But Is It Therapy?

On a recent trip to the local bookstore, I found myself drawn to the headlines of several popular women's magazines. After leafing through their glossy pages, I learned about all sorts of new "therapies" that are vying to take the place of psychotherapy. The first was the "fortune-telling facial" which aims to combine psychic healing, aura reading, and pore cleansing -- what a concept! The columnist, who wrote about her first-hand experience, reported that by the end of the first session her optimism and skin were both gleaming. Meanwhile, the new "Done & Divorced" course at London's Jemma-Kidd Make-up School offers a new spin on the support group. Apparently, a divorcee's make-up can be used to analyze her psyche. Do you hold onto a lipstick even when the color is obviously no longer flattering? Are the brushes and compacts clanging around in your purse a symptom of bad self-care? While the four-hour course costs about as much as four individual sessions with a psychotherapist ($400), my suspicion is that the latter option offers a far less superficial fix. So what does the popularity of these new (dare I call them) modalities say about the state of self-exploration? Are today's women less interested in delving into their issues than in covering them up?