapies of the future won't be used just to
keep people in work. I think the psychoanalysts (Freud and his clan)
would turn in their graves at the thought that the beautiful art had
been bastardised into a mass-employment drive.

I wonder if therapies could ever be offered on a self-referral basis.
This was part of the IAPT pilot but was not advertised and is not promoted.

Or will it go the other way? Will there be call centres full of
factory-trained therapists delivering tele-therapy? The only waiting
times will be the time spent listening to the hold music while queuing
for the next therapist, but it was therapy that wasn't worth waiting for.
Press 1 if you'd like to be told it's your parents fault
Press 2 if you want someone to tell you it's ok
Press 3 if you want someone to tell you you're not ok
Press 4 if you want someone to tell you someone else was wrong
Press 10 if you need some real help.