Why and how to manage the “therapeutic illusion”

Mental health clinicians know that patients’ cognitive biases frequently have a substantial effect on their mood. Cognitive therapy aims through the use of specific techniques to help patients become aware of the cognitive bias(s) that they have and to try to correct the bias.

But patients are not the only ones with cognitive biases. Clinicians often have a variety of cognitive biases that can lead to errors in diagnosis and treatment. One of the big ones is “therapeutic illusion.” Have you heard of it? We need to learn about how the therapeutic illusion operates in us and our patients, and what specific strategies we can use to combat it.