Beware your “Mormon Therapist”


Just_A_Guy
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From Christopher Cunningham, who used to publish articles at 3H:

My informal survey asked respondents if their therapists ever made suggestions that they felt were outside the boundaries of the Church’s teachings. Of the 72 respondents who said that they chose a Latter-day Saint therapist specifically so they would not provide advice or treatment outside the boundaries of the gospel, over half of them (51%) said their therapist made recommendations they believed to be outside of gospel boundaries. 

https://publicsquaremag.org/health/are-latter-day-saint-therapists-meeting-their-clients-expectations/

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40 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

From Christopher Cunningham, who used to publish articles at 3H:

My informal survey asked respondents if their therapists ever made suggestions that they felt were outside the boundaries of the Church’s teachings. Of the 72 respondents who said that they chose a Latter-day Saint therapist specifically so they would not provide advice or treatment outside the boundaries of the gospel, over half of them (51%) said their therapist made recommendations they believed to be outside of gospel boundaries. 

https://publicsquaremag.org/health/are-latter-day-saint-therapists-meeting-their-clients-expectations/

I didn’t read the article in detail but in the past I have done a bit of study about therapists and their relationship with religious orthodoxy and how they approach it.

From what I understand, the role of a therapist is to help those struggling emotionally, mentally and spiritually come to terms with their feelings, develop a healthy mindset toward and cope with issues in their life. When a person of an heavily orthodox / covenantal religion sees a therapist, I can see it being difficult to suggest things, particularly when you are a member of the same religion.

For the majority of the time, a therapist is not a doctor (though they may have a doctorate degree). Most of what they are saying is just probing and trying to understand. They offer solutions to the feelings they feel. From what I have experienced, they will offer a solution or task to do, if I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, they never pushed it further, but moved in to other solutions and approaches.

In the initial example, I would say it is well within the therapists means to suggest not reading scriptures. If someone came to me, a person who is not a therapist, and says reading scriptures gave them a large amount of anxiety, I may suggest taking a Hiatus from reading scriptures. Maybe I would suggest specific talks to read instead. Focus on reading talks from Eyring, Holland, and Suarez. And for the time being, avoid Oaks, Bednar, Renlund, packer, and McConkie. And perhaps focus on strengthening their prayer and try to understand how God true Lely sees them, the role sin plays in our life and how repentance, guilt and shame all play together.

In more difficult situations, where homosexuality and transgender is played, I think it is healthy to at least admit such feelings aloud to one’s self.  Then have a conversation about sharing them with family members and others.

I remember my brother (now sister) experiencing intense amounts of social anxiety, depression, and feeling he was actually a she. He went to go see a therapist of the Latter-day Saint faith about the whole thing and the therapist helped him come to the conclusion that he does indeed see himself as a she. That step right there took a HUGE wait off her back. The therapist, from what I understand, never suggest to transition, leave the church, or any of the like. However, once my sister made the decision to no longer attend church and socially transition, the therapist was there as a tool for her to cope with the anxieties and stresses that came with it.

When you go see a therapist, there must be a dialogue at some point about what religious steps you are uncomfortable taking. It’s not their job to make sure you continue living and orthodoxy life and obeying all the letter and spirit of the law commandments, particularly when you do t even want to be active. The role of a therapist is to help people cope with their feelings, and in some cases, keep you from killing yourself.

Unless steps have been made the clarify how important your religious life is, it is not inappropriate for a therapist to say things like this.

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A therapist exists to help you go where you want to go (and are willing to put the effort into thus).  You want one that respects your values/beliefs, even if they themselves don't share it. 

A lot of the time therapy does involve approaching a problem from a different angle.  There are plenty of time where that problem can be influenced by religious belief, and the new different angle is still within religious orthodoxy..  

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Certain other religions get a very bad rap for trying to ignore medical science and causing harm or injury to their members because of their willingness to ignore medical advice and aid.

