LAST YEAR WAS one of poor PR for talking therapy. There was, of course, the usual kickback to so-called ‘therapy speak’ – a growing collective eye-roll at the overuse of words like ‘toxic’ and ‘narcissistic’, often to refer to people and situations we dislike, rather than those that fit the strict definitions. Then, emerging scepticism directed towards therapy itself.
“Maybe you shouldn’t talk to someone,” declared The Cut – a subsidiary of the New York Magazine – for a piece which asked why rising numbers of people are quitting therapy. In it, Melissa Dahl – a health journalist and former therapy patient (“I would bring up the same issues; she would give the same advice. Nothing changed”) – cited a 2023 review of 19 studies that found no difference between shorter- and longer-term bouts of psychotherapy on a depressed or anxious person’s level of functioning, challenging the idea that, when it comes to therapy, more is more. The conversation continued in The Atlantic in July, in a piece reporting on the legacy of the efforts to destigmatise mental health problems; chief among the fears articulated by Dr Lucy Foulkes, a researcher at the University of Oxford, was the risk of pathologising mild forms of distress.
But if some people are reconsidering the eminence of therapy with an attitude of ambivalence, others are doing so in a different state of mind. The same month as The Atlantic piece went live, the MailOnline published an exposé on BetterHelp – the tele-therapy service through which patients are matched with a therapist who ‘”its your objectives, preferences [and] the types of issues you are dealing with”. The website claimed that some of those offering therapy via the platform had engaged in unprofessional behaviour, from spending half the time speaking about their own pets and children as opposed to the client’s issues, to using the toilet while on a video call. Some of those behind the allegations said the experience had led them to walk away from therapy.
The claims prompted an internal quality assurance review at BetterHelp, while a spokesperson said the company doesn’t hire unqualified practitioners, its therapists don’t give out detrimental advice and any therapist violating their terms would be removed from the platform.
None of this is to say that unpacking your problems in the presence of a professional doesn’t help; nor that our collective appetite for working out internal strife has been sated. But it seems those with the money to go private are investing in lesser-known practices, with both Internal Family Systems (IFS) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) experiencing a spike in interest. Meanwhile, bestselling books such as the (controversial in some circles) The Body Keeps The Score, which evangelises the impact of such practices, along with yoga and dance, for the treatment of trauma are only contributing to the re-examination of the dominance of talking therapy. So what’s ignited this great therapy switch-up?
Lesser-known therapies
Much like ‘meditation’, ‘therapy’ is a word of many meanings. “Since [Sigmund] Freud developed modern psychotherapy, a lot of people have thought of the practice as a therapist prompting you to get your thoughts and feelings out, and that this disclosure is the most important thing [for healing]. But there are various models of therapy, which can work differently,” explains health psychologist Sula Windgassen.
Even within psychodynamic therapy – the mode of therapy based on Freud’s theories – there are multiple methods. “From the traditional mode, where you lie on a couch and explore what comes up from the ‘subconscious’, through to short-term psychodynamic therapy, which is more focused on allowing you to access your emotions and move out of intellectualising feelings and cognitive behavioural therapy.”
Though they come under the umbrella term ‘psychotherapy’, modalities such as IFS and EMDR don’t look much like the image most of us have of therapy. The former hinges on the idea that we all have a multiplicity of ‘parts’ rather than a single self; by identifying and engaging with these parts – often by focusing on the place in the body, such as the heart or stomach, in which they can be ‘felt’ – it’s said that you can help them all to feel safe, thereby allowing them to give up behaviours that are harming you (being overly defensive; too quick to judge).
‘Trauma is often stored not only in the brain but also in the body, leading to chronic tension’
As for EMDR, it involves a therapist using ‘bilateral stimulation’, such as waving a finger in front of your face, as you recall a traumatic memory, quickly moving your eyes from side to side. If this sounds bizarre, the practice sees success rates between 70% and 90%, and is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for the treatment of both PTSD and its sibling, complex PTSD. According to charity PTSD UK, research shows that EMDR, among its other activations, reduces activity in the parts of the brain responsible for fear. Currently, experts believe it allows the brain to help a traumatic memory become ‘unstuck’, allowing the patient to process the memory, making it less intense, and thus lessening its grip on their present.
