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Those of you in therapy...

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Health & Wellbeing
.. this question is purely out of curiosity - to those you in therapy who see private therapists versus nhs?
I ask because I read so much here about nhs treatment and see few mentions of private therapists.
In answer to my own question I see a private therapist and have done for the past 3 years (although 2 separate ones due to location) I did NHS CBT for a few months in between this but had the usual frustrations of max amount of sessions(although he did extend this)/very goal orientated/specific. Plus I thought the guy was an imbecile. My current one is awesome.

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've had both over years - I find interpersonal therapy works really well for me and its rarely available on the NHS but my current soon to be former therapist is NHS but secondary rather than primary care and I've found her very helpful. I find time-based rather than goal orientated therapy very difficult and often ultimately pointless if I haven't achieved much by the end of time limit. That's often the nature of the NHS though :(
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Miss_Riot wrote: »
    I've had both over years - I find interpersonal therapy works really well for me and its rarely available on the NHS but my current soon to be former therapist is NHS but secondary rather than primary care and I've found her very helpful. I find time-based rather than goal orientated therapy very difficult and often ultimately pointless if I haven't achieved much by the end of time limit. That's often the nature of the NHS though :(

    Yeah unfortunately those limitations are tough. It makes me wonder why mmore people don't seek private treatment, obviously the cost but most therapists ive come across are quite flexible in terms of scaling payment based on need.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Most therapists I know charge around £30-£15 a session. So lets go for the middle 20 x 4 = £80! I don't know many that have that spare! Even at the other end of the scale it's £60. Plus even if they are BACP accredited its fairly daunting trying to find the right fit
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The two therapists I've seen privately charged £80 for 50 minutes and £130 for 50 minutes. So I was only seeing them once a week whilst waiting for NHS treatment. I find the NHS better at providing a comprehensive treatment package and whilst the waiting lists for therapy have been quite long the treatment has been much more intensive and long lasting over a period of years rather than months and they link up better with inpatient / day patient / out patient treatments. Also I prefer the team approach in the NHS where there is more accountability. My (male) private therapist told me that the best way for me to 'get over' my fat belly would be to look at it in a mirror for 15 seconds at least, then to masturbate. I found this quite creepy tbh.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Girl_gunner wrote: »
    Yeah unfortunately those limitations are tough. It makes me wonder why mmore people don't seek private treatment, obviously the cost but most therapists ive come across are quite flexible in terms of scaling payment based on need.

    I've had some pretty appalling NHS experiences (and some good ones) but I've never been in the position to pay for any healthcare and i wouldn't be able to get private health insurance. a decent course of in-depth psychotherapy could last for well over a year and that is an awful lot of money, even if the prices are reasonable. if you're only going to pay for a few sessions then you may as well just go with NHS IAPT anyway.

    on a political level I don't agree with private healthcare and the prospect of potentially working in private practice in the future doesn't make me very happy, but with the NHS cuts private practice is flourishing. as a client that is not an option for me so I get the more common, free of charge alternative - nothing.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    thanks for replies guys! interesting to hear opinions on the topic. i think its important to add that in my case I started seeing a private therapist when I was living abroad ( so there was no opportunity of free healthcare) and I got on very well with her, came back and tried to go the nhs and it was a complete disaster and my current therapist is a former colleague of the previous one. when i tried to just search them out i will say it was VERY hit and miss. i suppose its a cost i just budget into my life like transport/food/etc but i pay 20-35 and go weekly/fortnightly depending on circumstance ( at the moment im out of work so its £40 a month).
    I will say (and maybe this is putting a cat amongst the pigeons) but I found my experience on NHS was that I was too high functioning to be in real need of their service, and whilst I obviously believe they should prioritise accordingly, one psychiatric assessment by someone who had met me once struck me off to 12 sessions of CBT and no meds. Thankfully I am now in the situation where my NHS GP is happy to prescribe any medication as/when needed in contact with my therapist so the compromise works well for me.
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