How to use speech-to-text transcription for self-guided therapy
A few days ago, I wrote about self-guided therapy, answering the question, “Can you be your own therapist?”
Speech-to-text transcription is one halfway decent way to be your own therapist.
Here's my own process for self-guided therapy
Find a quiet place where you can be alone.
Lie down or sit down.
Get comfortable.
Open Otter on your phone and start a new recording.
Set your phone where it can still hear you.
Fold your hands in your lap or lay them on your chest/belly.
Close your eyes.
Start to meditate by focusing on your breath.
Observe the thoughts and feeling that come up for you.
When you're ready, start speaking your thoughts and feelings aloud.
Eventually get into a stream of conscious style of speaking.
Talk until you don't want to talk anymore.
Return to focusing on your breath.
Slowly open your eyes.
Stretch and slowly move your body to come out of your lying/seated position.
Reach for your phone and press the stop button on the recording.
Go do something else for a few hours or maybe even a few days.
Find thirty minutes to an hour when you can focus.
Sit at a desk where you can read, write, and type comfortably.
Open Otter on your computer.
Open the recording that you did before.
Read the transcription of the recording.
Ask yourself, "How do I feel when I read this?"
Ask yourself, "What thoughts come up when I read this?"
Ask yourself, "What am I trying to tell myself?"
Ask yourself, "Is there something I'm doing that I don't want to do anymore?"
Ask yourself, "Is there something I'm not doing that I want to start doing?"
Ask yourself any other questions that you want to ask yourself in response to the transcription.
Ask yourself, "Have I heard myself?"
Ask yourself, "Am I making a request of myself? If so, what is that request?"
Ask yourself, "What do I need to do to honor that request?"
You can write out your answers to these questions.
Or, you can start another recording and speak your answers aloud.
Or, you can answer them silently in your mind.
Why speech-to-text transcription is a superior method for self-guided therapy
Speaking is faster than handwriting and typing
Adults can handwrite at a speed of 20 words per minute. The average typing speed is around 40 words per minute. The average speaking speed is about 150 words per minute. And the average listener can comprehend 400 words per minute.
Our minds are capable of thinking thoughts at a much higher rate than our available methods of expression. But of the available methods, speaking is the fastest way to express our thoughts.
When recording your thoughts for the purpose of self-guided therapy, it's important that your method of expression can keep up with your rate of thinking because you don't want to have to slow down your rate of thinking—doing so inhibits your natural stream of consciousness.
When you slow down your thoughts to wait for the method of expression to catch up, your train of thought can change direction or stall out completely during that pause. This can be counterproductive, especially when your consciousness is speeding along toward the root cause of a deep issue.
There's something about talking
Human communication is thought to have begun with the origin of speech.
For me, I feel like I can best describe my thoughts and feelings when I'm talking. The jump from thinking a thought to expressing it in spoken words seems to be a shorter jump than expressing it in typed or written words. Perhaps it has something to do with the speed of expression, as explained above. Or maybe it's something else related to humans having started speaking before language symbols were developed.
Words are better than other mediums of expression
Words are not the only way to express yourself. There are other art forms. Music, dance, painting. But none of these are as clear as words. Perhaps they are more cathartic, but when you actually have to identify a problem and resolve it, the exactness of words helps to make progress.
You need to be able to remember what you said
So we've made the point that speaking is better than typing and writing, but why the need to record? Because you need to remember what you said. If you talk for an hour and remember none of it, you might feel better in the moment. You might have the sense of "getting something off your chest." But you won't be able to analyze the problems that may be recurring in your life unless you record what you've said in a form that allows you to revisit and analyze it later.
You don't want to get distracted by what you've already said
The other advantage of talking to transcription software that you're not looking at is that you won't get distracted by what you've already said. If you're typing or writing, you are looking at the words on the screen or the paper to keep your space in the sentence or make sure you stay on the line.
This occupies some of your mental capacity with the technical work of typing or writing. When you're just speaking aloud with your eyes closed, it's almost effortless. And you don't occupy any of your consciousness with what you've already said. Your train of thought can keep chugging along as it expresses what is truly coming up in your thoughts and feelings in real time.
Where this method of self-guided therapy falls short
Traditional psychotherapy breaks down into four main elements:
Listening
Remembering, reminding, repeating
Analysis
Teaching
The method described above is quite effective for #1 and #2.
At step 23 above is where things get tricky. This is where #3 and #4 come in.
In the steps above, I've included some questions that might help with analyzing the content of a self-guided therapy session, but these questions are very general. Professional therapists have completed years of schooling and years of practice. They know the right questions to ask based on what you've said.
For self-guided therapy, you're basically expected to perform analysis and teaching at the level of a professional therapist. This is a big ask of yourself. Ultimately, this gap in the self-guided therapy process described above probably makes it far inferior to professional therapy.
I am continuing to think about how this aspect of the self-guided therapy process could be improved. Perhaps there is a role for AI to play. Perhaps there is a body of content that could be gathered in a written, audio, and/or video form that would basically give people the crash course on how to be a therapist. With this knowledge, people would be better prepared to perform the analysis and teaching portions of the self-guided therapy process.
I will continue to think about this and I will write more when I have thoughts to share.
Do you have your own form of self-guided therapy? Comment below 👇
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