Popular, too, is somatic experiencing therapy, which works on the principle that trauma gets trapped in the body and, as a result, can be released physically. Various techniques can be used as part of this therapy, including pendulation, which involves moving between sensations of safety and discomfort. Developed to help people with trauma, it’s also called on for anxiety and chronic pain conditions, among other issues.
This, and other somatic therapies, such as dance, complement the aforementioned modalities by ensuring that bodily sensations tied to these parts and memories are processed, says Tommaso Barba, a neuroscience researcher at Imperial College London, who’s using IFS in his own life. “Trauma is often stored not only in the brain but also in the body, leading to chronic tension, hypervigilance, or dissociation. By reconnecting individuals to their physical sensations, somatic therapies bridge the gap between emotional, cognitive, and physical trauma responses, restoring a sense of safety and agency.” How does this offer something traditional therapies can’t?
“Traditional therapies rely heavily on top-down processing, which engages the prefrontal cortex [the part of your brain responsible for planning and decision-making] to analyse and verbalise trauma,” Barba adds. However, trauma impacts deeper brain structures such as the amygdala [responsible for the fear response] and brainstem, which are less accessible through conversation alone. Somatic therapies use bottom-up processing, starting with physical sensations, movements and breath to regulate these lower brain regions. This provides a physiological foundation for emotional safety and cognitive processing to occur more effectively.
The old schools of thought
That lesser-known modalities are becoming more popular shouldn’t surprise us; it’s always been this way. So says clinical psychologist Emma Svanberg. “Therapy, like all professions, changes with new understandings and new discoveries. Newer models might gain awareness – sometimes due to intense marketing around them and their creators – as well as people talking openly about their therapeutic experiences on social media,” she explains. While body-based approaches aren’t new, she tells MH, they’re experiencing a spike. “If you look back at the history of therapy, it isn’t unusual that therapy goes through trends.”
This shift isn’t happening in a vacuum and there are theories as to why we’re moving away from the old schools of thought. ‘I recently read (author and social activist) Naomi Klein’s book, Doppelganger,’ says clinical psychologist Emma Hepburn. “She talks about the rise of new-age therapies and rejection of the norm. I think it might be based on this broader rejection of institutions we’re seeing.’ (IFS could be seen as new-age-adjacent, rooted in 60s California, much like somatic experiencing; EMDR is more modern, having been invented in the late 1980s.)
“You could say the rise in alternative healing goes hand in hand with the rise in alternative media”
Of course, therapy isn’t the only space in which things are being done differently. For Jules Evans – a philosopher and editor of newsletter Ecstatic Integration, where he’s reported extensively on IFS as well as psychedelic therapy – the popularity of such practices can be linked to the ascent of non-traditional media, like podcasts and newsletters from people not employed by, say, The New York Times or The Guardian. “You could say that the rise in alternative healing goes hand in hand with the rise in alternative media. I used to work a lot for the BBC. There, you can see a clear Overton Window [a span of acceptable ideas and worldviews] around spirituality. With podcasters like Joe Rogan, Lex Fridman or Andrew Huberman, they’re much more interested in alternative health, alternative spirituality, psychedelics and alternative ideas in general.”
Connecting with your emotions
Back to Barba and how opening up to different modalities worked for him. “I went through a complicated break up in the summer, which created some sort of crack in my mind. I could have put a plaster on it and gone on with my life as best I could, like I have done in the past when I’ve gone through times of tumult, but this time I refused to do so. Instead, I went on a quest to understand myself more.”
In the past, he had used cognitive behavioural therapy to unpick mental tangles – work he thought had resolved a lot of his issues, including complex experiences stemming from facing issues related to his sexuality when he was younger. “At that time, I felt like I had gone through the process. But suddenly, when I was confronted with all these emotions, I realised I was in trouble.”
