Experience, undoubtedly is very important. An airplane pilot that has been flying for 150k hours should be a better pilot than one that has only done 20k hours. I said should because I am sure you know someone, family or friends that has been driving for 50 years and, yet, still can’t drive properly.

There is nothing worse than finding someone entrenched in his/her beliefs that, not necessarily, will be able to provide answers to your problems. [Read – previous Blog – “Beware of false knowledge”]

The “cognitive revolution” in psychology is reviewed from historical, philosophical, and theoretical perspectives. There has been substantial evolution and differentiation among cognitive psychotherapies, of which there are at least 20 distinct modern varieties.

For example, in recent years we have seen considerable changes in the form of new branches of Psychology like “Positive Psychology”, “Art therapy”, “Music therapy”, “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)”, “Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), “Interpersonal Effectiveness”, Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), “Client-centered approach”, NLP and many others.

CBT is not very old and, at the peak of its interest, it was hailed by the NHS as one of the best forms of therapy; even over the telephone. However a paper in January this year in the journal Psychological Bulletin, found that CBT seems to be getting less effective over time.  The authors analysed 70 papers published between 1977 and 2014 and concluded that CBT was roughly half as effective in treating depression today as it used to be in the 70s. [Source: Psychological Bulletin; May 11, 2015; Tom J. Johnsen and Oddgeir Friborg]

I am lucky to have the original book written by Max Lüscher (in English too) dating back to 1974 that covers the “Lüscher colour test”. In 1984 a study was carried out by Cooper B. et.al, with the title of: “Relationship between the Lüscher Colour Test and the MMPI”. Results showed little agreement between the two, suggesting cautious use of the Colour Test [source: Journal of Clinical Psychology, v40 n1 p126-28 Jan 1984]. As it happens, the “Lüscher colour test” can bring interesting results that should not be dismissed.

As theories of psychology are moving forward, they don’t seem to go in one direction but they spread in many different branches, often causing confusion and, ending up being criticised later by new theories, findings and analysis.

It is very difficult to know which is the very best, in everything. I have studied psychology, counselling, psychotherapy, CBT, hypnosis and “finished” with NLP, amongst others. My feeling is that NLP is an excellent tool for therapy, especially for here-and-now. The “rest” of my knowledge and experience is also there, at the back of my mind and in my modus operandi, enabling me to utilize it when and if I believe it is useful to my clients.

To make your own decision and come up with your conclusion, please read [to follow] – “How to choose a private therapist”?