{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Looking Through the Lens of Hopefulness","title":"What Your Therapist Is Really Thinking | 50 Years as a Patient Meets 50 Years as a Psychiatrist","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3944,"description":"I’ve been in psychotherapy, on and off, since I was 16 years old. That’s 51 years as a patient. My guest on this episode, Dr. David I. Joseph, has been on the other side of that equation for just as long — 50 years as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His book chronicling his journey in the mental health profession, Listening for a Lifetime: The Artful Science of Psychotherapy, is available on Amazon, including Kindle Unlimited.When I read it, I recognized my entire mental health life on those pages.Know Who You’re Talking ToBefore we got into the book, I asked Dr. Joseph for a primer — one that I wish I’d had 50 years ago. What exactly is the difference between a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a psychotherapist?His answer: “A psychiatrist is someone who’s gone to medical school and then done specialty training in the field of psychiatry,” which means training in both the brain and the mind, including the ability to prescribe medication. Psychologists focus on how the mind functions. Their training centers on providing psychotherapy, not pharmacology. And not all psychiatrists are equally equipped to do deep psychotherapy work — some are, some aren’t.That explanation paralleled my experience. In my time in the system, I found that psychiatrists often moved quickly to the prescription pad. Dr. Joseph, to his credit, agreed — and contextualized it. He was trained in the late 1960s and early 70s, when psychiatrists still received serious education in psychotherapy. Today, many don’t. And the economics make it worse. As he put it, a 15-minute appointment and a prescription generate more income than a 50-minute conversation. Knowing that matters when you’re choosing who to see.A Book Built on AphorismsListening for a Lifetime grew out of Dr. Joseph’s decades of teaching and clinical practice. His students and colleagues kept telling him he had a gift for distilling complex psychological truths into short, memorable phrases. After the third person said he ought to...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/joBo8hADlNFQ1k5x5xAjt5HyXmwErinAxq4X1VdxZyw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS82N2Jm/ODZmNjM3ODdlZGFj/OWVlZmJlYWRkZTM5/ZmUwNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}