Keep in mind this does piggyback on my post regarding not suggesting drugs or therapy. This is something that is very much overlooked when considering a psychological intervention for a person. I’ll jump right in. If you choose to go to a therapist and you are an atheist for exempt and you choose a Christian based therapist there will be problems. You have chosen someone who may use an effective therapy, yet you will find underlying or even a direct attitude towards Christianity. Technically upon intake they should cover your religious, spiritual or philosophical viewpoints. However, if they don’t you will find subtle nuanced religious leanings from them or vague insinuations or outright literal Bible quotes. This is a bad matchup. This applies to any type of religion but also your philosophical take on things.

As an example, I have a serious philosophy of science take on things, where I look at research and is it a scientific attitude towards therapy. Therefore, if I go to someone who is psychoanalytic (freudian). Well, in my case I’ll figure it out within minutes due to hearing key terms which reference a freudian approach. It will not work. Also, on a related example I lived in Nashville TN, and looked at teaching at Belmont University known as a very good school. However, when I looked at the course description for psychology it blatantly referenced maintaining a religious mindset teaching the students. This cannot be done when keeping a hardcore way of teaching psychology from a scientific perspective. I declined to apply.

Please note this is why treatment programs many times totally fail. For example, if you were court ordered to go to therapy not only the problem is your attitude towards treatment, but does your philosophical approach jive with it. Treatment programs like these usually treat people as you are part of the herd. They are NOT looking to give an individualized intervention for you. Instead they have a set way of treating each person the same. It’s also kind of like AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) you go through the same 12 steps as everyone else. NOT individualized. Also, the problem with the court ordered programs is the judge does not have any advanced training in these issues I speak of. Neil deGrasse Tyson even referenced things to this effect in an interview regarding judges. Judges go through no further education besides law school to become a judge they are elected/appointed. This means they don’t have to go through an undergrad in psychology, biology, physics, chemistry and so on. Again, the main point is these court ordered requirements/interventions may not at all align with your personal philosophy. Yet at the same time you MUST follow it otherwise you go to jail if you don’t follow the program the court ordered.

All of this means if you are suggesting to a friend for example “my therapist is really good” it simply means they are good for you. They may be 100% diametrically the opposite in philosophical approach to psychology as your friend. Therefore, it easily can be a total waste time to suggest them to your friend. I know you are trying your best but sometimes your best intentions can be completely counter-productive. This is how psychology works, people are unique idiosyncratic individuals. If it were that easy and straightforward we would all follow the rules of logic that apply to ALL situations. This is not how the human mind works.

To give a contrast which may help is to look at medicine. If I walk in being a white male age 44 from a predominantly white town in MN, with complaints of pain in my ear. The physician may find a fever, high blood pressure, look in my ear and see redness. Then they think ear infection. They will then give a standard medication. My philosophy towards the medication and its actual effects will have no impact on how biology works, if I take the medication correctly I will probably be healed. Now, if a 17-year-old black female black female from a predominantly black city in New York has the same complaints, the same medication will work for both of us. Now comparing to psychology now with me complaining of anxiety and the 17-year-old complains of anxiety. Will the therapist prescribe the identical treatments? The answer is most likely absolutely not. There will be differences upon a thorough intake and evaluation. These differences may be blatantly obvious and completely different treatments or nuanced variations. This will clearly be due to our backgrounds as well as philosophies towards treatments.

For those of you thinking of going to a therapist carefully read up on the person and their therapeutic orientation. If you are thinking of doing an “intervention” with a loved one the same thing applies. However, in this situation just like a friend giving a recommendation, you may not at all be in the position to do an intervention or give a recommendation. Just like court should not be giving a one size fits all treatment program. This being particularly true if you have not investigated the treatment program or therapist and know the friend or loved one exquisitely well on their unique perspectives philosophically. Again, keep in mind the courts do not do this. They simply apply the same treatment program to all. I know a person who is a judge, who has actually admitted this. That is simply they don’t know any better. It’s kind of like school. Unless yourself or child is selected to a gifted program, or special education we all went through the same coursework in elementary, junior high school, and high school. It was not individually tailored to every student or “learning style.” A one size fits all model does not work in the psychological realm and education does fall under the umbrella of psychology. In the end do yourself the favor and investigate your own philosophical positions on things, and then the therapy or psychological intervention style.