Unique Helpfulness of Medical Talk Therapists

The unique benefit of medical talk therapists in anxiety and other mental health disorders.

1. In addition to a deep understanding of life issues, a psychiatrist who practices medical talk therapy brings an intimate understanding of disordered mind-body interactions which are can be a major component of “nervous” suffering. Steeped in anatomical understanding that comes from the study of anatomy, the trained eye of the medical psychotherapy practitioner can often view locations and monitor the progression of “nervous” muscle bracing and guarding in anxiety disorders. This enables psychiatrists to teach a patient how to gain control of physical tension in the body. The medically-trained psychiatrist can often read the “nervous” tension, seeing non-verbal cues that are usually out of the conscious awareness of the sufferer. The psychiatrist is able to educate the patient about their somatic or body anxiety feelings and relieve a lot of the frightening mystery and helplessness that often goes along with it. This can free the sufferer from over reliance on self-medication, on illegal drugs and even on prescribed drugs that can become habit-forming.

The ability to closely read the fluctuations of physical tension is a skill that enables the medical talk therapist to see the signs of a therapeutic dialogue heading into a wrong or upsetting or even damaging direction and to be able to reestablish calmness and collaboration in treatment.

The medical therapist who does talk therapy is positioned to initiate the most appropriate medication when it is essential for panic anxiety, and for destabilizing insomnia and toxic emotional self-attack. The medical talk therapist is able to strengthen the chemical effectiveness of the medication by explaining its core effects and explain what the patient can do with their own behavior, thoughts, and attitudes (cognitions) to gain the full potential benefit of the medication.

When the patient works closely with the prescribing medical talk therapist and is in a partnership of equality and full cooperation, the patient is spared the risk of panicking over unexpected physical feelings or alarming self-diagnoses and misinterpretations about medication effects. The patient must be made to feel that they have access when they need it to the prescriber, who knows both the medication and the person who is taking it very well.

Through his knowledge of heredity and of how some mental problems are passed down in families, the medical talk therapist can make the wisest medication choices.

Knowledge of how to restore disordered sleep cycles gives the medical psychotherapist skill in helping people out of the painful pit of depression. Being stuck in a disordered wake-sleep time cycle can drive chronic fatigue, behavioral avoidance, shame and demoralization. The medical psychotherapist can offer medication when appropriate, along with cognitive and behavioral tools that help regain restorative sleep which can be key in the battle against depression.

Finally, in chronic pain states in which a person fears moving a sore body, the medical talk therapist who understands the how mind and body can upset each other through immobility, soreness, apprehension, and misguided fear of damage is in a good position to help restore the practice of gentle movement that can often break the cycle of chronic pain and medication overuse.

Combining medication and focused cognitive-behavioral talk therapy can be by far the most effective for social anxiety, apprehensive living and obsessive problems.