I would not want to be associated with such religions myself as I feel they are like the Catholic Church of the 15th and 16th century which would rather depress the truth and destroy those who would spread truth to help others rather than lose power or influence.

I personally do not  know much about therapist or therapy.  I don't know how scientific it is or not in regards to their advice.

However, though I do not have anything against them and feel they should be allowed to believe however they wish, when I hear certain religions (was more specific to a specific religion, but felt I should not do so as I do not wish to be insulting, only express my own thoughts) tear down psychology and psychiatry I feel it only impresses more strongly how false their ideas are in comparison to what the true gospel of the Lord would be.  I do not feel that science or truth are counter to the gospel, but we just do not know enough yet to see how the two are in confluence.

Edited by JohnsonJones
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I could go on and on about the general public's understanding and expectations of science.  

Because I am a specialist in Orthopaedic surgery I will give an example from this field.  

We (as a nation) are doing way too many knee and shoulder arthroscopic procedures.  We order way too many MRIs instead of relying upon simple inexpensive physical examinations.  And many surgeons make huge bank by performing surgery when the patients would be better managed with conservative measures like NSAIDS, weight loss, and physical therapy.   But the majority of our patient base is much happier getting cut than making lifestyle changes...

Many well-documented studies show that arthroscopic knee cartilage debridement procedures (of which we do millions a year) are essentially expensive placebos.   You take 100 patients, 50 have surgery, 50 have sham surgery where incisions are made and water is splashed in the OR but no joint procedures are performed.  Guess what the difference was - NONE.  The patients that had the sham surgery were just as happy as the patients that had the real surgery.  AND would even recommend the fake procedure to their family.  

see https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1305189

50% of shoulder rotator cuff repair surgeries display (via repeat MRI) that the repair was unsuccessful only a year later...

And orthopaedics is very competitive (must be in the top 1/4 of your med school class just to get an interview), psychiatry on the other hand is one of the least competitive specialities https://www.prospectivedoctor.com/how-competitive-is-a-psychiatry-residency/#:~:text=Overall Competitiveness of Psychiatry Residency,%2C the probability is 92%.

I am sure that there are some good psychiatrist and therapists out there.  But there is no way that I would ever see one.  

The majority of people seeking assistance from either of these fields would probably get vastly better results by making simple lifestyle changes (following the recommendations of our Lord and Savior, daily exercise of both body and mind, eating a healthy diet, reading and studying scripture, etc).

To assume that science understands the human brain is absurd.  We are figuring out new stuff about bone all the time.  And the human brain is vastly more complex than bone.  

Just saying.  

 

Edited by mikbone
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1 hour ago, mikbone said:

I am sure that there are some good psychiatrist and therapists out there.  But there is no way that I would ever see one.  

I have personally seen 6 in my life time. 1 was phenomenal, 1 was good, 3 were essentially useless, 1 was just awful. The two good ones were the first two I saw. The last 4 pretty much turned me off to the whole thing. 
 

To be honest, it was a lot like taking the same institute class from 5 different teachers. The first time you take it, there is some cool new stuff that really opens your eyes to concepts. The second time, there may be different insights. Every time after that, the same info is just being rehashed over and over. Each teacher expects you to say “aha! That makes sense!”... but instead your say “well... ya... is this the extent of what you have to teach?”. Of course the true success in a therapy session comes from the decisions of the person who is visiting the therapist, not the info shared by the therapist. It’s just not a very deep field. I imagine e the help becomes better and better the more money you spend on different therapists... but again, it isn’t like a doctor where there is a medicine for this and a surgery for that... like mentioned above, it’s relies almost entirely on life style choices.

Edited by Fether
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1 hour ago, mikbone said:

I could go on and on about the general public's understanding and expectations of science.  

Because I am a specialist in Orthopaedic surgery I will give an example from this field.  

We (as a nation) are doing way too many knee and shoulder arthroscopic procedures.  We order way too many MRIs instead of relying upon simple inexpensive physical examinations.  And many surgeons make huge bank by performing surgery when the patients would be better managed with conservative measures like NSAIDS, weight loss, and physical therapy.   But the majority of our patient base is much happier getting cut than making lifestyle changes...