It was at this point that ideas underpinning IFS started to appeal. “This concept that, rather than having one singular self, you’re actually made up of many different parts which operate separately made sense to me.”
When he began IFS in 2024, he found the emphasis on connecting with emotions and feeling them in his body brought him something traditional psychotherapy had not. “I knew I had a part of myself that was created as a shield when I was bullied in high school. This part became dominant, working tirelessly to protect me from being hurt again,” he explains. “Over time, it grew so strong that it began to suppress and push aside another part of me, a softer, more vulnerable, emotional self. This exiled part remained hidden, never given the space to navigate or fully experience the world.”
“While the process is strange and painful, it’s also helping me see myself in a more complete way”
While he had always understood its existence on an intellectual level, he says, ‘I had never truly connected with the emotions tied to it. Now, through IFS therapy, I’m starting to reconnect with this part of myself. It feels both unfamiliar and deeply recognisable, and while the process is strange and painful, it’s also helping me see myself in a more complete way. With each layer I unlock I can feel another side of these emotions, meaning I can process them better and am starting to feel more integrated.’
Such positive stories of exploring the more emotion-led modalities abound. But it’s a space in which Evans advises caution. ‘When mainstream therapies don’t work for people, they sometimes head to the fringe – and that could be helpful. ‘Therapist’ isn’t a protected term and anyone can start using it to describe themselves.) And if a therapist isn’t licensed? ‘Then you’re not entirely sure what you might be getting,’ adds Evans. ‘They may behave in unethical ways that are not in accordance with industry standards.’ And if they’re not registered with a formal body, you have no one to submit a complaint to.
While reporting this piece, MH spoke to someone who had an extremely positive experience with Rapid Resolution Therapy. The founder of that modality, though, has had allegations of sexual misconduct made against him, which he denies, and a group complaint has been filed in Florida, where a board will determine if an investigation will ensue. To look at IFS specifically, Evans has reported on the modality’s theory of ‘unattached burdens’. This, he says, is IFS terminology for malevolent entities that can bind themselves up into a person. This is not a metaphor. A book written by leading IFS figure Robert Falconer called The Others Within Us dives into the topic and includes a foreword from the creator of IFS, Richard Schwartz. Evans has expressed concern with the idea of telling patients in therapy that they have a dark force lurking within them.
A way that works for you
When it comes to finding a therapist – for any modality – Evans advises checking that the person in question has a professional licence. Certain terms, such as ‘integrative therapist’ or ‘functional medicine’, he says, are signs that someone might have a more fringe worldview – which may or may not be what you’re looking for. You can also search the name of a therapist or a modality together with ‘scandal’ or ‘law suit’ to see if anything comes up.
Know, too, that some people find that traditional talking therapy is the thing that works for them. ‘I fell out of faith with it as a practice for a while, I was sick of hearing myself say the same thing over and over,’ one 33-year-old civil servant from Wiltshire told MH. ‘My housing costs went up and I couldn’t justify the money. But when I decided to come off a high dose of antidepressants after close to a decade of taking them, I knew that I’d need help to navigate the readjustment. I wince when the £60 leaves my account, and I’m going biweekly rather than weekly, but it’s a necessary anchor at the moment.’
We live in weird times. And with high rates of mental ill health and capital T trauma, interesting new modalities – some of which come with a solid evidence base – are going to be alluring. Important to note, too, is that the secret sauce of a productive therapeutic relationship often comes down to something pretty simple: whether you click with the person dispensing the help. ‘Research shows that the main factor of a “successful” outcome in therapy is about the relationship between the therapist and the client,’ says Dr Svanberg. ‘So the different benefits of therapeutic modalities and approaches will apply to different people at different times.’
For Barba, there’s something special in modalities that engage the brain and body in different ways. ‘Getting in touch with emotional sensations, rather than just intellectual memories, has brought me to a deeper understanding of myself. Despite how bitter the whole situation was, I’m now grateful for the break-up. It gave me a chance and reason to do meaningful work on myself that I don’t think I would have done otherwise.’
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health UK.
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