In this article, I discuss why clients who immerse themselves in knowledge about their issues are more likely to make progress in therapy.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes.

At a talk I attended by psychologist Dr. Michael Yapko, I heard a statement which strongly resonated with me in my work as a Calgary psychologist and a Cochrane psychologist. Dr. Yapko, author of Breaking the Patterns of Depression, said, “Clients who are knowledgeable and educated about their depression make better and faster progress than uneducated clients”.

Dr. Yapko’s statement struck a chord because I noticed that my clients who made the best progress in addressing their depression tended to be those who knew the most about the causes and treatments for depression through reading. On reflection, I realized that this ‘knowledge is power’ effect on progress in therapy also applied to clients with other issues.

As a result, I make it a point to help my clients immerse themselves in knowledge regarding their issues by assigning them reading from various sources. In the following sections, I will discuss the reasons that becoming knowledgeable and educated about your issues increases your chances of success in therapy.

How knowledge leads to success in addressing your issues

1. It helps you understand the skills necessary to make progress. In turn, increasing your understanding of these skills by reading will improve your proficiency in applying them.

2. It builds hope and motivation. Having greater hope and positive expectations about therapy is a key factor leading to progress. Reading about skills to address your issues helps you to build this hope and positive outlook about your ability to address your issues. As a result, your motivation to learn and practice the skills increases. This leads you to put in the consistent effort required to make progress.

3. It’s a great way to reduce ruminating.When you’re alone with your thoughts and struggling with issues, it’s easy to slip into ruminating. This involves dwelling on negative thoughts and just makes you miserable. If you channel your need to think into reading about how to address your issues with skills and strategies, you can take your mind off negative thoughts and thereby feel better.

How to acquire knowledge

You can acquire knowledge through various books. My favourite book recommendations for clients include: Mind over Mood by Greenberger and Padesky; Breaking the Patterns of Depression by Yapko;  The How of Happiness by Lyubomirksy; The Anxiety and Worry Workbook by Clark and Beck; Sex, Drugs, Gambling and Chocolate by Horvath; The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work and The Relationship Cure—both by Gottman; and After the Affair by Spring.

There are also many good sources of psychological knowledge on websites. This includes blog articles which I write and post regularly on my website. The articles I write focus on the issues my clients face. I commonly assign my clients the homework of reading these articles to help them become familiar with the skills they are learning. It is much easier for clients to become proficient at these skills if they read about them.

The bottom line

As a client, becoming knowledgeable about your issues is one of many factors in therapy over which you have control. If you work at it, immersing yourself in this knowledge can make a big difference in your progress. So get reading and look forward to the rewards you will reap from doing so.

May you gain power over your issues by increasing your knowledge,

-Dr. Pat