The Scottish Highlands are where people go to climb mountains and to hill walk, not where they play golf. Most famous Scottish golf courses, such as St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, Royal Troon, Loch Lomond and Turnberry, are all situated in lowland areas such Fife, Perthshire. East Lothian, Ayrshire and the West Coast of Scotland.
5
aye, it would be hard to play golf on those mountains...
5
Some of us are lucky to be able to take the same vacation as our shrink... (In time rather than geography). But the thoughts we have about their absence can fill a good few sessions afterwards.
4
I can't say I'm sorry to see the profession waning; it was really a very dreary 7 years on the couch with you—you, the analyst in the green velour jumpsuit and pompadour, who drew happy faces for dots on his small "i's" and made me read "Living, Loving and Learning", by Leo the Schmendrick. Quel bore. I would now have traded those 3 sessions a week for a house in Tuscany and a bunch of Beyoncé concerts. But as J. Alfred Prufrock moaned: "I am old; I-am-old". I can't remember a word you said, and your "eclectic process" was a bunch of hooey-phooey. So there!
14
You spent 7 years with someone of this description in therapy? Yikes.
13
Taking pot shots at "shrinks" probably comes easily to those who would be terrified to enter a therapist's door in the first place. But for those of us who have "dared", and have found a wise, kind and intuitive listener, who helped us with understanding the problems we've faced - sometimes from childhood - these hours stay with us forever, as do the words.
10
How could I be terrified if I went 3 times a week for 7 years. I am happy though, that you found it useful and helpful!
3
Yeah, and there are the unethical therapists (eg arielabermanmd) who charge you for 50 sessions a year regardless of whether or not you actually attend them or how much notice you give that you have a family obligation or whatever. Looks like her vacation is permanently paid for.
7
Why we need therapists in August:
I was swimming with my 7 year old niece; we were talking about things she was worried about regarding her impending return to school (2nd grade!). She then announced, "My greatest fear is death."
The other family members in the pool and I looked at each and sort of laughed at the clarity coming from a 7 year old, but none of us are therapists.
My response was to tell her she's an amazingly deep-thinker for a 7 year old, death is everyone's greatest fear, it's part of being human, and when she's a little old lady she probably won't be so afraid of it.
So hoping I didn't botch it...She seemed relieved to have gotten it off her chest.
I was swimming with my 7 year old niece; we were talking about things she was worried about regarding her impending return to school (2nd grade!). She then announced, "My greatest fear is death."
The other family members in the pool and I looked at each and sort of laughed at the clarity coming from a 7 year old, but none of us are therapists.
My response was to tell her she's an amazingly deep-thinker for a 7 year old, death is everyone's greatest fear, it's part of being human, and when she's a little old lady she probably won't be so afraid of it.
So hoping I didn't botch it...She seemed relieved to have gotten it off her chest.
27
Honeybee, I would say, as a play therapist, you were spot on! Bravo to you! And, you're also right about August not being a good month to take off. My little clients need to process the beginning of another school year, which started August 15. Luckily, anxiety is easily treated and they will be on their merry ways quickly!
1
Everyone (including mental health professionals) need a vacation to relax and regroup. More Americans should do this for many reasons.
15
You're joking, right? "More" Americans would have great difficulty persuading their employers to pay them for 30 days off. And most Americans don't make the kind of money that would allow them to decamp for the Hamptons or the Cape.
10
But it is harder to do when many jobs do not treat employees as resources, but rather as a commodity, and some, like Walmart, pay insufficient salaries and socialize healthcare by having their employees so ill-remunerated as to be eligible for Medicaid. In that case, vacations are not an option.
14
Sadly, this is NOT the EU or Scandinavia.
2
This article instantly reminded me of the movie "What About Bob?". Bill Murray as the needy patient crashing the analyst's (Richard Dreyfuss) August family vacation in New Hampshire. Too funny.
20
Dear Ms. A. Bonanno:
Loved "What About, Bob?".
If you recall, Bob figured it out. Told by his therapist to "take a vacation from his problems" he did just that. Bob found out Dreyfuss & "The Fam" vacationed in Lake Winnipesaukee and took his vacation there to be by his good old doc, whom he then proceeded to drive crazy. Great summer movie, or anytime for that matter.
"Don't worry, it's not you, it's me."
DD
Manhattan
Loved "What About, Bob?".
If you recall, Bob figured it out. Told by his therapist to "take a vacation from his problems" he did just that. Bob found out Dreyfuss & "The Fam" vacationed in Lake Winnipesaukee and took his vacation there to be by his good old doc, whom he then proceeded to drive crazy. Great summer movie, or anytime for that matter.
"Don't worry, it's not you, it's me."
DD
Manhattan
6
Baby steps...baby steps...
5
My therapist charges me over $400 for an appointment and doesn't take insurance. I'm going to be honest, i don't care about her vacation.
27
Mental health counsellors, family therapists, and social workers rarely took a month vacation on August, or any other month. We remained accessible to all, not just the elite "walking wounded". Mental illness, tragedy, and emotional trauma occur twelve months a year.
25
Yes, tragedy and pain happen all year 'round, but a therapist is human, and cannot be available year 'round. We need time to rest too. For this reason it is standard practice to have someone cover for us when we are gone, in the event of a patient emergency. But a crucial benefit from psychological treatment is to be able to recognize, and tolerate, one's limitations. This is modeled when the therapist takes the time they need for rest and restoration.
7
It's not only the Rx approach that's the problem. A more insidious and less visible problem is that merely presenting oneself for treatment for many mental illness will become part of a medical record that will haunt the patient's insurance prospects like an Inspector Javert. No long-term care insurance for you!
You may not realize how much this affects the willingness of people to get treatment, and they themselves might not consciously, but it's now part of the water we drink, as it were.
You may not realize how much this affects the willingness of people to get treatment, and they themselves might not consciously, but it's now part of the water we drink, as it were.
22
The "water we drink, as it were" is the New Corporate State, which evaluates human beings as either profit centers or losses to be eliminated at little or no cost. This is reflected in the GOP's (and to a far lesser extent, the Democrats') prostitution of office to corporate donors, as "legitimized" in Citizen's United.
The "Astroturf" populist group, the Tea Party, had its activists yell "Let them die!" at a 2012 GOP presidential debate, and the Mitt Romney's infamous "47%" comment in the same election cycle.
Make no mistake, GOP "orthodoxy" implies that some 150 million fellow Americans must somehow vanish at no cost so that the rest of us can be profit centers to the entities that pay for elections. This makes the Final Solution look like the costly work of pikers, as it cost vast amounts of money to build and staff the murder factories and round up and transport the victim classes (including my own family remaining in Europe in 1939).
Is this really what the oath of office to serve the voters, the nation, and the Constitution has devolved into?
The "Astroturf" populist group, the Tea Party, had its activists yell "Let them die!" at a 2012 GOP presidential debate, and the Mitt Romney's infamous "47%" comment in the same election cycle.
Make no mistake, GOP "orthodoxy" implies that some 150 million fellow Americans must somehow vanish at no cost so that the rest of us can be profit centers to the entities that pay for elections. This makes the Final Solution look like the costly work of pikers, as it cost vast amounts of money to build and staff the murder factories and round up and transport the victim classes (including my own family remaining in Europe in 1939).
Is this really what the oath of office to serve the voters, the nation, and the Constitution has devolved into?
6
As one of the millions of people in New York City who cannot afford any sort of vacation at any time of the year, I would like to call you and your editor and your publisher an unprintable name.