Many well-documented studies show that arthroscopic knee cartilage debridement procedures (of which we do millions a year) are essentially expensive placebos.   You take 100 patients, 50 have surgery, 50 have sham surgery where incisions are made and water is splashed in the OR but no joint procedures are performed.  Guess what the difference was - NONE.  The patients that had the sham surgery were just as happy as the patients that had the real surgery.  AND would even recommend the fake procedure to their family.  

see https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1305189

50% of shoulder rotator cuff repair surgeries display (via repeat MRI) that the repair was unsuccessful only a year later...

And orthopaedics is very competitive (must be in the top 1/4 of your med school class just to get an interview), psychiatry on the other hand is one of the least competitive specialities https://www.prospectivedoctor.com/how-competitive-is-a-psychiatry-residency/#:~:text=Overall Competitiveness of Psychiatry Residency,%2C the probability is 92%.

I am sure that there are some good psychiatrist and therapists out there.  But there is no way that I would ever see one.  

The majority of people seeking assistance from either of these fields would probably get vastly better results by making simple lifestyle changes (following the recommendations of our Lord and Savior, daily exercise of both body and mind, eating a healthy diet, reading and studying scripture, etc).

To assume that science understands the human brain is absurd.  We are figuring out new stuff about bone all the time.  And the human brain is vastly more complex than bone.  

Just saying.  

Short form:

"Therapists" is spelled that way for a reason.

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While attending BYU I was really shocked with how many members were willing to indulge is boderline methodologies. One of which was sticking a kid in a sleeping bag, causing the kid pain (either by sticking an elbow in his chest (pressing as hard as you can), or something that would cause physical pain), and then when the kid is at the moment of despair and hurt they open the sleeping bag and then immediately give the kid to his parents. This was mainly for kids who were adopted. The concept -- the sleeping bag represented the uterus -- and thus birth, when the sleeping bag or bag was opened.

It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, and yet it was considered a logical and rational practice. So, yes, just because they are members does not mean they will be inline with gospel principles. I could go on, just from BYU, and it amazed me. Rather than strengthening testimony therapists would be depleting it.

With that said, are their good, really good, therapists. Yes. One of my single ward bishopric members was a therapist and a successful one in Utah. I asked him about his practice and why he thought it was successful. He said, "The main principle/practice I have stems from the Book of Mormon, and that is why it helps people."

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12 hours ago, Fether said:

[*1*] I didn’t read the article in detail but in the past I have done a bit of study about therapists and their relationship with religious orthodoxy and how they approach it.

From what I understand, the role of a therapist is to help those struggling emotionally, mentally and spiritually come to terms with their feelings, develop a healthy mindset toward and cope with issues in their life. When a person of an heavily orthodox / covenantal religion sees a therapist, I can see it being difficult to suggest things, particularly when you are a member of the same religion.  [*2*]

For the majority of the time, a therapist is not a doctor (though they may have a doctorate degree). Most of what they are saying is just probing and trying to understand. They offer solutions to the feelings they feel. From what I have experienced, they will offer a solution or task to do, if I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, they never pushed it further, but moved in to other solutions and approaches.

In the initial example, I would say it is well within the therapists means to suggest not reading scriptures. If someone came to me, a person who is not a therapist, and says reading scriptures gave them a large amount of anxiety, I may suggest taking a Hiatus from reading scriptures. [*3*] Maybe I would suggest specific talks to read instead. Focus on reading talks from Eyring, Holland, and Suarez. And for the time being, avoid Oaks, Bednar, Renlund, packer, and McConkie. And perhaps focus on strengthening their prayer and try to understand how God true Lely sees them, the role sin plays in our life and how repentance, guilt and shame all play together.

