In addition to psychiatrists and psychologists, family physicians, NLP specialists, life coaches, bioenergy experts, medical hypnosis specialists, family counselors and other similar professional groups have recently entered our lives. While we were still struggling to distinguish between psychiatrists and psychologists, all this confusion got us very confused.
People need new jobs, new jobs. Because people have to make a living. Well, if you ask whether other people need these professions, as a medical man, I would say no for many and yes for some. But can people still want to get the service provided by these “professions”? And if you ask if they can be satisfied in the end, I would say yes without distinguishing any of them. They can get it they want, and even some, if not most, may be satisfied.
If you ask whether the “services” that are claimed to be provided by these “professions” have a scientific basis, do they actually work with proven methods, I would say cautiously for some, and for some I would say that they do not have education, scientific official approval, authority, such “services” and some of them have absolutely no scientific basis.
On the other hand, such services can ultimately be offered to people, and I have the idea that people buy it or not. After all, we can say that there is no problem after the buyer consents to the buyer. This is a thought I have said desperately in the face of the liberal / capitalist order, but which I believe to be realistic. People can feel good even when they shop extremely unnecessary and useless. After all, if the issue is to feel good, then these things work, of course, within this system. After all, this is something determined by people’s preferences, and I don’t have the right to speak up until health is concerned.
Today’s service production in areas such as nlp, medical hypnosis, life coaching, bioenergy, which you have asked here, is based on speculation. Just as very stylish, luxurious apartments are built outside the city and sold at exorbitant prices. We can buy these houses and be happy, we can even believe that they are cheap, their luxury makes us feel good, every morning, at the cost of spending our hours on the road, enduring torments that would normally be unimaginable.
I think there are problems in the service areas you mentioned. Escape to quackery is the greatest. I say service, but I must emphasize once again what I say in quotation marks. One of the important problems is that these services have advertisements to mislead people. Once these services are offered as a panacea. I am in a university community, I have many scientific connections, I swim in the flow of scientific information, but I do not know that these services work on the problems they say in their advertisements. This is a strange thing. Other scientists. The method called medical hypnosis is one of the methods closest to science, for example, but it is surprising and even funny to hear that this method has been used for almost 150 years and that it works so well from those who claim to use this method today (even a physician does not matter). Moreover, the method called hypnosis is a method that should be used with extreme caution, there are situations such that it can even trigger insanity in some susceptible people. I have many patients who have developed very severe diseases after methods such as hypnosis and nlp.
In this regard, I think the thing to be aware of is that these methods are presented as a panacea in a way that escapes to charlatanism. Another problem is that this area is not a controlled area, which is related to the system. If some of them are consultancy, there is no authority or institution that controls the consultancy, if it is training, the same way. If it has a medical aspect, it is against the logic of the human mind, it is not scientific, it is not possible to be approved by the health authorities, it is illegal.
Today’s situation is like psychic, fortune-telling in these fields… For example, there are many psychics, fortune tellers and they make very good money from these works. People are happy to go to the psychic, fortune tellers. There is nothing to say. If you are human, we are not whole, we do not have to be extremely normal, there is no such thing as normality, what we can call normal in such situations is already very complicated. After all, life goes on and we are beings with nonsense. Without deceit, fraud, quackery, it can be thought of as an education, for example. It can be thought of as social sharing. On the other hand, life coaching can be very useful when done professionally. However, they have nothing to do with psychiatry, mental health and illnesses. If it is claimed to exist, there is something wrong. Especially if it is said that it is good for diseases, it is necessary to stop and think.
Who has the authority to take medication?
Only physicians are authorized to conduct or initiate all biological treatments, including drug treatments. Except for physicians, no professional group has such an authority. More precisely, no profession other than medicine is authorized to work alone in the field of health and disease. The physician, namely the psychiatrist, has the authority to diagnose diseases in the field of mental health, to arrange their treatment and to follow up. There is some confusion in our country on this subject, for example, it is thought to be a profession. It is even confused with psychiatrists. Psychologist is not a profession. Having graduated from the psychology faculties in social sciences does not mean having a profession. Especially, it is out of the question that they are authorized to work in the field of mental health. A psychologist who has graduated from the department of psychology cannot work in the field of mental health unless they have received the trainings (master programs) recognized in the field of mental health or have received an in-service training at the hospitals and health institutions they work in. Those who have been trained can also work under the direction of a physical therapy rehabilitation physician (specialist), just like physiotherapists, when it comes to diseases.
People with educational backgrounds such as psychologists and social workers can produce services in areas other than mental disorders. For example, they can do a marriage counseling. They can help people in situations of crisis and life difficulties that are out of the question. They can do psychotherapy under the direction and control of psychiatrists or under the supervision of a psychiatrist.
The “professions” you have mentioned above, such as nlp, life coaching, bioenergy, are not directly related to medicine. It is wrong with people who say that they produce services in these areas. Presenting and promoting these services for mental health and illnesses as if they were cure for people’s health problems. This is fraud and quackery. But don’t these “professions” also meet some of the spiritual needs of people? Maybe they can meet, make people feel good, socialize, but they can be viewed positively as long as they act on an ethical / moral ground. Otherwise, I think it is no different from theft.
Psychotherapy is an important issue, who should turn to psychotherapy? What should they do when heading? 
It is very difficult to answer this question right away. First of all, a psychiatrist must see a person with complaints. Intervention in many disorders or psychiatric conditions is evaluated within the framework of certain principles. There is a need for an assessment of intervention ports, ways and usefulness to work, as psychotherapy intervention in human psychology is an extremely serious issue. I am a psychotherapy-oriented psychiatrist in my professional life for nearly 30 years, I do not think that it is so easy to determine the existence of this need, the form of psychotherapy required, and the techniques to be used in psychotherapy, especially considering the biological parameters.
For this reason, as I said, this need should be determined once by psychiatrists. Just like the determination of the need for physiotherapy… It is a known fact that many patients with lumbar hernia recover from the physiotherapy table after a blunt evaluation. Psychotherapy is the most underrated of psychiatric interventions, but I think it’s ignorance. Just as we say NLP, hypnosis can trigger many mental illnesses. Psychotherapy that is not well planned and performed can lead to mental injuries. Even if there is no negativity at the level of injury, it can confuse people’s lives. Many people claim that they do psychotherapy in our country with limited education and insufficient courses, and even in serious centers we witness whether this need, form and techniques are seriously addressed.
My suggestion is that people should definitely and primarily seek help from a psychiatrist and decide on psychotherapy later.
