hi all, i am a survivor of the TTI and psych hospitals for almost the entirety of my teen years and i feel very strongly that change needs to take place. if i don’t make a positive impact on changing the psych industry, i believe i will have not followed my purpose in life- sorry if that sounds silly, its just something i feel so passionate about.

the issue that has prevented me from doing anything so far is i have no idea where to begin. going to school for psychology feels weird to me, as that is the system that hurt me so bad as a kid. im sure many people unintentionally cause harm and i cant stand the thought of that being me.

until i met my current therapist, i didn’t believe it was possible to actually have a good therapist/ a therapist who was willing to critique the psych industry. she has made me wonder if i too can be someone like that.

all this being said, does anyone have any ideas on where to start? this is all i want to do with my life, i care so much and it hurts to think there are people still hurting.

any recommendations for schools that accept/teach from a leftist/alternative POV and aren’t afraid of criticism?

Because one of my leftist (formerly leftist?) Jewish colleagues knows my pro-Palestine/ anti-genocide stance, she has publicly labeled me and my practice as anti-Semitic. She's accusing me of virtue signaling and she's questioning my anti-oppression "credentials."

She has polled her Jewish therapist friends and they "all agree" that I'm unsafe. She's well-respected in the community and is friends with my friends.

I have made some posts that make my status clear, mostly on IG, but don't tend to post much as it doesn't seem all that helpful. The foundation of my practice is doing the work of anti-racism and anti-oppression and I'm proud of the fierce people I work with. I'm finding myself protective of them and of myself, if I'm honest.

Conversations with this person have been pointless and harsh as they're not held in good faith so I've decided to stop responding. This work isn't meant to be easy and whatever discomfort I'm feeling is so unimportant compared to what's actually happening in Palestine. But cancel culture is real and it's a tool meant to instill fear. ✅

I want to check myself and be open to what lesson is presenting itself here. I want to learn and grow. Any feedback would be appreciated, even if it's hard to hear.

Edited to correct a typo (virtue, not virtual).

Super excited for this book coming out at some point and thought others might also be interested. Full disclosure I’m writing one of the chapters (need to get started on that SOON lol).

Hello all,

I have been working with a client for years. Since October, I've started to hear more about the client's zionist beliefs. They asked me where I stand and I said "against genocide". That caused a rupture in the relationship and they kind of vaguely stopped coming back to therapy. Well, they recently came back and I had hoped that things would be different. But upon returning, they went on a rant about how anti-zionism is antisemitism, propaganda is fact, and etc. I am not sure I have the spoons (energy) to work with this client, but once they finished their rant they got into some deep parts work that seemed very hopeful! I'm a black therapist and in hospital settings I've worked with nazis, but now that I'm in private practice, I'm trying to figure out the balance.

I'm curious how you all are navigating working with clients like this? If anyone has any advice? I've tried to bring it up in supervision, but she was no help and really never has been about anything outside of white feminism...

Edit: I am so appreciative of the responses here! Thank you. Hoping to jump in and comment when I get the chance.

Edit 2: I apologize if my post has offended folks, I'm gonna take some time to learn more about Zionism and check in with my own biases.

Edit 3: wow, thank you all again for sharing your thoughts on this. A lot to take in here. I really appreciate the discussions.

Edit 4: Free Palestine. I'm going to reassess if I can continue to provide ethical therapeutic services to the client as it does feel really heavy in the space even though I'm trying to keep the space focused on their goals.

Edit 5: our therapeutic relationship seems repaired and hopeful! I think the time away helped us refocus.

Not super new, but good read either way https://www.madinamerica.com/2021/08/liberation-power-dynamics/

"The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves.

If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem." - bell hooks, The Will to Change

I'm new to this subreddit so hopefully this question has not been overly discussed for brevity's sake.

I am currently in graduate school to become an Art Therapist, but I am becoming discouraged and frustrated with the discipline of psychology altogether. I truly believe in the transformative qualities of art making, but from the majority of my experiences personally, academically, and professionally, therapy seems highly individualized and separated from real radical change. Therapy is now recommended to everyone, no matter if someone qualifies for a clinically significant diagnosis, and I believe that for the average person their suffering is mostly just a result of capitalism. Because of this, I don't see therapy being all that helpful for many people. The emphasis on CBT also seems like a huge step away from deep healing and just seems to teach people to cope better with the impacts of capitalism to become more efficient workers. This may be too reductive, but as I continue with school I keep coming to these conclusions.

