The therapeutic gains that come from an apparently neutral medication or procedure are called placebo effects. Placebo effects come from the patient's hopes and positive expectations.
Something similar to the placebo effect happens after psychotherapy is over. The patient and the therapist may have parted company on a happy note and no further meetings are planned. All that has to happen now is to pay the bills and go live happily ever after, or not.
Following a course of a very popular form of psychotherapy, CBT, researchers noticed that substantial gains in mood and personal effectiveness continued to occur even though formal psychotherapy was over. Now that simple on-line mood tracking procedures are available, continued post-therapy gains can be observed as they are happening. Hope and positive expectancy [placebo?] continue to operate after psychotherapy is over. Some of the
mood tracking scales show that of all the gains from psychotherapy, especially relief from troubled moods, most of these gains occur in the year after psychotherapy is over.
How odd; my patients seem happy to see me, but they get even happier after they have left. Oh, well ... !
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