Dr. Alok Kanojia

There's a recent big study that came out that showed that exercise is just as effective as talk therapy for improving some aspects of mental health. So I think a big part of it is that talk therapy doesn't work for everyone. And then an even bigger part is that we have a very poor system for improvement as therapists.

So if you kind of look at it, like, how do you know that the food you're making is good? How do you improve? You can taste it. You can see how many customers are coming in to eat your pizza. If you look at something like Amazon, we have product reviews. We have metrics that show us that we're performing. psychotherapy has very, very few metrics to show a therapist that they're doing bad.

So if you kind of look at it, like, how do you know that the food you're making is good? How do you improve? You can taste it. You can see how many customers are coming in to eat your pizza. If you look at something like Amazon, we have product reviews. We have metrics that show us that we're performing. psychotherapy has very, very few metrics to show a therapist that they're doing bad.

So if you kind of look at it, like, how do you know that the food you're making is good? How do you improve? You can taste it. You can see how many customers are coming in to eat your pizza. If you look at something like Amazon, we have product reviews. We have metrics that show us that we're performing. psychotherapy has very, very few metrics to show a therapist that they're doing bad.

And the crazy thing is as our field, like we actually discourage this stuff. The number of times I've been in supervision and like my business mind is confused by some of the stuff that I hear from my fellow therapists. If a patient comes in for one appointment and never shows up again, And then you're a therapist and you go ask your therapist, hey, I had this patient who didn't show up again.

And the crazy thing is as our field, like we actually discourage this stuff. The number of times I've been in supervision and like my business mind is confused by some of the stuff that I hear from my fellow therapists. If a patient comes in for one appointment and never shows up again, And then you're a therapist and you go ask your therapist, hey, I had this patient who didn't show up again.

And the crazy thing is as our field, like we actually discourage this stuff. The number of times I've been in supervision and like my business mind is confused by some of the stuff that I hear from my fellow therapists. If a patient comes in for one appointment and never shows up again, And then you're a therapist and you go ask your therapist, hey, I had this patient who didn't show up again.

We're going to construct all these like psychoanalytic, oh, they weren't ready for therapy. You didn't do anything wrong. It's like some kind of weird, like emotionally supportive kind of group. No one is ever saying, and it's even like sometimes an ethical violation to track that patient down and say, hey, what did I do wrong?

We're going to construct all these like psychoanalytic, oh, they weren't ready for therapy. You didn't do anything wrong. It's like some kind of weird, like emotionally supportive kind of group. No one is ever saying, and it's even like sometimes an ethical violation to track that patient down and say, hey, what did I do wrong?

We're going to construct all these like psychoanalytic, oh, they weren't ready for therapy. You didn't do anything wrong. It's like some kind of weird, like emotionally supportive kind of group. No one is ever saying, and it's even like sometimes an ethical violation to track that patient down and say, hey, what did I do wrong?

So we have no basic system of like customer feedback in the field of therapy. And so what that results in is a lot of therapists who like don't realize when they're making a mistake. I think what we have is a field of people. Some of them are not very good and some of them are very good. And we don't have a good system for the people to be able to tell the difference.

So we have no basic system of like customer feedback in the field of therapy. And so what that results in is a lot of therapists who like don't realize when they're making a mistake. I think what we have is a field of people. Some of them are not very good and some of them are very good. And we don't have a good system for the people to be able to tell the difference.

So we have no basic system of like customer feedback in the field of therapy. And so what that results in is a lot of therapists who like don't realize when they're making a mistake. I think what we have is a field of people. Some of them are not very good and some of them are very good. And we don't have a good system for the people to be able to tell the difference.

Yes. And I think there's another like really challenging part, which is that sometimes I think that people who judge therapists as bad are doing a bad job as patients. And this is something we never talk about. We never say that the patient is doing something wrong, whereas like absolutely the patient can do wrong things. So I'll give you just one quick case.

Yes. And I think there's another like really challenging part, which is that sometimes I think that people who judge therapists as bad are doing a bad job as patients. And this is something we never talk about. We never say that the patient is doing something wrong, whereas like absolutely the patient can do wrong things. So I'll give you just one quick case.

Yes. And I think there's another like really challenging part, which is that sometimes I think that people who judge therapists as bad are doing a bad job as patients. And this is something we never talk about. We never say that the patient is doing something wrong, whereas like absolutely the patient can do wrong things. So I'll give you just one quick case.

So someone was saying, I didn't make any progress in therapy for two years. And then I switched therapists. And this therapist gives me no agency. They don't talk about what I want to talk about. They're very insistent that I just do this thing. But like, I feel like they don't care about what I want. And then you'll post this on the internet, right? Which is where the backlash is.

So someone was saying, I didn't make any progress in therapy for two years. And then I switched therapists. And this therapist gives me no agency. They don't talk about what I want to talk about. They're very insistent that I just do this thing. But like, I feel like they don't care about what I want. And then you'll post this on the internet, right? Which is where the backlash is.

So someone was saying, I didn't make any progress in therapy for two years. And then I switched therapists. And this therapist gives me no agency. They don't talk about what I want to talk about. They're very insistent that I just do this thing. But like, I feel like they don't care about what I want. And then you'll post this on the internet, right? Which is where the backlash is.

And you'll get a bunch of other people who will say like, yeah, screw that therapist, find a different therapist. Whereas as a therapist, I'm looking at this and I'm saying, hold on a second. You had two years of unproductive therapy and you probably did what you wanted instead of what you needed to do. And now the second therapist is like, hey, what you wanted to do didn't help you.