Why People Are Losing Trust in Psychotherapy

Reasons behind therapy’s recent negative image and how to address them

Lately, I’ve been seeing more and more posts about what’s wrong with therapy.

People are sharing experiences of feeling harmed by their therapists, seeing therapy reduced to empty motivational quotes, or feeling dismissed because of their political beliefs. People worry that therapy is turning into a space where therapists push their own beliefs instead of helping clients explore their own. And then there’s the worry among therapists that therapy is being diluted, shifting toward AI-driven interactions and advice-giving instead of deep, meaningful psychological work.

It’s troubling. I keep asking myself: Where are the ethical principles that once guided psychotherapy? Where are the fundamentals of this profession that is meant to help people achieve true psychological change?

These concerns are real and pressing, and they deserve thoughtful examination. Here’s my perspective on common misconceptions about therapy, issues within training programmes, and problems among therapists themselves.

Therapy isn’t about comfort or reassurance.

Many people enter therapy expecting comfort, validation, and emotional soothing. Some hope to be uplifted and reassured, while some therapists—especially those newly trained—fall into the trap of reinforcing this dynamic. They believe their role is to affirm the client’s emotions at all costs, prioritising soothing over deeper exploration.

Support and validation have their place, but meaningful psychotherapy isn’t about endless reassurance. Effective therapy balances support with challenge. A skilled therapist is genuinely curious about the client’s experiences, mirrors emotions without resorting to empty validation, and guides clients toward deeper understanding.

Good therapy involves forming psychological formulations, identifying patterns, and gently—but firmly—challenging assumptions when necessary. A therapist who only reassures without offering insight or interpretation isn’t practicing therapy; they’re providing companionship. Real therapy helps clients recognise conflicts, consider new perspectives, and explore better ways of relating to themselves and others. It requires asking difficult questions and confronting inconsistencies, all in service of deeper self-awareness.

Psychological change happens through discomfort, through the therapeutic relationship, through recognising personal agency, and through uncovering the deeper roots of our struggles. When therapists prioritise making clients feel good over facilitating real change, therapy loses its power. People walk away believing therapy doesn’t work—not because it’s ineffective, but because it was never practiced as it should be. Or worse, they come to see therapy as little more than emotional pampering.

Therapy should foster agency, not victimhood.

A troubling trend in modern therapy is the growing emphasis on external blame—whether childhood experiences, societal structures, or other people—as the sole explanation for personal struggles. Context matters. Trauma, oppression, and difficult life circumstances profoundly shape us, and we must acknowledge these realities.

But therapy should not reinforce a victim mindset; it should help clients reclaim their agency. As therapists, we must empathise with our clients’ pain and acknowledge real harm, but our ultimate goal is to help them develop the capacity to face challenges and a sense of autonomy. Therapy should be a space for exploring change, not just revisiting suffering. Growth happens through recognising our choices, taking responsibility, and learning how to navigate adversity.

The increasing focus on victimhood not only harms clients but also undermines the integrity of psychotherapy itself. If therapy reinforces the idea that we’re powerless, it ceases to be useful. Worse, it contributes to a cultural shift where suffering becomes an identity, and healing is seen as something that comes from external validation rather than internal transformation. The purpose of therapy is to help people reclaim their power.

When therapy fails to help people move forward, it loses credibility. Clients leave disillusioned, and the entire field risks being seen as ineffective—or even harmful.

The pressure for quick fixes is undermining real psychotherapy.

We live in a world that demands speed—instant relief, five-step solutions, quick results. Insurance companies, AI startups, and even clients expect therapy to deliver rapid solutions to complex psychological issues. In response, some therapy models have adapted, prioritising efficiency over depth.

But complex psychological problems cannot be addressed with quick fixes or simplistic solutions. Therapy works by intentionally slowing down. Only when we pause can we notice the patterns that drive us. When we rush, we repeat behaviors mindlessly. The space therapy provides—when done well—allows for reflection, self-exploration, and meaningful change.

Therapy is not just about learning skills or applying strategies. It’s a relationship. People heal and grow within the therapeutic relationship, not through a checklist of interventions. Psychoeducation has value, but it is not psychotherapy. The two are often confused, and in the rush for efficiency, therapy risks being reduced to mere instruction.

The quick-fix mentality has also fueled the rise of advice-giving in therapy. Many assume therapy is about being told what to do. But clients seeking advice have usually tried countless solutions already. Advice is context-dependent—it works for one person under specific circumstances, but not necessarily for another. Unskilled therapists fall into this trap, offering guidance when they don’t know what else to do. Often the problem clients face isn’t knowing what to do—it’s about understanding why they struggle to do it. Real therapy helps uncover blind spots, fears, and deeper barriers. Without addressing these, no advice will truly stick.

Reducing therapy to quick fixes and surface-level interventions strips it of its purpose. Therapy is about depth—understanding oneself deeply enough to create meaningful, lasting change.