Philosophically, I understand the intersections of Marxism and psychoanalysis and can really see that ideologically they are compatible, but to actualize them together seems only to be done on a societal level, and I can't quite figure out how to implement them in a single practice. What does this looks like in actual everyday practice? What does actual decolonized and revolutionary therapy look like? If I am going to continue with schooling and continue with classes that are only touching the surface on what revolutionary psychology can be, I want to know that it will be worth it in my future practice.

I would love to know what others are doing to reconcile these contradictions.

A patient grows up with a deep commitment to stand with the oppressed and suffering, and notices a pattern of pushing away happiness (criticizing themself after a pleasurable experience, for example). When they’re experiencing happiness and joy, they recognize a feeling of betrayal is present due to their acute awareness of the ever-present suffering of other people and animals.

I fall into the same other-directed self-sacrificing pattern and struggle with the same issues myself as a therapist, so want to toss this general dynamic out there to get some perspective. I work a lot with self-compassion and ACT, but I sometimes hit a wall and slip into a hopeless mindset when working with this content.

Hello! I am getting my doctorate in clinical psych and am conducting research to explore how clients in therapy talk about (or do not talk about) various aspects of their identity, including political beliefs and affiliations, with their therapists. Other aspects of identity that are asked about include: gender, race and ethnicity, religion and spirituality and sexuality. I am requesting your participation as a member of this community which could add and importance perspective to the research. All responses are anonymous and participation is completely voluntary.

Eligibility criteria: 18+, currently in individual therapy, living in US and speaks English

The survey takes about 10 minutes and there is an an opportunity to enter a raffle at the end for a chance to win a $50 gift card. Thank you in advnace.

Link to survey: https://tccolumbia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Xi7tWURUOcf5fE

This study has been approved by the Teachers College, Columbia University Institutional Review Board (Protocol ID: 24-320).

Unfortunately, some of the biggest bigotry against those diagnosed with mental health conditions is on the so-called left. (I know NYT is not truly left, but it is considered so by society.)

The NYT has published several articles favoring institutionalization and other coercive "treatment" in the past few months alone.

They portray people diagnosed with schizophrenia as inherently violent and sometimes even racist. They heavily imply people with this diagnosis are murderers waiting to happen.

They cite misleading state hospital bed numbers when private institutionalization has skyrocketed, and we spend more on "mental health" than ever before, including a massive use of coercive measures.

They never once consider that this is actually part of the problem. The answer is always more preemptive violence and collective punishment.

Edit: "We don't know which one of you will be violent, so we have to harm all of you" is a classic position used to justify a number of other human rights atrocities. If you agree with the NYT position, please consider how you sound.

Free full text, includes suggested further reading: https://www.eastsideinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/The-Relevance-of-Marx-to-Therapeutics-in-the-21st-Century.pdf

everywhere I go i am treated by right wing doctors and therapists who 1. prescribe medicine I hate and 2. encourage me to quit my leftist activism. originally I came here for a referral but I can see that's not allowed. so my question is not who should I go to, but: how do I end this cycle of right wing doctors? how did you guys find leftist doctors?

EDITS:

thanks for your inputs. a few clarifications:

• I'm not looking for my mental twin I just have a few hard lines that I hold that seem to be deal breakers.
• the issue arises when I seek treatment and they suggest rather forcefully that the only treatment I need is a less intense job and cut out the activism, because who needs it. for example, i am president of my union and they all encourage me to resign because of the stress. on interrogation it seems many do not understand what a union is or why it's important to stick it out. i cannot imagine they say the same thing to every first responder in a stressful role.
• whether they're right wing or neoliberal the effect is the same, punching left

Hi, first post here, hope this is an okay topic.

The UKCP, who apparently still opposes conversation therapy, has withdrawn from the UoM that aimed to totally ban conversation therapy in the UK. A quote from their website:

"UKCP was previously a signatory of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Conversion Therapy in the UK. We are now in discussion with other counselling and psychotherapy bodies to explore drawing up new guidelines relating to conversion therapy, with a specific focus on being psychotherapeutically informed and led".

The BACP has stated "We won't be commenting on UKCP’s decision. We can however, confirm that BACP remains committed to the MoU and to ending the practice of conversion therapy in the UK."

For the record I'm not a fan of the BACP either, but I have to be a member until I graduate. My question is, are there any membership bodies that actually represent our values? Does anyone have recommendations?

UPDATE:

Hi! Saw a bunch a comments so wanted to say thank you to everyone! Been struggling a lot so haven’t had time/energy to respond.

Anyway I did reach out to my therapist actually did calm down my fear. They said they were not intending to advocate violence against someone, but that my then partner’s behavior was out-of-line and wanted to give me options to protect myself in order to establish a legal paper-trail incase a restraining order was needed at the time.