[*4*]In more difficult situations, where homosexuality and transgender is played, I think it is healthy to at least admit such feelings aloud to one’s self.  Then have a conversation about sharing them with family members and others.

I remember my brother (now sister) experiencing intense amounts of social anxiety, depression, and feeling he was actually a she. He went to go see a therapist of the Latter-day Saint faith about the whole thing and the therapist helped him come to the conclusion that he does indeed see himself as a she. That step right there took a HUGE wait off her back. [*5*] The therapist, from what I understand, never suggest to transition, leave the church, or any of the like. However, once my sister made the decision to no longer attend church and socially transition, the therapist was there as a tool for her to cope with the anxieties and stresses that came with it.

When you go see a therapist, there must be a dialogue at some point about what religious steps you are uncomfortable taking. It’s not their job to make sure you continue living and orthodoxy life and obeying all the letter and spirit of the law commandments, particularly when you do t even want to be active. [*6*] The role of a therapist is to help people cope with their feelings, and in some cases, keep you from killing yourself.

Unless steps have been made the clarify how important your religious life is, it is not inappropriate for a therapist to say things like this.

I agree with much of what you say, but would perhaps offer a few responses/slight pushbacks:

1). By all means, read the full article.  :) 

2). I agree, and I think that’s why it’s so crucial that the dialogue you mention happen early in the treatment process.  It seems many Church members are beginning their work with therapists who hold themselves out as “Mormon therapists”, in the belief that the therapist will hold to boundaries that the therapist in fact has no intention of holding (and may even actively hope to undermine).

3). I would expect this from a therapist who had a relatively superficial knowledge of or commitment to institutional Mormonism; but from someone holding themselves out as a “Mormon therapist” who understands their client wants to live their church’s principles (including that of daily *scripture* study)—I would expect some explorations about “gee, you say you want to life a traditional Church lifestyle and regular scripture reading is kind of a big deal in the Church.  Let’s take a few weeks to work through why you’re so averse to scriptures generally; and in the meantime here’s some warm fluffy stuff in the Psalms that should let you keep your perceived covenants without triggering you too badly”.  (FWIW, my wife  did a few sessions with a therapist a couple years back and she actually suggested specific scriptural passages for my wife to study based on the nature of what my wife was coping with at the time.)

I’d also, frankly, raise my eyebrows at a mental health professional who selectively recommends outright avoidance to cope with conflict.  If a gay LDS teen comes to a therapist—LDS or otherwise—saying “I feel things in the high school locker room that for theological reasons I’d rather not feel”, I think we’d be hard-pressed to find a therapist who would say “well, at least for now, let’s find a way to keep you out of locker rooms”.  Why is avoidance fine for dealing with situations the Church would consider virtuous, but inappropriate for dealing situations the Church would equate with temptation?

4). The million-dollar question, of course, is:  to what end?  If I wake up one day and think “gosh, where does Fether work?  I want to do that job.  Is that Fether’s wife?  She’s quite attractive.  Are those Fether’s kids?  They are cute and well-behaved.  And Fether’s home seems spacious, and his yard well-manicured, and I understand his bank account balance to be quite impressive.”  And some therapist says “You know, JAG, have you considered the possibility that deep down you might just want to BE Fether?”—well, what then?

Here, I think, is the limit of modern mental health practice; because its proscribed treatment depends not on any consistent version of morality or even on objective realities; but on social norms.  In the case I describe, in 2021:  a mental health practitioner is going to tell me I’ve got to get past my deep desire to be Fether—because Fether’s boss is not going to let me work at his job; his kids won’t let me pick them up from school; his wife won’t let me into their house; his bank teller won’t grant me access to their bank account.  No matter how desperately I want it, no matter what genetic or psychological influences give rise to that deep-seated desire:  the reality is that I am *not Fether*; society has no obligation to treat me as though I were Fether; and I’m just going to have to deal with that.  But add a hundred years and changed social norms re parentage, monogamy, property rights—and a therapist may well say “you know what?  Maybe Fether’s family should let JAG stay over a few nights and see if it works out.  It’s the least they can do for poor JAG.”

