Bias warning- I’m a therapist and a Marxist. Sounds like you’ve got a mixed experience and are feeling a mixed connection with your therapist- which is technically the biggest indicator of success in therapy- if you vibe with your therapist. That said, it sounds like your also asking a lot and some of what your asking may be specifically unethical from a therapists code of conduct. I don’t get to tell you or anyone who to vote for; what religion you should be in; how you should perceive class relations; or if you should overthrow any particular economic system with a protracted people’s war; etc. That would specifically be an abuse of power and will(rightfully so) cost your clinician their license. Therapists are not labor organizers, nor do they know how change the socio-political climate of any country in the western world better than anyone else and they specifically have an obligation to keep their personal beliefs to themselves(no matter how much you want to suggest lenin’s ‘what is to be done’.)
And I get it, most people on here have had bad experiences in therapy(or at least the people that are vocal about therapy). That said, it is individual work unless you are doing couples or group work. That’s part of the therapist privilege and also their limitations- for 50 minutes I don’t care about your relationship with your father beyond how it effects you- bad relationship- cut the mfr out, good relationship- lets continue to use this as a support. Similarly, in couples counseling- my client is the relationship, I don’t care about either of the members of the couple other than how they support and/or do not support the relationship through their behaviors and thoughts.
That said, whenever politics comes up in a session my usual blurb is “we can talk about this as much as you want, and you’ll find that I am going to consistently bring it back to you and how it impacts you and how we support and protect you, and you’ll also notice we will not be discussing any of my beliefs or values.” Therapy isn’t about me- it is about you, I watch clients fight their own class interests all the time but that’s not my job in the therapeutic setting and it is a very sacred trust(to me at least). I am only here to support your mental well-being(literally no one else’s in your life or community and) that’s why it is 70% effective, because there isn’t a conflict of interest, I remove all my personal interests as best as possible and we are only there to focus on you. Idk if that makes sense, but I thought I’d offer it- maybe it can help in figuring out how to get more out of your sessions, or in exploring if you may need to look for another outlet to best engage in activist/organizing works. Edit: spelling
Totally, and thanks for such a comprehensive, though targeted response(i just mean i get you didn’t respond to everything and I get the “I more or less agree, but that’s not really what I meant.” vibe)- what your saying makes more sense to me now. Also, just to name- I don’t think me not fully understanding what you are/were trying to say has anything to do with me being a therapist per say, could just be a feature of two people passing notes about really complex ideas on the internet and I agree with you, I think we are both in this exchange fully in good faith. Everything from your OP(and this one) seemed sincere and I hope my response felt that way too.
Hearing this idea of ‘gentle defensive individualism’, I also wanna put out there again- maybe not the right fit. It sounds like you’re experiencing some alienation in the session, which is at the very least something to identify and explore between yall and potentially a less lib (individualist) clinician could be more effective…maybe? I do hear you saying you feel like they’re often trying to put things in a box- which is annoying to me as a clinician- Thats what we do for insurance companies: pretend to reduce a full, dynamic, complex human being into a dozen sheets of paper to get a stamp. Best practice we ought be doing for a cl is ‘tailor made’ tx tho.(edit: so if you aren’t feeling that, something may be off)
and 100, no such thing as un-biased, not how humans work and implicit bias regarding everything is totally baked in, best we do is name it, get good at recognizing it (retroactively, then next) in the moment, and then attempt to make intentional decisions around it. I am curious about what tactics you see as being liberally biased? I also hear something like the ideas your being presented with don’t acknowledge that things are fucked up, or that we live in a racist, sexist, classist, capitalist world(I’ll add on here something like “rooted in time”-like I would be awful at therapy for someone who was alive 150yrs ago cause our biases and context are so radically diverged- even if we were mostly using a technique, like EMDR or CBT or something)- which also annoys me! Because obviously we do and just like implicit bias, name it; recognize it; make intentional decisions around it- attempting to ignore it is literally the worst outcome decision.
Again, I’m circling back to, it might be the match that isn’t quiet right, I have a lot of commie LAC/LPC/LMSW, etc homies who normatively name some of the above things, as is appropriate. I know this is going on and on and I hope you know I’m not trying to defend any of your helpful well meaning or otherwise therapists- I will say, in my personal experience therapists that are POC; LGBTQ+; trans affirming; not native to USA(im in the usa) are more likely to have competency in addressing the impacts that normative society has on folks. sorry for writing such a big response- also feel free to DM, happy to continue the convo in whatever space works, if you’d like.