Jason Waller

Therapist and philosopher.

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

So I have been a therapist now for about two years and here are a few of the things that I have learned in no particular order ...

1. In therapy the most important element is the relationship between the therapist and client. A strong trusting relationship is essential and predicts outcome better than any other single factor.

2. If you are looking for "coping skills", honestly, you can get good suggestions from a simple google search. There are no deep secrets here. Your therapist isn't likely to have some brilliant new idea for coping with, say, anxiety that you won't find with a google search. Having said that, these ideas (e.g., deep breathing) are not sexy, but they do work.

3. Coping skills are easy to learn but very hard to practice effectively.

4. There is a lot of benefit in just thinking out loud about a problem with another person. The mere presence of the other person keeps you from many distortions in thinking to which we are all subject.

5. Emotional processing involves talking about emotions while experiencing them. This is the heart of good therapy.

6. Self-deception is really really easy.

7. If you want to do one thing to dramatically improve your mental health, then focus on how you talk to yourself in your head. A compassionate self voice is so healthy and makes you a lot more resilient. A critical inner voice has little to no benefit to you.

8. We are all prone to magical thinking. For example, if I'm harsh to myself then other people somehow magically won't be. We are all subject to lots of magical thinking like this.

9. People will suffer a shocking amount before they are willing to change a habit or routine.

10. Once people decide to change a habit it is insanely hard to actually do it.

11. Many people want the therapist to make their hard decisions for them. Nope. Will not do.

12. People have "no idea what to talk about" pretty often. That's normal. Don't worry about it.

13. Because the therapeutic conversation is very one directional silence is inevitable. Unlike in normal conversation I don't follow up your story about you with a story about me. In fact, we don't talk about me at all.

14. Almost everyone is likable and interesting.

15. People suffer in many different ways, but around a very small number of topics (am I good enough? am I lovable? etc.)

16. Children blame themselves if bad things happen to them. Better to feel like you deserve it than to face the much scarier truth that you are not safe.

17. People spend a lot of time in therapy complaining about other people. Most people most of the time see themselves as perfectly reasonable and everyone else as crazy.

18. It is possible to be so depressed that you begin to hallucinate. But it's pretty rare. (I've seen it once.)

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

My latest video on my youtube channel is about the psychology of anger. It's titled "Why You Are So Angry" (2 minutes). Check it out!

https://t.co/LuQ27TuqH9

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

My latest video: "Why They Are Still Mad at You (And What You Can Do About It)" (2 minutes)

#RelationshipAdvice
#relationship
#mentalhealthtips

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Check out my new Youtube channel devoted to mental health issues. My latest video: "Why AI Can't Replace Therapy" (3 minutes)

https://t.co/LuQ27TuqH9

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

"Therapist vs. Friend: What's the difference?" (3 minutes)

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

A short video on how the mind is like an elephant. Why is therapeutic change so hard? #MentalHealthMatters #MentalWellness #MentalHealthAwareness

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Second video on my new youtube channel!

"No, Therapy is not about blaming your parents for your problems."

SD 480p https://t.co/Y4AKtiqCZm via @YouTube

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Hey everyone! I just finished the first video for my new Youtube channel! Let me know what you think!

What is Therapy? Therapy As Sustained Self Reflection SD 480p https://t.co/Nbbr7N9hTb via @YouTube

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

@JoshuaLWatson I cannot think of a single issue abt which Hume was right .....

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

@FeistyKittyPie wow this is starting to get painful 🤣

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Discussed with a friend the criteria for NPD and her response was "wouldn't you be a narcissist too if you were as hot, brilliant, and charismatic as me?" 🤣

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

@mudscryer hey you could have studied philosophy

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

@justin_garson That's interesting. Can you provide links to this research? Thanx!

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Time shows no mercy and it always wins.

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Reading Freud's "Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety" (1926).

This book is a masterpiece explanation of symptom formation in Freud. It's a really excellent read and his summaries of his case reports ("Wolf Man" and "Little Hans") are insightful and clear. This work should be better known than it is!

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Helping my seventh grader with his math homework is a humbling experience for this phd

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Like the experience is really very strange. Intense narrow obsessions that seem to contain all happiness. Outside of the narrow obsessions everything seems pointless and empty like the very possibility of joy has been extinguished. It's like joy is at best an abstraction that lucky people get to contemplate.

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

The depressive part of bipolar is brutal AF. It's so bad it's hard to even explain how bad it is.

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

Hahaha! Let's talk about the difference between causation and correlation ....

[Nicholas Fabiano, MD @NTFabiano]

Owning a cat is associated with a 2x odds of schizophrenia.

The proposed causal agent is Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cats.

This parasite can persist in the nervous system and has been linked to changes in the brain.

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

@mudscryer Not so sure I agree with you here. I honestly think you could change the world someday.

[Jason Waller @jasonwallerphd]

@justin_garson Psychiatry has many problems. But that probably isn't one. At least in psychodynamic circles.