It certainly does. I suppose I would say that wouldn’t I? But don’t take my word for it. We have a social brain. That means we learn by experience. If we have unhelpful experiences then we are left with unhelpful assumptions about life as recorded by the synaptic connections that have been created in our brains. If we have helpful experiences then likewise: we are left with a set of benign assumptions about our life. The good news is that brain imaging and neuroscience confirms that if we are given different more beneficial experiences then our synaptic connections and thereby our assumptions can change. This is the role and objective of Counselling and Psychotherapy.
THE EVIDENCE
There has been a tonne of research into the effectiveness of counselling and psychotherapy over the past 40 years based on thousands of clinical trials using exactly the same methodology as those used to test medical treatments. For example the overall effect size for therapy is larger than the success rate for flu vaccines and heart surgery. 76% of those who have had therapy/counselling would recommend it to family and friends. in a US study 92% of those who felt ‘fairly poor’ at the outset of therapy felt ‘very good. good or at least so-so’ at the ned of therapy.
THE KEY ELEMENTS OF THERAPY: WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Effective therapy, based on 40years of research as summarised by Goldfried M in the Handbook of psychotherapy integration (OUP, 2019) , proposes that there are 5 key principles to effective therapy:
promoting clients hope and expectation
establishing a good working relationship
helping clients awareness of their difficulties
encouraging clients to engage with ‘corrective’ experiences
practice ongoing reality testing and applying the new learning
THE COUNSELLING EXPERIENCE: CHANGING A LIFE FOR GOOD
Perhaps the crucial part of that list is the working relationship. This is not quick work but as you can see it is effective. What is more is that it is is scientifically underwritten that engaging in a different therapeutically informed relationship can change your life for good.