So after taking the what-kind-of-therapist-are-you-test last week, I decided to purchase the Yalom book, The Gift of Therapy. I couldn’t put it down last night, the guy is damn insightful. He also seems to be of the belief that managed care has severely compromised the ability to engage in a commitment to open ended therapy with a clinician. Somehow I doubt that Yalom has a hard time getting private-pay patients into his practice. There seems to be a certain defeatist attitude in terms of managed care. I suspect that if a therapist is well established they will be able to find patients that are willing and able to pay out of pocket for treatment. Let’s face it, private health insurance is only about 15 years old, and probably won’t last forever. Freud probably wasn’t paid by HMO’s either.