effective?

A while ago, in an entry call "Less Money" I wrote that some insurance companies were attempting to find a way to evaluate how effective our psychotherapy is. If course, I wan not thrilled with that, mostly because I don't believe that they really want to evaluate how well we help people improve their lives, but they want to find ways to reward those therapists who are "cost efficient"

But, I do think that we should be held accountable for the work we do. My wife always bitches that my billing rate is only slightly more than she pays the Toyota place. But, I always answer, when you take you car to the Toyota place, when you take it back it runs smoothly. That cannot always be said for those who bring their mind into my office.

So lets look back a year and see the first three people I saw a year ago today and see how well they are doing now.

The first one I saw was a fifteen year-old young woman, who was strikingly attractive and flirtatious, who came and whined about things that were clearly not that important. At the second session she told her mother that there was a man who was now working for her father who had sexually molested her for a year when she was eight. She had never told anyone before.

I only saw her once after that. They went to the police. I think she is doing much better.

The second person I saw last year was a sixty year old woman who has been living alone for ten years. She has been alone since her husband, now her ex-husband, was taken off to jail for selling meth out of their basement. She was afraid of getting sick and having no one to care for her. She had fainted at work and was scared she had a brain tumor was about do die.

It wasn't true. But she was frightened of entering a new relationship with the man at work who was pursuing her. We dealt with her fears until last November. She left happy.

The third hour was spent with a couple who were fighting about money. Her brother and cousin had died within the past two years and she had been spending a lot of money, convinced she would be the next to go. Her husband was upset because he didn't think she was about to die but was afraid they would soon lose their house.

There turned out to be many issues with them, relating to their parents, betrayal, abandonment and money. I still see them once a month. They are financially solvent and getting along.

I guess I am three for three. I will stop there for today.
`