Speed therapy
‘Speed Shrinking’ Is New York’s latest phenomenon, the title refers to the three minute speed-dating-esque slots with psychiatrists.
From the above description the whole ‘speed shrinking’ idea sounds like something not to be taken too seriously, even the title is somewhat crude. The concept was in actual fact invented by accident. Author Susan Shapiro came up with it to promote her new comic novel of the same name. The novel is centered around one women’s desperate search to find the her perfect therapist.
The first event was a book party to promote the novel. However it seemed that everyone who attended really enjoyed talking to all of the therapists and many of the attendees requested another similar event.
‘There are those who come to these events who would never have dreamed of talking to a counsellor, but they find it so helpful that they end up deciding to use a therapist regularly.’
Speed therapy works in a similar way to speed dating. The premise involves a number of therapists and a number of clients, who have a three minute window to put their problems across to the first professional in line before moving on to the next one.
‘I think it’s become popular because of the recession,’ says Sherry Amatenstein, the author of recently released couple’s therapy book, The Complete Marriage Counsellor, and one of the co-hosts.
‘You know this is a city where a lot of people use psychiatrists but right now many of them don’t have the money to spare or maybe just have the sort of question that could be answered relatively quickly, so an event like this really works for them.’
Could this be something that could work in the U.K? Well it is certainly a great way of introducing therapy to those who hadn’t considered it.
Read the original article here.