Therapy is useless with someone who has a psychotic disorder.

Therapy may not be the most appropriate intervention when a person is acutely psychotic, but individual, group, and family therapy may be very helpful at many stages of the recovery process. There is strong evidence that treating psychosis by using cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or some of its offshoots, along with supportive interpersonal therapy, will enhance treatment adherence. A therapist's job is to build a healthy clinical relationship with the individual, and in doing so to learn what supports and interventions the individual will need to manage their illness and find their place in the world.

Elyn R. Saks writes very eloquently about the importance of therapy in her recovery process. "...what has allowed me to see the meaning in my struggles - to make sense of everything that happened before and during the course of my illness, and to mobilize what strengths I may possess into a rich and productive life - is talk therapy. People like me with a thought disorder are not supposed to benefit much from this kind of treatment, a talk therapy oriented toward insight and based upon a relationship. But I have. There may be a substitute for the human connection - for two people sitting together in a room, one of them with the freedom to speak her mind, knowing the other is paying careful and thoughtful attention - but I don't know what that substitute might be." (Source: The Center Cannot Hold, p. 331.)