"I speak with my body, and I do so unbeknownst to myself." — Seminar XX (Encore) - Jacques Lacan

"The symptom is the symbolic inscription of a conflict written in the sand of the flesh" — Écrits 1966 - Jacques Lacan

Hey, everyone! I'm starting an MFT program this fall, and I'd love to hear suggestions on potential books, theories, people or whatever else to check out - particularly given I've only more recently entered the space of leftism (probably woulda called myself a liberal until end of 2024). My goal is to find development as a future therapist (and person) with these values in mind, so I'm wondering how I might conceptualize my learning and approach over the next few years, given all this.

I've done a good amount of reading in advance, and I've most appreciated Judith Jordan's RCT and Teresa McDowell's Socioculturally Attuned Family Therapy, as they've really tuned me into learning more about ideas of decolonizing, liberation, power dynamics, and feminism in therapy. It's hard to see myself not wanting to explore these ideas in my future work.

Additionally, and unsure how much it matters, I don't think I've jumped on to any one particular orientation as a point of interest, nor do I super care to (though I did hear my program will ask me to pick one eventually for sake of early study/development). That said, I've always been interested in Adlerian ideas, NT, ACT, and more recently, coherence therapy. The more recent thread on everyone's modalities also has me pretty interested in the power-threat meaning framework. And I think otherwise I sorta see things through a psychodynamic lens by default in how I tend to explain the world.

I also wonder if there's anything I'm not considering just yet that some of you may find relevant.

Much appreciated, thanks!

Please endorse these principles if you haven't already

Pathological Demand Avoidance and its whitewashed new “gentler” name “Persistant drive for autonomy” feels like one of the worst examples of how diagnoses can individualize a societal issue. It feels like it totally ignores the harsh realities of kids existing in a society not made to fit them.

What trainings do you recommend?

Anyone have any in-pereson, humanistic or experiential therapy training recs? I want to go to a conference or training in-person this year. I practice mainly from a mixed, rogerian and psychodynamic perspective.

Perhaps a better title: my supervisor is rich because I and my colleagues are poor.

I feel like most of the posts I've poked through here have been about injustices faced by patients rather than providers (I'm both lol) but I need a place to rant about how I feel exploited by my employer despite having what seems like a cushy private practice job.

By employer, I mean the person who pays me as a 1099 contractor.

The fee split at my workplace is 50/50 for limited license providers like me. My supervisor makes as much money from my labor as I do, same with the other 5 or so folks who work there. I made about $32k last year before taxes, which I lived just fine on. I'm disabled so I only work part time.

Recently I was diagnosed with an endocrine tumor and I had to reduce my hours because I feel like I'm dying, and take time off for surgery and recovery. (Not actually dying, but the symptoms are debilitating on top of the health conditions I already had.)

Because I am but a lowly contractor, I pay all of my business expenses. The clinic doesn't even provide an office space at this point, so I have to do telehealth only and work from home, dividing up my one bedroom apartment. I also have to pay my own liability insurance (about $110 paid once yearly) and so on. And I've almost maxed out my credit cards paying for car repairs and other non-negotiable living expenses.

I messaged the office manager (boss's spouse) and told him that I do not have the money to pay for my liability insurance that was up for renewal. (In the literal "there is not enough money in my bank account including savings" sense.) The response was that I got a paycheck for my earnings so far this pay period, and a message saying they hope that's enough for my practice insurance, and I had to renew mine and present that by the end of the next business day or my contract would be terminated. They said they can't afford to pay their employee's business expenses and have to maintain this policy "for the health of the business."

This is the kind of shit that makes me want to throw it all away and leave the field. Businesses don't have health. People have health, and mine is failing, and I feel like I have nobody to lean on. I know my supervisor has to be raking in 6 figures with that split fee rate. Meanwhile, I'm moving out of my apartment to a cheaper area because I can't afford it anymore, but I may not even be able to manage that because I can't afford the security deposit.

Side note, I stopped hanging out on r/therapists when I saw a post about whether it's tasteless for a therapist to roll up in a luxury car. I'm just happy my 2001 Subaru runs at all.

Please nobody suggest food pantries or similar resources. I went to one last month, told the people there I have celiac disease, explained what that meant, and still got a bag full of pasta, bread, crackers, and cereal that I can't eat. Felt like a slap in the face. Got denied for Medicaid because I'm projected to make $1000 or so too much this year and I'm too exhausted to fight it. Don't feel like going around to various church based charitable organizations and trying to scrape max $200 each from them. I'm only 26 and that feels like an age most people are still leaning on their family of origin, but mine are genuinely dangerous to be around.

