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Hey SSOH! My therapist is a psychologist and she takes a kind of loose approach to talking therapy, sorry, I can't think of a better way to explain it! I've been seeing her for about 3-4 months.

I previously tried general counselling/talking therapy (different therapist) for about six months - felt like a waste of time and money to be honest, I didn't feel like my therapist challenged me or opened anything up for me...he just encouraged me to talk in a kind of stream of consciousness way that didn't teach me anything I didn't already know about myself. Then I tried CBT for 18 months, I loved that therapist and I thought it was useful for a while but then I became disillusioned with the concept of it, I saw it as 'lying to myself', and I just couldn't buy into it anymore. However, my drinking was pretty much constant and out of control at this point so I wasn't really in a good place to be getting any kind of benefit from therapy. Also I was too embarrassed to tell my CBT counsellor about the drinking because I got along so well with him and I didn't want to let him down, lol, so there were so many issues that we just weren't addressing at all.

I told my current therapist about my kinda-negative prior experiences with CBT and talk-therapy when I started seeing her and so she regularly 'checks in' with me about how her method is working out for me, which is great! I think maybe her process could be compared to life coaching?

I hope that helps! How were your previous therapists, did you feel like you could open up with them? Perhaps you haven't found the right person yet? I felt so hopeless and like a lost cause before I found my current person, given that CBT and talk-therapy hadn't ~worked~ for me. But I do feel I'm making progress with my situation now. So don't lose faith!