Have you had formal counselling/therapy? (page 2)

BLISSISIGNORANCE

yep, just started last week.

i intitialy started going because of concerns i had about my teenagers. i have had problems with them leaving home, coming back and one leaving again. apart from the comings and goings, i started to find it hard being blamed for everything wrong in their lives. i became tiered of carrying all their emotional baggage and then getting the guilts.

but after only one session, which i went to with my son, it was amazing how obvious it was that many of our problems were WTS based. i'm not looking for a scape goat, or someone to blame................it's just a fact.

and now that my entire family has been out of the cult for several months, we have been making some progress in being an average family with average expectations of eachother, and alot of acceptance with heaps of love.

the counsellor will help us talk our feelings out and regain some confidence in our own abilities as both parents and children...........positive input not negative like the borg gives.

bliss

Elsewhere

Yes I have... it was when I was fully realizing that I was an atheist. "Coming out" was very difficult for me.

I had spent my entire life convincing myself that I believed, when all the while I had this little voice in the back of my head screaming it's head off.

It took two medications and therapy, but I managed. It was hard... but I some how managed.

MegaDude has also been a great help. Now there is a man on a spiritual journey... he has helped me a great deal.

joannadandy

Nope...but I probably should

onacruse

sphere says:

Ask them questions, anything, mainly just get them talking and giving you feed back so you can get an idea if you would be comfortible with that person.
Also consider support groups, they can be very helpful and usually are inexpensive.

I couldn't agree more, on each point. I "voluntarily" (no, it was not a diversion program, or anything like that) went to an alcoholic treatment program 10 years ago, and resisted to the max. The first week, we were required to go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. They told us upfront that we should check out several groups, to find one where we felt comfortable. I visited 6 before I found a 2-year "home." Total cost...maybe $200. Our meetings were in a RC annex. LOL. What the WTS doesn't offer, the RC does. For the first time, after 20 years of heavy drinking (starting at Bethel), I finally knew a little of what was going on in my psyche.

The group leader of my initial group was a recovering alcoholic/drug-addict Jesuit...speaks volumes, eh?

Craig

Satanus

I went to a few codependence group therapy meetings. I probably should go for psycho or hypnotherapy.

SS

Introspection

I've had brief therapy twice, once when I was still a witness with a witness therapist, and the other time it was with a school therapist shortly after I left. I went into therapy for depression, it was somewhat helpful both times but in neither case was it a cure. I think therapy can be useful, but as I look back it is pretty clear that I wasn't just interested in having nice thought patterns in my head, I wanted something more. So I guess it kind of depends on what you're looking for, I think for a lot of people life does come to a point that it requires something like therapy to make it manageable.

Don't think the therapist or therapy does anything for you though, like a lot of other things it's something you need to participate in. Whatever you do, be honest with yourself, that's probably more valuable than anything else.

obiwan

http://www.cftf.com/online/1997SPRINGp09.html

This is a web site I found to try and find support groups, I hope this helps.

Have you had formal counselling/therapy?