The Secular Therapist Project Reaches a Milestone: 100 Therapists

[rug]

January 28, 2013
By richard wade

Mental disorders, emotional problems, and relationship problems are experienced by theists and atheists alike. I have received many letters to the “Ask Richard” column from atheists who have sought counseling for such difficulties, but the counselors they went to started telling them to “get right with God,” or similar religious nonsense. They had not advertised themselves as “pastoral” or “religious” counselors, but gave the impression that they are simply mainstream psychology-based therapists. Then once the sessions had started, they began to inject their religious beliefs into the therapeutic relationship, implying or overtly stating that the root of the client’s problem was his/her lack of belief in a god.

To a nonreligious client who has had painful experiences at the hands of religious people, or who has lost relationships due to bigotry against atheists, this is a very harmful betrayal of the trust they give to their counselor. Many never try to find another therapist, and so they don’t get the assistance that might help them resolve their conflicts faster and more thoroughly. If depression or addiction is one of their challenges, this could be downright dangerous.

The way I was educated and trained, a therapist behaving this way is seriously breaching his/her professional ethics. Sadly, some seem to think that their religion is outside of their professional commitment to being meticulously respectful with vulnerable people who place their trust in them.

Another problem is that many therapists are nonreligious but are reluctant to advertise specifically as such because they could lose business even from clients who are not specifically looking for religious counseling. They can also be ostracized by their colleagues or their friends. They need a discreet and reliable way to find secular clients as much as the clients need a discreet and reliable way to find secular counselors.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/01/28/the-secular-therapist-project-reaches-a-milestone-100-therapists/

http://www.seculartherapy.org/

[cbayer]

1. Any legitimate and ethical therapist knows that injecting their own religious beliefs

into the therapy is completely wrong unless they advertise themselves as some kind of religious therapist.

Those doing it need to be identified as such and I guess this project tries to address that in some way. They also are excluding those that use "New Age mumbo jumbo", a much bigger problem in the mental health community, imo.

So, bottom line, I think it's worth supporting a project that identifies therapists who are using evidence based techniques and not interjecting their personal beliefs into the process. But I think that describes most professionals in the field.