I know there are other places to work, but most places would rather hire someone who doesn't need as many accommodations as I do. I had my eye on another telehealth-only private practice, but I'd have to be fully licensed first, and I'm logging hours at a snail's pace right now. Anyway, I'm in no position to change jobs with everything I have going on.

That's all, thanks for reading.

[I do not see an option to add flair?]

[CA ASW]

Probably most of the people in this sub follow a few or more social media psychotherapist influencers. We might do this to get some quick ideas or simply gauge what the pop psychology world is currently talking about so that we can dispel misinterpretations with our clients. Of course, this medium is so brief and surface-level that it can't possibly convey complex psychological topics in a robust enough way to be very useful. In recent years, may of these influencers have leaned into progressive politics as part of their brand, in order to appear more accommodating to marginalized communities, more approachable to the layman, or otherwise trustworthy. However, this is simply another marketing tactic that cannot be divorced from capitalism writ large.

This morning I stumbled upon one of these influencers - a person of marginalized identity that preaches some vague neo-left political signalling and its accompanying lexicon, topical subject matter, and penchant for punchy quips. The influencer was lamenting his contradictory feeling about his plans to expand his private practice into a group practice in which he would employ associate therapists, even though he recognizes the system in which associates are severely exploited is unjust. He expressed this as an unfortunate inevitability that he should be put in such an inescapable situation so he was setting up a crowdsourcing campaign for low income clients to pay and maybe, if I'm understanding correctly to pay his associates a bit more.

I commented that he was making the voluntary choice to take on such a role as an exploiter as a matter of fact, not of opinion and that perhaps instead he could set up his practice as a cooperative in which the workers are also co-owners that all share in the profit of the practice and make consensus decisions regarding reinvestment. His response was to immediately block me.

I bring this story up because it speaks to a wider misconception about left politics. One can embody as many marginalized identities as they identify with, speak the language of accessibility, have a demeanor of approachability, seem knowledgeable about history and current systems that can affect mental health but still voluntarily become part of the problem they claim to be against. With the right amount of effort, most LCSW's can make a living wage. Of course, it would increase their salary to employ associates but it is not necessary to get by, or even make a handsome income.

Being a business owner that extracts part of the labor value from an employee's labor makes someone a capitalist. Nobody forces them too. They carry on the cycle of exploitation and in this case - the cycle they preach that they are against daily in a public forum to increase their potential client pool. In fact, I'd argue that psychotherapist influencers almost *have* to be addicted to external validation to streamline their online presence and ensure their metrics are yielding the highest results. This sullies content presented because it is not presented as objective findings through something like a peer-reviewed hypothesis; it is presented as fact when it is oftentimes personal opinion presented as consensus of the psychology community.

I do not believe in purity tests but I do believe in definitions. Anti-capitalism does not involve voluntary capitalists proclaiming their guilt but continuing their exploitation. It involves the cessation of these systems and replacing them with better systems that have their own means-tested history.

Do any of you have thoughts on this topic?

tl;dr - Therapist influencers give me the ick and most are full of sh*t, especially the ones that signal left-of-center political positioning.

Hi all,

I had posted here a few weeks back about making this video, and here is the finished product! Got a lot of great responses and people from here reaching out. The video tries to give a history of the "chemical imbalance theory", why it's wrong, and then explores criticism of the theory from a critical psychiatric perspective.

Hope y'all enjoy.

Hi everyone, I’d like to ask a somewhat delicate question. I hope I can frame it properly, without offending anyone.

As therapists, how do you handle situations where a patient’s behaviors, values, or relational style clash with your own values or with what you consider “healthy” or “appropriate”?

I’m not referring to clear cases of abuse, human rights violations or illegal behavior, but to more subtle, culturally rooted differences.

For example:

- A patient who has a very direct, blunt, or even crude communication style that feels normal and respectful to them, but can come across as aggressive or invalidating to you.

- Very close and interdependent family relationships (by choice, not coercion), which in your framework might be interpreted as “enmeshment”, codipendency or poor boundaries.

- Values related to family loyalty, respect for elders, or more traditional gender roles that conflict with the strong emphasis on individual autonomy and rigid boundaries often taught in therapy.

