Clinician Shari B. Kaplan says medication alone won't cure mental health conditions. Meds reduce suffering and symptom intensity, but the real work happens in therapy, where you learn to manage thoughts and emotions. Both together create lasting change.
Throughout my career, I continued to do both because I really, I can't honestly see the utility of the medications without the therapy. They work hand in hand. So in my practice, I will have a few people who do medication checks, but the majority of my clients do the medication management as well as therapy, which, as you know, the medications, they don't cure anything in our field. They can, not to minimize them for what they do, they can relieve suffering and they can decrease the intensity of symptoms. But the real work is learning how to manage your mind and your thoughts, I think. And you know, it— there still are psychiatrists who work that way and do therapy with, with the medications, but I think just doing med management without it is really a lost opportunity.
