A week or so ago, PsychCentral had an interesting post about the challenges of psychotherapy. I agree with the message but I had a few additional thoughts of my own, which I will post over the next few days.
Grohol writes:
"6. “Side effects” of psychotherapy are unpredictable.
At least with psychiatric medications, you have a laundry list going into your prescription knowing what to expect. In psychotherapy, you never know what to expect. You could go into a session feeling perfectly comfortable, end up discussing a traumatic childhood experience, and come out feeling completely exposed and re-traumatized.
Unfortunately, many therapists won’t discuss or acknowledge such “side effects,” but they occur all the time. And the worst part for an individual is that you never know what might be in store in any given week. Being aware that psychotherapy is often a very emotionally trying experience helps, but it can still catch you off guard."
I understand the point being made here, but I wouldn't call it side effects, but rather effects. I tell my patients up front that it is not at all unusual to have periods of feeling worse before feeling better. Because as we go along, feelings and experiences that they have been defending against and resisting feeling will surface and in the process bring some discomfort. But what we do then is find our way through those feelings and experiences to come to a new place of understanding them and being able to face them and deal with them rather than defend against them. A side-effect, in common parlance, is a usually unwanted effect from a treatment But at least when working in depth, the occurrence of these experiences is part of the process, even if not a particularly enjoyable one, for most of the time, the only way out is through the experience.