My Tips For Getting Therapy For Schizospectrum Disorders!

My tips for getting therapy for schizospectrum disorders!

I’m somebody who’s always been good with navigating finding therapists who specialize in my issues. When my friends need a therapist they come to me to scroll thru Psychologytoday for them and find someone for their niche. When I was diagnosed with schizotypal I expected the same thing to happen… but when I tried Cognitive Behavioral Therapy like most of the easily accessible sources suggested, it didn’t seem to help. After not finding any easy answers I contacted specialists and read studies, as well as digging a little further online. Here is my findings!

Psychologytoday is not great for searching for schizospectrum friendly therapists

This gagged me. I have always used psytoday to search for therapists. But not only does it not have tags for most of the therapy models I’m going to list, it doesn’t even let you search for schizophrenia (you can search psychosis but if you want schizotypy specific help that can be too broad) and doesn’t have a custom keyword search (afaik)

I had way better results using inclusivetherapists.com which let’s you do your own term search and has a schizophrenia spectrum tag! It also had tags for multiple of the therapy models below. I got my current therapist this way and it is going well so far! However, the site only services the US, Canada, and Hongkong

“The Recovery of The Self In Psychosis” was a really invaluable resource and I suggest getting your hands on it

When I was starting to feel discouraged I found this publication via the MERIT institute’s website. Which I found when searching for schizospectrum specific therapy research. It outlines a few therapy models (including MERIT) that are tailored to help psychosis. It also outlined why CBT for psychosis can be ineffective. There is a focus on patient rights and self determination that I loved. Plus the suggested pdf reader for mobile has a robot voice that will read it like an audiobook for you!

Here are the models that were suggested to me by professionals I contacted and by this publication

Psychodynamic Therapy (has an IT tag)

Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT)

Metacognitive therapy (MCT) (has a tag)

Metacognitive reflection and insight therapy (MERIT)

Narrative Enhancement Cognitive Therapy (NECT) (the more general narrative therapy does have a tag)

Psychodynamic is the easiest to find out of these and the least specifically geared towards psychosis. It is, however, customized towards the needs of the patient. MERIT and NECT are the most geared towards psychosis.

A lot of these models focus on forming a sense of self, improving relationships, and identifying emotions. A lot of them are also still experimental and/or uncommon. On the other hand, they at least aren’t all only available in America. Many professionals in the readings I saw were located in Europe or Israel, and hopefully there will be more in other countries. 

What I personally did was look for a therapist with schizophrenia spectrum experience, and then tell them about these models as something I was interested in. The pickings were slim in my area so I set it to the entire state of residence and looked for online treatment. 

Another method is to contact outpatient programs at hospitals or behavioral health centers which is where many of these therapy models are being employed. I am in contact with a “community center” that gives aid to those with severe mental illness, but I haven’t started treatment and I know it’s definitely something many of us will be hesitant about considering systemic abuse common in this kind of facility. 

What I saw outlined was that forming a safe, honest relationship with your therapist can be more important than what model is used. That will help with negative symptoms as well as helping with feeling safe in reality instead of having to retreat into delusion/fantasy/emptiness. 

 Going into my first sessions with my new therapist I made a list of things I tend to hide from therapists and sent it to her. I also got permission from her to send diary entries or emails to help me not blank out in therapy and to make sure I express myself honestly. I’m still in the beginning phases, though, so please take this just as a starting point where YMMV greatly. I’m also no professional!

Thank you for reading, I wish you luck in your journey!!! Reblogs and additions appreciated!

Mosab Abu Toha, "Interlude", from his poetry collection Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza, available for download here

R.I.P. The 2976 American people that lost their lives on 9/11 and R.I.P. the 48,644 Afghan and 1,690,903 Iraqi and 35000 Pakistani people that paid the ultimate price for a crime they did not commit

Given the recent events, I cannot help but recommend the following short documentaries, providing a historical materialist perspective on the current crisis of imperialism.

An Atlantic Tide, taking a look at the growing NATO split between the EU and US, and the shortest, at 15 minutes long:

Everything Under Heaven, concerning the push towards escalation and nuclear war, at 30 minutes:

And History is Marching, a comprehensive, two-hour documentary detailing the modern crisis of imperialism:

Dealing With Executive Dysfunction - A Masterpost

The “getting it done in an unconventional way” method.

The “it’s not cheating to do it the easy way” method.

The “fuck what you’re supposed to do” method.

The “get stuff done while you wait” method.

The “you don’t have to do everything at once” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be permanent to be helpful” method.

The “break the task into smaller steps” method.

The “treat yourself like a pet” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be all or nothing” method.

The “put on a persona” method.

The “act like you’re filming a tutorial” method.

The “you don’t have to do it perfectly” method.

The “wait for a trigger” method.

The “do it for your future self” method.

The “might as well” method.

The “when self discipline doesn’t cut it” method.

The “taking care of yourself to take care of your pet” method.

The “make it easy” method.

The “junebugging” method.

The “just show up” method.

The “accept when you need help” method.

The “make it into a game” method.

The “everything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method.

The “trick yourself” method.

The “break it into even smaller steps” method.

The “let go of should” method.

The “your body is an animal you have to take care of” method.

The “fork theory” method.

The “effectivity over aesthetics” method.

I can't keep having the same conversations about love languages, mbti, iq, bmi, "brain fully formed at 25" and shit over and over again...