Austin G. Chenoweth

Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. Lover of psychoanalytic therapy. Tweets about psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry. Views are my own!

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

Patients don’t get well in therapy by learning coping techniques; they get better by having a meaningful relationship with the therapist, who doesn’t get sucked into the patterns that they unconsciously try to pull them into. This takes great skill and experience by a therapist.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

East of Eden 💯

[Ramin Nasibov @RaminNasibov]

Name a book that you think is 10/10.
But only one.

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

“The experience of an effective personal therapy or analysis leaves us with a deep respect for the power of the process and the efficacy of treatment. We know that psychotherapy works. Our silent appreciation of the discipline can convey that conviction to clients, for whom a sense of hope is a critical part of their recovery from emotional suffering.”

—Nancy McWilliams (Psychoanalytic psychotherapy: A practitioner s guide)

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

We do them a great disservice in hiding from the anger. Accept it, work with it, explore it and don’t take it personally. If your pts aren’t getting angry with you sometimes, you ain’t doing psychotherapy.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

Anger is a crucial component of psychotherapy, and many clinicians are afraid of it unconsciously or not. The key is to learn how to work with it—to get comfortable being the object of expressed anger; it’s far easier to collude with the pt into attacking another, but we must not

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

💯

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Glorification? There was zero glory in my addiction. It was truly the most excruciatingly humiliating and degrading experience you could possibly imagine. I wanted to commit suicide almost daliy, but didn’t have the courage for even that. Instead I’d reach for the pipe or the bottle. The cowards way out. The guilt. The shame. The hurt. The absolute misery of it. Yet here I am. And I am not alone. There are millions upon millions of us. We don’t all agree on politics or people or who we root for on Sunday. But we all have the shared experience of walking through that fire and surviving. I chose to live. That’s not a joke.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

How do y’all take notes on therapy books? Do you use sticky notes on pages and page markers? Do you take notes in a notebook or in the margins of the book? Do you try and summarize in your own words a chapter or concept? Curious to know what others do to help memorize texts.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@hecubian_devil Trust me, PICKLEBALL. Thank me later.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@MatsonCurt @JoeRoganRecaps @PreparingAPlace 😂😂

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

One of the hardest things for clinicians to understand and work with. Most therapists are terrified of anger I have noticed. They want to be liked at all times.

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

Some people come to psychotherapy filled with rage.

How the therapist handles it separates the experts from the rest.

Experts work to create a therapy relationship where

1️⃣ The patient can feel and express anger *toward the therapist*

2️⃣ Those angry interactions are discussed, explored, and understood in psychotherapy

Non-experts collude with the patient to direct their anger somewhere else, outside the therapy relationship, toward one or another designated villain. The therapist then plays the role of all-good ally.

That's the defense of splitting. When the therapist colludes with it, the patient feels good about the therapist.

But it reinforces the dysfunctional patterns cause problems in the patient’s life—and precludes meaningful understanding and growth.

A good psychotherapy relationship isn't one without anger and hate. It is one where the patient can be enraged with the therapist and come back to talk about it.

Developing such a relationship requires expertise.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@BadreNicolas Same thing as idiots saying LatinX. They don’t want to be called that.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@wtfahhh0 He didn’t get hair transplant or facelifts/lasers like everyone in Hollywood

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@JonathanShedler Could you provide a good case example for this? Love it!

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

Flip flops and shorts obviously 😎

[Edward A. Perin - Psychologist @DoctorPerin]

What is the dress code for therapists?

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@paulsaladinomd @bryan_johnson Can y’all please debate already!

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

Always remember: The therapist is not there to be the patient’s friend. You’re not there to be liked or to satisfy the friendship role/desire in either yourself or the patient. You’re there to help them psychologically, which requires discomfort and offten feelings of anger.

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@rfkenmore Relax he’s at a basketball game lol

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

I cringe so hard when I hear therapists say “Gold Standard.” I get physically sick 😂

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@RaminNasibov Yeah, just like porn..

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

Some therapists speak of

trauma work
shadow work
family of origin work
dream work
parts work
attachment work

as if they were separate things or special skills.

Psychodynamic therapists don’t use these terms. They’re all just the bread and butter of psychotherapy.

*Any* meaningful course of psychotherapy includes all or most of these elements.

We also have a special name for these ways of working. We call it “psychotherapy.”

[Austin G. Chenoweth @FreudandBeyond]

@zeynepmyenisey Ugh we can’t even meal prep around here to save money 😭