As to your siblings’s case (and I realize this is a tender subject and I hope I’m being sufficiently sensitive here) we have a society that has gravitated towards the idea that another kind of identity-based illusion—the notion that one’s “real” chromosomal makeup is different than what definitional biology actually dictates—has gained some currency; and so 5) I’d bet money (though perhaps not a lot of it) that your sibling’s therapist never once used the phrase “you are not a woman, and you have no right to compel anyone to accept you as something you aren’t” in any of their sessions; and your sibling came out of them with the idea that the only things that needed “curing” were the world in general and the Church in particular.  That’s fine, for a therapist who doesn’t tout themselves as a “Mormon therapist” and doesn’t explicitly market their services to people who want to find fulfillment within the bounds of traditional Mormonism.  But Cunningham is describing therapists who apparently *did* go out of their way to attract a clientele that had that expectation.

6)  I would rather say that the roles of a therapist are a) to treat any identifiable pathologies/disorders; and b) to help a client to healthily attain the client’s own goals within the framework of the client’s own values.  When we are talking about therapists who overtly advertise for LDS clients, I would add that:

—If a “Mormon therapist” doesn’t know within the very first session that their client wants to stay in harmony with the Church’s teachings, they have failed their client.

—If a Mormon therapist knows their client wants to stay in harmony with the Church’s teachings but encourages the client to flout those teachings anyways, then I would say the Mormon therapist is perpetrating spiritual and professional abuse.  To the extent that the therapist is encouraging the client to abandon their value base, it may even be malpractice under applicable professional certification/licensing standards.

—If the Mormon therapist is approaching each and every Mormon client with the mindset that “I’m going to lead you out of the Church unless you expressly and repeatedly tell me you want to stay in”—as a practical matter, it would be hard to impose a membership council for that; but I’d say the therapist absolutely deserved one.  

 

Edited by Just_A_Guy
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25 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

I

I’d also, frankly, raise my eyebrows at a mental health professional who selectively recommends outright avoidance to cope with conflict.  If a gay LDS teen comes to a therapist—LDS or otherwise—saying “I feel things in the high school locker room that for theological reasons I’d rather not feel”, I think we’d be hard-pressed to find a therapist who would say “well, at least for now, let’s find a way to keep you out of locker rooms”.  Why is avoidance fine for dealing with scripture, but inappropriate for dealing with temptation?

I honestly don’t see a problem taking a week off of the Book of Mormon if it is causing immense amounts of stress to read. The answer isn’t “read fluffy stuff”. The answer is “let’s figure out why you feel this way by reading talks specific to the issue.”

29 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

As to your siblings’s case (and I realize this is a tender subject and I hope I’m being sufficiently sensitive here)

It’s a close example, but not tender. I am fine talking freely about it and on with hear people talking negatively about (though attacks on her directly I won’t stand for).

Overall, I too agree with the vast majority of what you say. 

I think my biggest frustration comes not from the claims being made (though I agree that once a line has been drawn on your expectations concerning your faith, it should not be crossed), but rather the whole situation. A “Mormon” therapist has to essentially be Bishop and therapist and that has to be difficult.
 

but ya... my thoughts are either too complex or incomplete to express. Maybe some time around 2am I may be able to put it into words and I’ll post something.

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22 hours ago, Just_A_Guy said:

My informal survey asked respondents if their therapists ever made suggestions that they felt were outside the boundaries of the Church’s teachings. Of the 72 respondents who said that they chose a Latter-day Saint therapist specifically so they would not provide advice or treatment outside the boundaries of the gospel, over half of them (51%) said their therapist made recommendations they believed to be outside of gospel boundaries. 

Fun story:

Laura Brotherson's book And They Were Not Ashamed: Strengthening Marriage Through Sexual Fulfillment is quite popular.   (And quite a good book full of valuable and relevant information, IMO.   I'm going to give a copy to both daughters as they start pursuing serious relationships.)  It's explicit, talking about just everything that goes on in the bedroom, mind, body, and soul.  Everything but pictures.