Therapist training programmes are declining in quality.

One of the biggest threats to psychotherapy today is the decline in training quality. Too many graduate programs prioritise profit over properly training therapists, churning out graduates with minimal hands-on experience, weak supervision, and a shaky grasp of core therapeutic skills.

Many of these programs emphasise manualized treatment models over deep clinical work. Instead of teaching therapists how to navigate the complexities of behaviours, they train them to “apply interventions” and “teach strategies” in a rigid, formulaic way. Therapists learn some strategies, but lack real knowledge of deep listening, forming a good therapeutic relationship, being comfortable with discomfort, and forming a working alliance.

Poor training also pushes therapists into an “expert” role, which goes against the essence of therapy. A therapist’s job is not to have all the answers—it’s to be genuinely curious, to explore alongside the client. When therapists are trained to “fix” rather than understand, therapy becomes transactional rather than transformative.

If this trend continues, therapy risks being reduced to an educational service that provides short-term relief rather than deep, lasting psychological change.

When therapists impose their own ideologies, therapy loses its integrity.

Therapy should be a space for clients to explore their own beliefs, emotions, and experiences—not a place where they are nudged toward a particular ideological stance. Yet, some therapists allow their personal political, cultural, or moral views to seep into their clinical work, sometimes in ways that are subtly coercive or overtly dismissive.

A therapist’s role is not to shape a client’s worldview but to help them explore their own thoughts and emotions without judgment. When therapists express political bias, reject clients with differing perspectives, or subtly steer conversations toward their own beliefs, therapy becomes less about the client and more about the therapist’s agenda.

Some clients report feeling dismissed or shamed for holding beliefs that differ from their therapists. Others feel pressured to conform to social narratives that don’t align with their personal experiences. This is a betrayal of psychotherapy’s core ethics. Therapy should not be about ideological re-education. The moment we prioritise our own beliefs over a client’s individual exploration, the therapeutic process loses its integrity.

Psychotherapy is not just symptom treatment.

Psychotherapy is increasingly being treated like pharmacology—focused on symptom relief rather than deep psychological change. Many assume therapy exists to “treat anxiety," "manage stress," or "process trauma." While these are common reasons people seek therapy, they don’t capture its deeper purpose.

The core purpose of psychotherapy isn’t alleviating symptoms—it’s helping clients change something within themselves that contributes to their suffering. Therapy is not just about building “self-esteem” but about identifying the internal barriers that prevent a sense of self-worth. It doesn’t simply aim to “fix” anxiety; rather, it helps uncover and address the underlying patterns, thoughts, and emotional dynamics that make a person experience anxiety. It’s not just about "healing trauma" but about understanding how past experiences continue to shape present behaviours, emotions, and relationships.

Effective therapy requires having a formulation that explains how a person’s past experiences, personality traits, and thought patterns contribute to their current struggles. That’s why quick fixes, strategy-focused therapies can become a way of symptom treatment. And when therapy is reduced to symptom management, it loses its depth.

The tech industry has failed to deliver on its promises in mental health care.

While technology can expand access to therapy, many mental health platforms prioritise profit over quality. They treat therapy as a gig job, hiring the least-experienced therapists and marketing them as interchangeable—obscuring critical differences in training, expertise, and approach.

This model forces therapists to take on excessive caseloads while being underpaid (as low as £30 per session) and given little support for supervision or professional growth. Some platforms even discourage deeper therapeutic work, favouring short interventions that fit neatly into a business model rather than addressing real psychological change.

Integrating technology into mental health care is valuable, but how we do it matters. Online therapy can benefit those in remote areas, people with mobility challenges, and those with demanding schedules. But accessibility must be balanced with quality and fair pay for therapists. Mental health care should not be built on a model where the cheapest, fastest option becomes the default. If we truly want to harness technology for good, we need ethical, sustainable models that honour the depth of therapy, compensate professionals fairly, and put clients’ wellbeing above corporate profits.

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There are likely more factors behind the decline of psychotherapy than I’ve covered here—insurance companies and the effects of social media among them—but I’ve focused on the most pressing ones.

Therapy is not a cure-all, nor is it for everyone. But when done well, it remains one of the most powerful tools for deep self-exploration and meaningful psychological change.

At the same time, we can't ignore that therapy is veering off course. It was never meant to be a product, a feel-good performance, or an echo chamber for personal beliefs. It was meant to challenge, uncover hidden truths, and restore agency.

When therapy loses its depth and integrity, trust in it fades. If it becomes shallow, biased, or transactional, we lose something essential—not just therapists, but anyone seeking to understand themselves. And that’s a loss we can’t afford.

I’m not pessimistic. Many therapists care deeply about their work and uphold ethical standards. But perhaps it’s time we raised our voices and challenged the direction therapy is taking.

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