When people talk about “therapy” here, they most likely are thinking of bog-standard talk therapy, where you just go in and kinda, well, talk to someone about your life, problems, etc.
For some people, it’s enough to just get things off their chest, talk about things out loud with someone and helps them deal with their issues. I personally see such a therapist monthly and find it beneficial to my mental health.
For others, especially those with more intense troubles and traumas, it may not be, and would probably be served better by someone more specialized with said traumas.
Like any medical profession, the quality of individual therapists and mental health experts can vary widely, from chuds to libs to comrades and everything in-between. there’s a solid chance you may not get the perfect fit on try 1, I didn’t.
I just feel like some people are dipping their toes into Scientology-ish “all therapy is bad, never seek professional help for your problems” stuff, which I think is disastrous advice.
There’s a lot to say about therapy, but imo it’s more systemic in regards to the whole health system (well all systems really), than any criticism I have about the ideas of therapy in general.
There’s a lot of different therapeutic treatments for a lot of mental health conditions. Anyone who makes sweeping statements is being overly jaded imo.
I personally have benefited from talk therapy. I think due to my isolation/neglect growing up, it’s been helpful for learning to open up in a safe environment. It also was a big stepping stone as someone raised a man who had created distance from themselves emotionally their entire life up to that point.
That being said, I’ve also had to come to terms with the fact that no amount of talk therapy was going to rewire the parts of my psyche that are fucked due to abuse I had growing up. I’ve seen that there’s different forms of therapy that try to help past traumas, but money is of course tight, and there’s no guarantees.
I still thank my therapists for what they tried to help with, and appreciated when they told me straight up “this is out of my wheel house. I think it would serve you better if you found a specialist”.
I also did a lot of research to find a therapist who was a known comrade/ally in the local community. Very based and started the biggest community groups for trans people in the area.
I think it’s important to be able to talk about the world and it’s effects in a real way, which you cannot do with a liberal or conservative person at all in my opinion.