I know one of the marriage therapists here in Colo Springs who does a lot of work with LDS folks.  She was one of the reviewers of Brotherson's book, and knows the author.   She says that before the book was published, it went to church leadership for a review. (I'm not sure of the details, whether it was some sort of correlation committee, or if a GA or Apostle read it, or what.)  The comments came back overall favorable and supportive, along with feedback that a certain section should be removed completely.  Apparently it dealt with females exploring their own bodies and functions, and was basically a how-to guide for female masturbation.  

So that section is out of the published book, and the rest of the book has the thumbs up from church leadership.  :)   Gives a little window into the state of affairs on LDS marriage therapists, and a glimpse into the workings of church leadership.

 

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Another good article, from therapist Jeff Bennion:

It is helpful for us to remember what therapists can do and what they can’t do. After all the ongoing abuses committed by the profession, after exposures of fraudulent research, and foundational studies retracted for failure to replicate, it is long past time we show a little intellectual humility in our “expert” pronouncements. It’s my job to help the client on the couch get better. It’s not my job as a therapist to tell “the Patriarchy,” or the Church, how they’re wrong and that its doctrines, beliefs, and practices must change. It’s also profoundly disempowering to tell our clients, as Helfer and others seem prone to do, that they don’t need to change, but that the rest of the world does. We do our best work when we help clients build resilience and deal with the world as it is. While both clients and therapists can be agents of change in the world at large, our own healing cannot be held hostage waiting for 16 million Latter-day Saints to agree with us, not to mention most of the non-western world.

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On 4/26/2021 at 10:50 AM, Just_A_Guy said:

From Christopher Cunningham, who used to publish articles at 3H:

My informal survey asked respondents if their therapists ever made suggestions that they felt were outside the boundaries of the Church’s teachings. Of the 72 respondents who said that they chose a Latter-day Saint therapist specifically so they would not provide advice or treatment outside the boundaries of the gospel, over half of them (51%) said their therapist made recommendations they believed to be outside of gospel boundaries. 

https://publicsquaremag.org/health/are-latter-day-saint-therapists-meeting-their-clients-expectations/

I'm not sure what to make of an informal survey. The 51% reflects what I would think the odds are, given that virtually everyone receiving therapy needs to learn to adjust their broader expectations anyway.

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I think psychotherapy is like chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is a highly inexact effort that can inflict more harm than good. The basic idea is that you introduce deadly toxins into the body, toxins that literally destroy cells, with the idea that the cancerous cells are more likely to be targeted than the healthy cells. It's like an algorithm that selects one person in a hundred that you shoot through the head, and the algorithm has a better chance of selecting a bad guy than a good guy. Great way to clean up a society, huh?

The obvious problem is that healthy cells vastly outnumber cancerous cells, even in late-stage cancer patients. So a regimen that preferentially targets cancer cells 50% more often than healthy cells is a regimen that will kill the patient every time. The chemo regimen has to be a great deal more selective than that. That means that the chemo regimen has to be based on principles that discriminate between cancerous cells and healthy cells.

There are those within the medical community who think that much chemotherapy is witchcraft. These people are appalled that such chemotherapy is even legal, much less widely practiced. They roll their eyes at the contention that "chemotherapy is better than nothing", and cite cases like my grandmother, who was killed outright by chemotherapy and would likely have survived several more years—and in a great deal less pain—had she just forgone chemotherapy and allowed the bowel cancer to take its natural course.

The resemblance to psychotherapy seems obvious. (Disclaimer: I have no real direct experience with psychotherapy, but I have indirect experience through friends and relatives who have been involved in psychotherapy and through acquaintances who have practiced psychotherapy. So I know enough to be prejudiced, but not enough to be authoritative.) Psychotherapy, like chemotherapy:

  • Is a blunt tool that can potentially do more harm than good—in fact, that WILL do more harm than good unless overseen by a competent practitioner.
  • Seems to be as much art as science, with the outcome highly dependent on the experience and intuition of the oncologist/psychotherapist.
  • Is based on some fundamental principles. If those principles are faulty, the psychotherapy will certainly fail, to the detriment or even destruction of the patient.

