Site Overview
Therapy can be an intensely rewarding experience. It can be both confusing and frightening. This site has been developed with the goal of providing free, quality information to consumers about mental health. Hopefully, this will take some of the fear out of therapy as well as helping you become a more informed consumer.
Not all mental health consumers want to be an informed consumer. Some people just want to find relief for their problems and don't want to take the time to find the right fit and the right professional. That's fine! However, many people who desire to be an informed consumer have no where to turn to find more information on how to become an informed consumer. Personally, I believe many professionals would prefer that consumers stay uninformed. This gives the professional more power and saves them from having to answer many questions about how they practice.
The goal of this web site is to provide information on different perspectives about mental health issues. Since all mental health professionals have their biases, I try to be as up-front as possible about what my biases are and encourage all other contributors to this web site to do the same thing. In the end, its up to you, the individual consumer, to come to your own conclusion about these important and relevant issues.
How to Use the Therapy Information Network Web Site
This web site has been designed with the goal of easy navigation so that you can find the information you want quickly without having to read through many pages of information to find what you want. Most of the pages are relatively short and easy to read. Some basic information may save you some time in navigating this site.
Top Menu Bar: The top menu bar is the same on each page. This provides you with links to information about the site and commonly accessed site resources.
Left Menu Bars: The left menu bar is also the same on each page. The top section titled "Therapy Information Network Table of Contents" provides links to the content pages of this web site. These sections provide you with links to the major topics of this web site. At each of these pages, there are links to a variety of pages and resources related to that topic. The next two sections are links to other consumer web sties by Dr. Hoffman along with other important consumer web sites.
Right Menu Bar: On this page, you see links to various news-style items. However, on most pages, the right menu bar provides link to articles and links on that section's topics.
Bottom Menu Bar: The bottom menu bar provides readers with important information about fair and appropriate use of this web site.
A Couple of Brief Notes about Language
I have elected to primarily use the term "psychotherapy" on this web site for a couple of reasons. First, it helps make a firm distinction between therapy in the mental health field and other forms of therapy, such as physical therapy. Second, it can be confusing to switch back and forth between "therapy," "psychotherapy," and "counseling." While these terms had different meanings historically, today they are widely used interchangeably.
Second, I will primarily use the word "consumer" instead of client or patient. For me, this is an issue of respect. Too often the word patient has a negative connotation with it. Similarly, client has also taken on a similar meaning. I considered using the term "therapeut," which I have used on other web sites, because this is often confusing. Therapeut is a word with James Olthuis has used to try to move away from the traditional language and the negative connotations often associated with it.