Elliott Connie
Founder/PresidentElliott Connie, MA, LPC is a Psychotherapist that practices in Arlington, Texas. He has worked with thousands of individuals, couples, and families applying the solution...
A recent post of mine sparked a very good discussion on social media about how ineffective psychotherapists and psychotherapy can be. Here’s why I think this happens and what we need to do to fix the problem.
Earlier this week, I put something on my social media that got some people riled up and got a lot of attention. And what I said was that according to research, most of the approaches in our field are inefficient (meaning they take an abundance of time, when we know there are more efficient ways to do it), and they get inconsistent outcomes with clients. That’s according to research. We know that that’s true and the whole field knows those things are true. I’m really frustrated with some of the things going on in our field, so I decided to post that just to vent my frustration.
And some of the comments, people went crazy. That thing has been viewed almost a hundred thousand times so far. It’s only been up for like 24 hours. The comments went crazy. Most of people agree with me because, like I said, this is common knowledge in our field. Every psychotherapist knows that what I just said was true.
But a few comments were so, like, I was so upset that I was like, I need to respond to these people. So I decided to make this video.
The number one thing I want to say is there were a couple people saying that what I said is not true. And I was like, “Well, have you read any of the research?” Because it is absolutely true. And they pointed out something where they said, “Well, the psychotherapy approaches aren’t what leads to client outcomes. It’s actually the relationship we have with our clients.”
That’s actually true, but incomplete. It’s not actually the relationship we have with our clients. It’s how connected do your clients feel towards you. Relationship implies some sort of reciprocity, meaning we are in some sort of a relationship. But the power dynamic in therapy does not lead to that being true.
What really matters is, does your client feel connected to you, and does your client like you? That is the number one predictor and whether or not we’re going to get outcomes.
So the people who made that point in the comments, they actually made my point for me. Because if we know that that’s the number one predictor on whether or not we’re going to get positive outcomes with our clients, in graduate school, why don’t we teach how to be connectable? Why don’t we teach communication skills? Why don’t we teach relationship skills? Why don’t we teach how to be authentic so you can truly bond and connect with another person? But we don’t.
In graduate school, we study a collection of techniques. And by the way, we don’t study them from a pragmatic, practical standpoint, where you can get good at applying with your clients. We teach the history of those approaches. We teach the theoretical background of those approaches. We teach the founding names, like who are the people who created the approaches.
And we do that so that people can pass exams and get a license, but they end up leaving school with a license and a degree, but not with the skill to actually apply therapy. And people attack me, like, “You’re being critical.” or whatever.
I’m not being critical. I’m saying that it is time that we face the reality that this is common knowledge in our field and no one seems to be doing anything about it. And we need to face this, and we need to address this, and we need to stop acting like it’s not true. We need to stop pretending as if psychotherapy is some sort of wonderful, great thing, because it absolutely isn’t.
In our field, we accept mediocrity.
In our field, we accept an underperforming thing without holding each other to a really high standard.
And I just think that needs to change.
I think psychotherapy can be great. I think that some psychotherapists are great, and I think some psychotherapists are doing great work. But unfortunately, too many psychotherapists are actually causing harm. The things that I’ve heard clients, friends, and loved ones, saying that therapist said to them or did is appalling and insane. And we need to address it, and do something about it.
So if you’re one of those people that looked at that post, and went in the comments and were like, “That’s not true, that’s not true.” Then what are you basing that on? Because I have read the research, I have read articles. I have read the journal material. I have read the information that is really clear on what we’re good at in this field and what we’re not.
And I think we should do something better. And I think that we should be better. And that’s exactly why I stand behind every single word I say.
Elliott Connie, MA, LPC is a Psychotherapist that practices in Arlington, Texas. He has worked with thousands of individuals, couples, and families applying the solution focused approach to help them move their lives from the current problems towards their desired futures. As well as being the Founder and President of The Solution Focused Universe, he is recognized around the world speaking at national and international conferences and events throughout the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, England, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Holland, Canada, and Asia training practitioners to apply solution focused questions and techniques in their work. He has authored or co-authored 4 books including “The Art of Solution Focused Therapy”, ‘Solution Building in Couples Therapy”, ‘The Solution Focused Marriage’, and ‘Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with Clients Managing Trauma’.
