32 Comments

My niece who is now my nephew just received MSW and was trying to explain to me the new ideology of therapy. It was all incoherent. Now I understand why. Hopefully I will never need therapy and if I do I'm going to an old Republican.

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Medicine, Science, Mathematics, Agriculture, Longevity, Democracy, Human Rights: It is time to recolonize the professions. It is also our absolute duty to report psychotherapists who fail to do their primary medical duty to treat their patients to HHS and to sue them when they fail to do specifically what is medically indicated for their patients. People simply do not recognize that psychotherapists are health care providers and their primary medical duty is to help their patients. When they fail to do this it is medical malpractice. Sue them. Put the bad ones out of business. The good ones will certainly thank you!!!

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These are incredible times. No one is an avatar for a race or ethnic group.

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I am so happy to hear this! I refuse to attend what used to be a mainstay in my life even though it is needed because of what has and is happening. I've never needed a political opinion (and that's all it is) from anyone other than a politician.

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Please check out the YouTube channel, “the radical center.” The woman at the helm has produced countless interviews and information on challenging the DEI boilerplate language of today’s counseling profession. It’s a fantastic resource!

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Aaron Kindsvatter. No worries. You need a donation to your cause and establishment. I’m in. All the way.

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Bravo and all the best!

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Is the link broken? I'd like to join this new society!

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An excellent analysis of a trend that was totally unaware of. The tentacles of woke absurdity are everywhere.

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This article seems to define a common sense truth that to someone who is not affiliated with counseling makes a great deal of sense. Psychotherapy is such an important part of our society that this issue can not be taken lightly. Once someone has belief that they are doing the “right thing” it can be very difficult to dissuade their behavior and belief. If one truly believes they are justified in their actions, having an open mind to critically evaluate themselves seems like a difficult thing to ask for. Its strange to me that pushing ideology on others could ever be condoned in psychotherapy in the first place. I understand private companies, businesses and social media do this surgically and intentionally to maximize profit and followers, but in the healing of the mind, it has no place. Maybe as a society we have become numb due to the constant barrage of media (social and otherwise) pushing ideological agendas at us. I really believe that most humans (not all) given the chance would choose to help others and not harm. Dr. Kindsvatter, your article invaluably defines clear boundaries that are needed in psychotherapy to allow all counselors to thrive and to best help other humans heal their minds. It isn’t asking others to follow an ideology or belief that they aren’t comfortable with. In fact it frees counselors to hold onto their own sense of self identity, worth and beliefs. They don’t have to change a thing they believe in to adhere to this ethical practice. They just need to recognize what to leave outside of the counseling room and with an open mind, learn how to do that if it is unclear to them. After all, counseling is about healing and nurturing and advocating for another’s well being when they are at their most vulnerable. Psychotherapy is noble and worth preserving.

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Thank you for shedding light on this and providing a solution. I will share with my healthcare provider friends.

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What you are doing is great news! Thank-you. Surely there will be many that sign on.

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Very true. I came to the same conclusion regarding trauma etc. My issues are living alone with a chronic progressive disease and the support of a therapist helps to cope and not let the depressive thoughts overwhelm me.

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This is a huge problem that has not been dealt with. Beginning in 2020 I was struggling with my mental health due to the upheaval of Covid, cancel culture, BLM, TDS it goes on and on. I felt totally alone. My children, my doctors, my friends, my neighbors were all using, the terms and black squares. As I went to the one person to help in coping, I realized she had been captured also. I went through a few more before I realized they all were taken over. I finally searched a website that found “Christian counselors“ even though I am not religious, that is who I had to turn to. I still have not found a therapist.

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I am so sorry that happened. Critical Therapy Antidote can help you find an ideologically neutral therapist, and The Society for Ethical Practice in Psychotherapy will be building a list as well.

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Thank you. Beyond thank you. That was the first thing I did after I read your post.

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I, too, have been without a therapist since 2018. I have had my diagnoses for decades, and had therapists up until that time. When the last one ascertained that I was center-right, politically (I had a 180 of outlook that year), she started not showing up for appointments or yawning cartoonishly in my face. Yep. So I’ve gone without. I’m so glad there’s a resource now, thanks to Aaron’s article. But also, I learned in the intervening years that- even though I have cptsd due to multiple and chronic factors - I’ve done so much better without therapy. Who knew that NOT talking about my traumas would be the swift kick in the pants to put me on a better path!