They totally heard my fears with about involvement with police and why that option isn’t safe in of itself. I’ve been openly about my staunch political stances with my therapist before so this was all very reassuring and in line with how we’ve talked before.

I’m really happy with their response and unfortunately, I just learned that my company is changing their health plans and that my current PPO is no longer available, and the next available one would take $300 out of my paycheck. Going to try and do one more session with them before my next enrollment and figure it out from there, but sucks I might lose another therapist due to health changes and getting a moment of reassurance like that.

Thank you everyone for your comments. I am also realizing that I am still processing the event and that the fact that from a professional perspective and even my friends/comments below I was in danger of someone or that vulnerabilities were taken advantage of has not yet processed. I’m still trying to figure that out so apologies if I’m not definitive, but I’m very grateful to see the discussions below and it all has helped me a bit.

Thank you all! Have a lovely rest of the week!

Hi. Very new to this community. I have BPD (potentially CPTSD instead but still figuring that out).

I had a really rough break up back in Feburaury that triggered a really bad episode for me. I was broken up with over text so the whole situation was through mobile communication. At some points I would feel super overwhelmed and as an effort to exit the situation and breathe I would block their number not forever but just because I knew I was being overwhelmed. My then partner would contact me to continue whatever conversation we were having via a different and new cell phone number to either try and continue the conversation or just text some really bad stuff at me. I ended up blocking five other numbers before the behavior stopped.

Anyway that's not as important to the title because while my friends said it was an example of "cruelty" and "dodging a bullet", my therapist suggested that I was in the right to basically call the cops on my partner.

The more I think about this the more I really become urked by the situation. I'm posting in here because I believe people here might understand where I'm coming from. When I hear getting police involved, I only see a scenario ending in violence. I've had the cops called on me for a "safety check" and it was a really scary experience. There's nothing more frightening than being in an overwhelmed state of mind and suddenly two guys with weapons to kill you are at your door asking "are you okay."

Beyond some other stuff like how my therapist has divulged their personal history during the situation and a really bad reaction to EMDR and not practicing the guided DBT I wanted to do, I really find this small comment something that has made me questioned whether I can continue care under my therapist. I'm not excusing someone else's actions or denying my fear or harm, but also when you start talking about bringing cops into a situation suddenly I imagine my then partner losing their life. I have no idea if I'm overreacting and if this is the right community to bring a discussion like this to so if I'm wrong please delete this post.

I'm not doing well with life right now and I don't want to lose someone to talk to outside of my friends, but as someone who is constantly questioning if my emotions are valid or even real, I'm a bit lost on what to do. I want to quit them and find a new therapist/form of recovery but I'm afraid of going back into that world desperately seeking help. It took me over a year to find a therapist that stuck with me more than a month or so, really don't want to do that again.

psychoanalysis has a reputation today for being old, dusty, archaic, and out of touch. nonetheless, I'm still intrigued.

its also extremely gatekept.

has anyone studied it formally? what have been your experiences?

thanks!

Scrolling through here, I recently saw CBT mainly as a gaslighting attempt to cover capitalism, and to shift blame and guilt and responsibility onto the individual level ( please pardon this brief unhinged tangent, but, I KNEW IT. I ALWAYS KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING SO WRONG WITH CBT IN MY OVER 20 YEARS IN BEING MADE A GUILTY PARTY IN MY MOLESTATIONS AND STUFF. Okay brief tangent over).

I was wondering what modalities, as well as books do you guys recommend? I am very much new to all of this, and in fact I am new in general to leftist theory. Never have even read Das Kapital or the communist manifesto, for instance.

I was hoping to use EMDR and Somatic Experiencing, as well as IFS among others. This is mainly for trauma work. What else do you guys recommend? What books, whether in psychotherapy or psychology, or even in just leftist books in general should I read? Thank you.

I really hope I articulate this properly. Is there any research or psychology theory literature about the power dynamic between abusive parent and child, maybe from both collective and interpersonal point of view, that centers the needs of the child? I am continually amazed about how people online and in mainstream media express immense care for children abused in a variety of situations in public, or even within families that already suffer many forms of marginalization. But there's so little mainstream discussion about the inherited and systemic oppressive dynamics between parents/adult family members and children/offspring, and how incredibly common parent to child abuse is (in comparison to all types of child abuse that happen). And of course, there is the cultural shaming of children who separate themselves from their abusive caregivers, which can be found in most therapeutic schools of thought one way or another. I have extensive personal experience witnessing a parent abuser showing great concern for abused children anywhere but in her own care.

I want to be a therapist who does field work.

I want to support my patient in real time, in their natural environment, while they are socializing. Advocate for them and role model for them self-advocacy. Think anthropologist meets behavioral therapist. I want to be this in part because this is what I feel I need and can't find.

