Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Listen as Antioch University whistleblower, coach, and founder of the Radical Center Leslie Elliott describes the disturbing series of events that unfolded over the past two years. We explore ethical dilemmas and differences of opinion in how people in our field are conceptualizing complex matters such as “social justice,” victimhood, “allyship,” gender, the role of the therapist, politics and activism, racism and “anti-racism,” cultural competence, stereotyping, neutrality, individuality, and responsibility.
Show Notes
When you entrust a therapist with your personal struggles, you expect her to see you as a unique individual, and greet you with non-judgmental curiosity. The last thing anyone wants in their counseling relationship is to be treated prejudicially, stereotyped on the basis of their immutable characteristics, or made to feel guilty for the color of their skin. And yet, to students like Leslie, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that that is exactly what is being taught in graduate programs.
Therapy is a place you hope to be able to work through shame; learn to see your foibles with compassion; and internalize your locus of control, while releasing any undue sense of responsibility for issues you may have been scapegoated for. It is also ideally a process that helps cultivate peace, understanding, and perspective when dealing with people you find challenging. And in therapy, we expect to learn to recognize and correct for distorted ways of thinking that amplify our stress. Unfortunately, according to Leslie and whistleblowers like her, many modern counseling programs do just the opposite.
Listen as Antioch University whistleblower, coach, and founder of the Radical Center Leslie Elliott describes the disturbing series of events that unfolded over the past two years. We explore ethical dilemmas and differences of opinion in how people in our field are conceptualizing complex matters such as “social justice,” victimhood, “allyship,” gender, the role of the therapist, politics and activism, racism and “anti-racism,” cultural competence, stereotyping, neutrality, individuality, and responsibility.
Leslie Elliott is a holistic wellness coach in Washington State who works with clients from a person-centered, existential perspective, taking into account the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. She earned a BA in Psychology in 2008 and went straight to law school in 2009. During her second year of law school, she decided a legal career was not for her and went back to the drawing board.
Leslie spent the next several years raising her 4 children and working part-time in the field of natural medicine before returning to higher education, enrolling in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s program at Antioch University in 2019. There she had the opportunity to learn and improve counseling skills and therapeutic approaches, but also encountered something deeply disturbing: the usurpation of traditional therapy values by Critical Social Justice ideology.
Near the end of her Master’s coursework, she took a leave of absence after her courses began requiring students to sign a Social Justice “civility pledge.” Frustrated in her attempts to communicate her concerns to the university, she decided to go public in October of 2022 and expose how ideology is corrupting the fields of mental health and higher education.
Undeterred from her work, Leslie began her coaching practice in late 2021, working in a non-clinical setting that allows her to use her counseling skills and her passion for natural health to support her clients. She works with individuals and families, and areas of interest include but are not limited to: life-span, aging, and fertility issues; parent coaching; spiritual growth and integration; technology and pornography addiction recovery; infidelity trauma and recovery; gender confusion and detransition; ADHD; institutional abuse & “DEI” discrimination; medical abuse trauma; and more.
In this episode, I mentioned Jonathan Haidt’s work; in particular, his book “The Righteous Mind.” You can find that in my bookshop, or purchase it directly from this Amazon Affiliate link.
To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!
Learn more about Do No Harm.
Learn more about Do No Harm.
Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.
Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.
Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.
Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.
Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.
Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.
Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.
Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.
Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.
Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD.
Creators and Guests
What is You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist?
A podcast at the intersection of psychology and culture that intimately explores the human experience and critiques the counseling profession. Your host, Stephanie Winn, distills wisdom gained from her practice as a family therapist and coach while pivoting towards questions of how to apply a practical understanding of psychology to the novel dilemmas of the 21st century, from political polarization to medical malpractice.
What does ethical mental health care look like in a normless age, as our moral compasses spin in search of true north? How can therapists treat patients under pressure to affirm everything from the notion of "gender identity" to assisted suicide?
Primarily a long-form interview podcast, Stephanie invites unorthodox, free-thinking guests from many walks of life, including counselors, social workers, medical professionals, writers, researchers, and people with unique lived experience, such as detransitioners.
Curious about many things, Stephanie’s interdisciplinary psychological lens investigates challenging social issues and inspires transformation in the self, relationships, and society. She is known for bringing calm warmth to painful subjects, and astute perceptiveness to ethically complex issues. Pick up a torch to illuminate the dark night and join us on this journey through the inner wilderness.
You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist ranks in the top 1% globally according to ListenNotes. New episodes are released every Monday. Three and a half years after the show's inception in May of 2022, Stephanie became a Christian, representing the crystallization of moral, spiritual, and existential views she had been openly grappling with along with her audience and guests. Newer episodes (#188 forward) may sometimes reflect a Christian understanding, interwoven with and applied to the same issues the podcast has always addressed. The podcast remains diverse and continues to feature guests from all viewpoints.