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"We intend to produce content that is ideologically neutral, pro-human, heterodox, and based on the Enlightenment principles of rationalism, objectivity, compassion, truth, and fidelity to the individual."

Is this possible to do while honoring the diversity of practitioner and client lived experiences. I am not sure. Rationalism and pro-neutral stances are products of Early Modern Europe (Enlightenment), where all prominent thinkers of that time were White. This is a fact. Quite pointedly, one could say focusing towards those goals leads to an indoctrination

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Hmmmm. Let mush push on that a little. I have heard this argument before, mostly from people with a race conscious outlook. I think there is an assumption in this argument that persons of different races have “lived experiences” that contradict the value of ideas like rationality and objectivity. Yet, I note that opinions about these issues are as varied among people of color, for example, as they are among white people. I think the race conscious outlook is often mistaken as the the “official view” of people of color when no such “official view” exists in reality.

I have noticed that progressive outlooks are often assumed by progressive people to be the outlooks of people of color as a whole. I see no evidence that this is the case. I think it would be more accurate to say that people with progressive views would call into question issues like rationality and objectivity and I think they are wrong for doing so.

The reason I think this is that “lived experience” is a terrible concept to organize society around because it is not governed by anything but subjectivity backed by power. Once we accept “lived experience” as an acceptable foundation upon which to build policies and institutions, we have freed the basest most hateful persons who would see their views reified by law, from the burdens of skepticism and evidence. Had German institutions in the 1930’s upheld standard of objectivity, rationality and skepticism, a terrible tragedy could have been averted. However, due to a weakened society they acted on unchallenged subjectivity backed by power. Predictably, trajectory ensued.

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I hear you, but you also present your arguments in a tangential manner. Firstly, there is nothing inherently wrong with being conscious about race. Being mindful of how someone's life could be impacted by race and racism is a sign of attending to health. However, it is wrong when we ascribe stereotypes and value to others based on their identities without them affirming or ascribing to it themselves.

Secondly, noting the demographics behind the early thinkers of the Enlightenment is bringing attention to context. Rationalism and objectivity were values to break away from religious indoctrination, and it must be said that those screaming this loudly were white men. Rationalism implied that those who believed in religion were irrational (a gross simplification, but rang true for many early mental health thinkers like Freud and Ellis). That is a fact. It's not assuming that people of color (PoC) did/do not have these values, nor should it imply such. It is simply naming that these values did not become large through PoC sharing their beliefs in these values.

Lastly, your argument against lived experience because of subjectivity is also contradictory. By learning about people and truly honoring people's humanity, we avoid mischaracterization and leaning on stereotypes. You imply that humans can be objective and I simply push back that we cannot be that way, because of horrors like the 1930s. In the same way you argue that Germany was being subjective backed by power, they in fact were actually claiming to be objective through eugenics. Heck much of our statistical analyses come from eugenicists in the name of modernity. Claiming that humans could reach objectivity actually led to the Holocaust

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Lord mercy. Through the prism of ethnicity, specifically noting white medical professionals, with no thought to that providing benefits to Koreans who were assisted via missionaries and other doctors that provided their services without regard to their ethnicity in the early 1900’s.

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I better add that Japan’s society benefited from the aforementioned enlightenment, and the African(Asian) continent. Nary a peep of ones ethnicity and grievance over so-called colonialism’s harmfulness. Only in the US with self absorbed, looking for any excuse to justify neo-Marxist ideology and belief adherence.

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Thomas Aquinas would like a word.

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Your point? Also, is that your only takeaway from everything I said? In other words, you have no rebuttal?

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Rationalism is not the purview of white people. That thinking is racist.

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agreed, completely

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Rationalism is a product of white Europeans. That's not racism. That's an observation of fact. It's akin to saying Jazz and Blues music came from Black Americans

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Disagree. It’s inherent in logic and reason, not invented like an art form.

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That's not a disagreement. It's a point of inconvenience for your stance

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It's inherent to you that it's racist? While it's inherent to me as a fact. Sounds like a subjective disagreement. Even though you haven't refuted my point. David Hume, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, Baruch Spinoza we're all prominent rationalists and also guess what? They were all White

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Rationality is inherent to logic and reason. What’s your objective? Mao was Chinese and Frederick Douglass was black. You’re oversubscribed on identity instead of the inherent value of the idea.

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Frederick Douglass and Mao are post-Enlightenment thinkers. Idk how you're bringing them into the argument, when the context was rationalism which came to center stage during the Enlightenment period. Secondly, you don't know what I'm subscribed to. I only named facts

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