When people seek psychotherapy/counseling, most put the causes of their behavior into one of three categories: Global or Specific, Internal or External, and Permanent or Temporary. Most troubled people lean toward global—“I am dysfunctional in everything I do”; Internal—“It is my faults and limitations that cause my psychological difficulties”; and Permanent—“My dysfunctions are here to stay.” Therapy involves helping clients move away from one or more of these three beliefs; clients must see their problems as specific to identifiable situations, external and not due to some inherent deficiency, and temporary in nature.These orientations can motivate them to stay in therapy and attack their problems more effectively.
When you begin psychotherapy, you must understand that it is highly prone to an expectancy (placebo) effect. That is, once you have decided to take the plunge into therapy (or even to take medication), you will look to justify your efforts by finding areas of improvement. You do not want to see yourself as wasting time, effort, and money; you want to convince yourself that you are doing the right thing. These tendencies can make you feel you are improving more than you actually are! In fact, research shows that early in therapy, clients’ subjective evaluations of their improvement is greater than improvement measured by objective tests. But that’s OK! As old NY Mets fans used to say, “Ya gotta believe!” It’s the same with therapy. Always look for that half-full, not half-empty, glass.
But there is a cautionary point to be made here. If you are in therapy, you will always attribute improvement to the type of treatment you are receiving. If you are being medicated, then you will attribute feeling better to the medication; if you are in counseling, you will attribute any improvement to what the therapist is doing. Well, that’s fine, but notice that these attributions are external. It is important for you to know that you must work to get better. Neither medications you are taking nor talking to a therapist will work like magic. Only your effort and hard work will produce results. You must make sure you attribute your progress in therapy internally, that is to efforts you make. It is not the therapist or medications that determine positive change; it is your motivation and effort that determine progress.
Psychology and Stress 