This is why you should lie on the couch at the psychologist

It might especially be true in movies: someone goes to a psychologist and lies down on a sofa and starts unloading about all their problems. To be honest, I don't know if many psychologists do it this way in real life, but I have never had the chance to tell my life story horizontally. And that's a shame, because you lie down for a reason.

Sigmund Freud was the first to introduce this, reasoning that the patient lay down while he sat out of sight behind them, as this was closest to the hypnosis method from which psychoanalysis was born. But, also not entirely unimportant, Freud added: ‘I can't stand being stared at by other people for eight hours a day.’ Completely understandable.

But what Freud didn't realize at the time, and what has since been researched and proven, is that a lying position works very favorably with a psychologist. A lying position would lead to much less anger than when people are standing or sitting. They researched this by giving feedback to a group lying down (intended to make them angry) and giving the same feedback to another group while they were sitting upright. And what turns out? The sitting group became much angrier than the lying group.

More research has been done since then, and each time it was proven again that a lying position is much more positive when you have a therapy session. People are also much less defensive, more open to new ideas, and can more easily distance themselves from emotions.

The next time you have an appointment with the psychologist: just lie down comfortably.

Image: 50\/50 movie