4Sight 4 Minute Story #3: The Therapist (for the behaviorist)

Emotional Wellness, behavioral health, emotional intelligence, mental health... Call it what you will and euphemise if need be. In the end, they're all the same. We want to look at what we think about and the resulting action or statements those thoughts enable. And if we have a problem around what we think or others have a problem with what we say and do, then we want to have the ability to change that situation.

Historically, we have referred to this as our mental health. And historically we haven't done a very good job with that improvement process. In fact, one could easily argue that we've done a horrible job setting up the system we currently have in place. Why is that? You would think that the people gathered to analyse and review behavior would be really good at making it work. Well, it would seem as though they've had the opposite effect.

This story starts in the 1800's when there were people whose behavior we didn't understand. Worse, we had no idea what to do with them. Our solution was to create terms that are now highly derogatory - crazy, lunatic, insane... - to describe them. We put them in places where they could be kept separate and, in many instances, treated them very badly. Then Sigmund came along around the turn of the century.

Freud and those who followed him have done their best to make mental health a science. Unfortunately, that became part of the problem as mental health borrowed from biological health. If people have issues they have an illness or disease. If you're a psychiatrist you read the DSM - the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders - where you pick attributes from a menu like you're ordering food a la carte to determine the discrete problem, then prescribe the medication needed to get the person well. This might work well if you have a kidney disease, but it doesn't tend to work well for behavior which is more akin to a spectrum. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) agrees.

The NIMH - *the* federal authority in the field - says the DSM lacks validity because it has no objective laboratory measure. This helps explain why a person would be confounded to help themselves. There is no consensus on how to do that or how to measure success. And seeking out "professional" help isn't much better.

To start, therapy is expensive and often includes treatment that can last for weeks if not months. You often go weekly, not when you need it, and try to tell them what you think is going on. Many people find the results debatable and, if their friends or co-workers were to find out - arguably the very people who could help most with what we're thinking - a person is often made to feel weak or otherwise inferior. The stigmatism from the old days is still around.

What is needed is a new structured way to look at what drives people's behavior. The treatment process needs to be uniform and, most importantly, it needs to be a supportive, group discussion. There's no way that we're ever going to make an impact with a system that is piecemeal, confidential and inconsistent. It is only until we all agree on what is going on that we will be able to make progress with our mental health field. So whether for yourself or your organization, email us so we can discuss the programs available which enable people to look at what drives our behavior in a whole new way. Ready for a 40 minute meeting? Email us now. If you're still not ready, there are other stories to help you get there.