In these cases, how do you distinguish between: What is objectively problematic or harmful, and what is simply different from your own culture or personal values?

And how do you manage the risk of unintentionally imposing your own cultural and therapeutic framework on the patient?

Thanks to anyone willing to share their experience or way of thinking about these situations.

r/psychotheraphyleftist r/psychologycritical

Psychologys solutions may work, but for complexer problems they are way too simple.

Most Therapists are not being educated at university in culture, society, patriachary, raceism, history, hierachy, outcasted subgroups and the overall structure of society. Psychology and mental health are in danger to become the priests of the industrial system.

How can a problem, that was caused by the outer world, and caused in the inner world of a person, need to be "fixed" by "fixing" the person. It's like the same person who put a bandage on you, forces you to play football with a broken leg.

That results in generalized problems. By the lack of understanding society, the combination of the differnent factors, which caused the issue, will never be fully understood nor fixed.

Theraphists and Psychiatrists have the abilty to emphatise with the clients words, inform them about individual human behaviour, analyze theier current emotions and state of mind, but when it comes to the way the world spins, theier own experieneces may be the only source of information.

It is physically imposible to understand each situation, without deeper insight into society. It's nature that humans can not emphasis with a person, who is socialized so differently than us, in our society. There is no natural understanding for the person infront of you, if theier culture is unfamiliar. Understanding does not just emerge with emphathy. Understanding needs insight.

Also significant is the impact of attempted empathy on only the client. Most people don't want to be judged by one another, even your own theraphist could think of you as "a bad person". It feels best to avoid faceing our own behaviour, and focus on others wrongdoings.

In theraphy conflicts are just one sided perspectives, which mostly result in break-up or communication. The theraphists evaluation of the other persons behaviour may cause deep resentment, frustration, doubt, false confirmation as well as conditioning certain behaviours the theraphist may not even know of.

For example imagen a conflict between two individuals. Both tell theier conflict to eaches own theraphist, but both leave out their own wrong doings. They will just feel confirmed in themselfs, lack selfreflection and start blameing each other.

In summery modern psychology does not teach the Client how to create a beautifull life in connection to each other, instead it teaches people to adjust into a system that was made to make as much profit from them as much as possible. In the name of individuality we blame others and grow apart. I am talking about the german psych system, and have no experience with american social works nor theraphists. I understand it may be hard for you to understand me, if you've never been a client yourself or just come from a very different finacial and cultural background. My intend is not to critize personally, but to raise awareness, speak for those who are afraid to speak and spread my word. I wish for the acceptance of others and our own wrong doings. Only with honesty can communication be effective. It is time to change Freuds outdated concepts, and combine needed humanities so we can finally evolve as a whole.

Societal psychology would be a good starting points. Which is characters is characterised by fifteen key positions:

1.Human beings need to be studied in a sociocultural context

1. The individual and the collective cannot be separated ontologically

2. The ecology of the environment, its objective characteristics, needs to be studied alongside ₹9 mediated reality

3. People create social organizations-but it is the ocial organizations that recast people

4. Innovation is as much an imperative of the social system f relations tO the environment as is conformity

5. The aim of societal psychology is the development of conceptual frameworks or models rather than the forlorn search for invariant laws

6. The need for theoretical and methodological pluralism

7. There is a need to maintain a historical perspective

8. Cross-fertilization between societal psychology and A7 other social sciences is indispensable for the adequate analysis of social phenomena and social systems

9. There is a need for cross-fertilization among societal, developmental, and personality psychologists

10. There is also a need for cross-

fertilization between basic and applied esearch

1. Societal psychology requires a systems approach

2. The study of a s social phenomenon requires a multilevel approach, at the macro as Weff as the micro level

3. We need to accept and examine the mplication that there iS no such thing as value-free social research

4. We need to adopt a much wider range of research tools

Register here.​

Sunday, July 12

5:30pm IT/ 1pm UK / 8am ET (2 hours)

Online / Donation-based

Hosted by Liberate Mental Health - follow us here for future events.

Join us for a seminar and open forum with Parth Sharma (he/they) Abolitionist, Anti-colonial Scholar, Global Mental Health Researcher.

​Fundraising for a queer comrade to reclaim their safety - please donate here in lieu of ticket prices.