Modern psychotherapy is built on modern understanding of principles. This understanding is woefully deficient in many areas. The theory of mind used is often based on someone's PhD dissertation from ten years ago. The morality on which decisions are taken is almost invariably the late 20th- or 21st-century American leftist morality, aka immorality. And from what I have observed, the majority of psychotherapists are well-intentioned individuals who don't really have any grasp on what they're doing beyond trying to help people based on what some supposedly authoritative textbooks told them back in school.

No one in his right mind would see an oncologist under such a situation. I bet it's a small minority of psychotherapy patients who actually benefit from psychotherapy, but a much larger percentage being actively damaged by it and perhaps an even larger percentage simply spending time and money on something that ultimately does them no real good, even if it avoids doing very much great harm.

My impression is that modern psychotherapy is largely a confidence game. I would support any friend or family member who felt like s/he needed such therapy, but I would warn my children to be very careful and aware of what's going on in their therapy sessions. I would advise this even if the therapist were honest and well-meaning. Voodoo is voodoo, even when the witch doctor is a nice guy who cares about you.

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8 hours ago, Vort said:

 

Chemotherapy is a highly inexact effort that can inflict more harm than good. The basic idea is that you introduce deadly toxins into the body, toxins that literally destroy cells, with the idea that the cancerous cells are more likely to be targeted than the healthy cells. It's like an algorithm that selects one person in a hundred that you shoot through the head, and the algorithm has a better chance of selecting a bad guy than a good guy. Great way to clean up a society, huh?

Actually most chemo just targets cells that are rapidly dividing and growing.  Thats why everyone loses their hair and gets horrible nausea and vomiting.  The cells that create hair and the lining of your gut are rapidly dividing.  So with each session of chemo they slough the lining of the intestines.

It reminds me of a scene in a star trek movie where one of the crew got a head injury, were taken to a hospital and prepped for brain surgery.  Bones ran into the OR and was yelling / cursing at the staff for trying to kill his patient.  He then pulled out his pocket device and waved it over the red shirt’s head - who spontaneously awoke and walked out of the room.

 

We can do better. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/27/2021 at 11:02 AM, Carborendum said:

If I were interested in the best money: work ratio, I think I'd be a therapist.  You really don't have to do anything but sit there.

You could make a lot of money to just sit there.

Why would anyone want this for their life's accomplishment and legacy?

 

I listened to a commentary the other day about "First Responders".  The commentary was very critical in thinking of police, firemen and medics as "first responders".  The essence of the commentary was - like it or not your are the first responder to everything that goes on around you and how you respond is the first response to all your experiences both concerning yourself and those you encounter.

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have a stunning example in Christ and especially in his teaching us through the parable of the "Good Samaritan".  I am convinced that the "best therapy" is to trust G-d by making and keeping covenants with him.  I believe when we covenant with G-d that we will seek to learn from the best sources available to us.  Then as we study all things out in our minds we can call upon G-d to testify to us through the gift and power of the Holy Ghost.  Obviously those that have not received the Gift of the Holy Ghost by divine order of ordinance and covenant are at a great disadvantage.

 

The Traveler

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On 4/30/2021 at 9:27 PM, mikbone said:

It reminds me of a scene in a star trek movie where one of the crew got a head injury, were taken to a hospital and prepped for brain surgery.  Bones ran into the OR and was yelling / cursing at the staff for trying to kill his patient.  He then pulled out his pocket device and waved it over the red shirt’s head - who spontaneously awoke and walked out of the room.

Where on earth is your Trek knowledge!?!?  That twern't no red shirt.  That was Checkov.

Starting around 1:23

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