As a patient, I've been completely unsatisfied with "the couch"-style therapy. I often wonder how self-deluded I am and thus whether the person I am paying so much money to even has a basic grasp on what is really going on or whether they are just mired now in the same delusion I am. They are relying entirely on my self-report to know anything and everything about my life and as a patient I don't trust that, as a intellectual it seems dodgy at best, and as a prospective therapist myself it seems ludicrous tbh.

I myself want a therapist who comes into my home, and watches how my family interacts, and makes observations and suggestions. A therapist who comes with me to work and if they believe it's the boss who is the problem, and not my melty emotions, well then we can set aside the CBT for now and I'd like my therapist to state clearly to the boss that they are abusive, and work wtih me on an ongoing basis to try to hold the boss accountable. Think couple's therapy or mediation, but for every aspect of the patient's life: family, work, church, whatever. You become an educated part of the patient's entourage.

I want a therapist who is doing a little bit more to get to the root of the problem. i want for myself and to be for other people, a person who rather than trying to shove my square peg patient through society, instead goes out into society and does what I can to change it on behalf of my client.

Is this a real job? I think people would love it. Or is that just because I'm autistic?

I have been in therapy since I was three years old. I remember being in a room, a living room, the Hall, an apartment, where I sort of just stood still, and looked around in my environment...and all of it was just wrong. An ontological incompatibly, with an axiom, whose sole premise is pain and suffering.

But that's not why I was made to go to therapy. From birth until roughly the age of 20 I have had many traumas. I have been molested and raped. I have been subject to horrific amounts of poverty. I have gone nights and days starving, unable to eat. I would be beaten, emotionally and psychologically tortured, and I would endure all of this in a chaotic neighborhood.

School wasn't any better when I was young. I was bullied and beaten at school for being me I suppose. Not sure what I did wrong. I was also abused by teachers. One of my earliest memories, in Kindergarten, was hiding in a cabinet like structure, nails inside, sharp and painful. Still, it was preferable to being in a classroom.

Abuse isn't special, evil is redundant, so as a result I ended up being in much the same abuses until after high school. Still poor and dejected.

Therapy throughout this period was terrible. Up until my current therapist (who I am thankful for), not a single therapist or psychiatrist was willing to acknowledge the environment I was in...it was if being molested, and covered in my own feces and blood and urine was my fault. That it was all in my head... cognitive distortions. Medications given, nothing more than chemical straightjackets.

I was diagoned as autistic...I am not. I was not diagnosed with cptsd, or even ptsd, until literally my current therapist.

I was in linguistics for Grad school, but had a change of Heart, and I thought about the fact that I like helping people more. It feels good. I feel a sort of niche, even though i still believe I don't belong here.

I would be studying for a MSW (is this the correct degree?) and I would be doing so potentially this fall. I just...have doubts about it all.

It literally wasn't until I heard about cptsd on Reddit, by chance, and that I decided to read the Body keeps the Score, by Bessel Van der Kolk. At that moment...my heart sank. For 20 years...I haven't even been alive, cognizant of what was going on. It was as if I was behind the curtains of a grand strange...to then have them open to a live audience...many.

Gabor Maté and some readings later...I finally realized what was wrong with me...but then...is it me?

Is it depression, when I can't afford to eat, struggle to pay bills, and can't feed My children?

Is it anxiety when I worry about the rape and violation of the natural world, finite resources expected to yield Infinite profits?

Is it being delusional when I worry about not being taken seriously as a rape and child molestation victim, simply because I am a man (a poor Mexican American man at that)?

Is any of this really mental illness...or is it natural reactions, to an unnatural Monster, incapable of ever being satisfied with what it has cannibalized?

I don't know. Part of me wants to, in my own small way, to make right what was made wrong, to take revenge by fighting back against gaslighting, and victim blaming mentality, that seeks to justify evil unto itself.

Part of me wonders what's the point. So many choose this evil. They worship it. They glorify it. They would give their life for it. A system that destroys and leads to suicide.

I don't know. I'm tired, I am 25 years old, a POC (Am I? I don't feel like it. Sometimes in mental health discourse I feel like a monster for simply being a man. Even if I did become a therapist, there is the awkward reality that I would be a minority, since most are mainly women here in the United States), and...just tired.

What is your advice fellow individuals of the Internet? What should I do? I don't know.

If I did become a therapist, I would be interested in modalities such as EMDR, IFS, somatic experiencing, among others. To treat trauma, to find ways of healing the environment, and to end the alienation of damnation, by a mental health and pharmaceutical industry that ultimately justifies its own pollutions...all of this I would hope to do... hopefully.