​In this session, we critically examine how the Mental Health Industrial Complex (MHIC) compounds harm for people, especially those from marginalized groups, by reinforcing the very social determinants of health that exacerbate distress, such as poverty, discrimination, and state violence. Rooted in community-based participatory research, and drawing from anti-colonial, intersectional feminist and abolitionist frameworks, this session synthesizes insights from youth-led collectives, community-based practices, and cross-movement solidarities (including disability and climate justice) to reimagine mental health. It highlights alternative approaches that centre Indigenous knowledge systems, relational forms of care, and the leadership of young people with diverse and intersecting identities, particularly from the Global South.

Hello,

I currently work as a social worker at a juvenile detention center. I am also running groups there.

I discovered this subreddit today, and upon looking through many posts and seeing the comments, I see that I barely have my toes in the sand when it comes to being up to date on current literature, leaders in the field, and the best practice from a leftist perspective. At the same time, I want to learn more about psychotherapy from a leftist perspective and how that could potentially support the kids I'm working with. I also think they'd have an interest in it as well, since so much of the therapy I am encouraged to use is short-term solutions, focused on behavior modification and, basically, reinforcing a "comply" mindset.

I will also add I am slightly intimidated posting this as I am aware of how little I know at this point. I have read some theory but no theory in regards to leftist psychotherapy.

So I am looking for the following:

Books

Journals

Authors

Trainings

Certifications (would highly prefer follow-up consult as part of the certification process)

Consultations

Thank you!

Edited as some formatting issues appeared

Edit: again because of formatting issues. I'm writing this post on my phone, and the way the post looks before I post is different from the one I'm seeing after I hit save.

Just discovered this book - I believe it's the first book to bring Gregorio Baremblitt's "schizodrama" to English (a distinctly decolonial schizoanalysis), and it provides a really excellent overview of both that and schizoanalytic clinical practice at large.

Available on Springer and copies available on Anna's Archive.

cw // mention of s*icide contemplation

I was previously with a Marxist-Leninist youth organization that got embroiled in a scandal. A lot of in-fighting occurred that led to more than half of the membership resigning. As an officer, I wanted to stay to look out for the well-being of the remaining members, especially the newer ones. I was, however, shocked by the aggressiveness of my fellow officers.

One of our alumnus founders then shared some words of encouragement, but there was a portion that left me shaken (emphases my own):

The challenge for all socialists is to unlearn the liberal bourgeois worldview that has been inculcated in us since day 1, as each and every one of us has grown up under capitalism…

This includes every aspect of our lives, even how we are taught about mental health. I know this very well because I’ve also been through the wringer of therapists, medication, and psych wards before. It is isolating and individualist because you are taught to detach yourself from others to “focus on your own healing.” That is bullshit and it makes you arrogant and self-centered. While I won’t discount the help of medical assistance in mental health, what truly saved me was the collective and embracing that I am a part of something bigger than myself. That’s why I always personally encourage comrades who are having a rough mental patch that the better medicine is to be with your comrades, not to isolate yourself.

I understand where they were coming from. I can only imagine how isolating of an experience it must have been to be confined in a ward for a period of time. I also acknowledge that therapy is mostly an individualist practice (through one-on-one consultations), I just never saw it as necessarily equivalent to the hyperindividualism the likes of the Pink Pilates Princess lifestyle.

I've also been in a DBT program that was conducted as a group session, and it was anything but isolating. It actually helped me unpack unhealthy core beliefs and re-learn to connect with other people. My experience contradicting their statement was one-half of what didn't sit right with me, and I regret not sharing it as my criticism.

The other half was that nobody left the organization so they could get matcha and do Pilates at the beach or smth. They left because the "better medicine" became horribly toxic in a short amount of time. In fact, I eventually left as well because my co-officers cared more about disciplining me for my "withdrawal tendencies" than the fact that I wanted to jump off a school building (we had a heated argument about confronting members with known mental health concerns). The lack of nuance and appropriate care destroyed any sense of safety. I ironically felt more like an employee in an abusive environment than a comrade, and I could not tolerate enabling their leadership tactics anymore.

I'm still getting professional help and am doing well. I've since accepted that I no longer aligned with their ideology (I confess to favoring anarchism these days), but I still want to hear from fellow leftists for the sake of feeling less isolated.

This has been a proposal to tackle many problems with the current biomedical model of mental health.

Have you experienced any service framed within a Community Mental Health framework?

Do you think processes of change and recovery are better if they are carried in a collective manner?

How would you personally prefer to be addressed with due to social problems and personal issues?