Hello and welcome to my new Substack. If you are just finding me, I’d like to share my “Rip Van Therapist” story.
I’m a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). I’ve been in the field since 1997 and licensed in California since 2005. I’ve worked in a variety of settings including schools, community-based organizations, residential programs, hospitals and foster care with both adults and youth. My focus has been primarily with teens and families. I was a clinical supervisor for 10 years overseeing up-and-coming therapists and helping them work towards their licensure.
My story is unique because I developed a sudden and painful condition called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome that rendered me bed-ridden from 2016-2021. Nerve and muscle pain made it difficult to do daily activities. At the time I believed I would be incapacitated my whole life. I was isolated from others and disconnected from world and cultural events. I wasn’t able to work for most of that time. Even going out to dinner was a painful struggle. I worked briefly in 2018 as a supervisor only to soon drop out again because the pain was too much. These were the years when America got more divided, but I wasn’t paying attention because I was spending most days managing severe pain, fighting doctors who didn’t believe me, and struggling to get through the moment. However, thanks to two complicated surgeries and physical therapy, (I got a rib removed!) I was able to do more social activities and return to work part-time in 2021.
My new role was only as a per-diem shift worker in a group therapy program. I was very overqualified, but ecstatic to be back at work and with colleagues again after all those years of isolation. However, by fall of 2021, I was required to get the COVID vaccine despite the fact that I had acquired natural immunity and the data from Israel proved natural immunity was robust. With my natural immunity and my health issues, namely chronic nerve pain and migraines, I made a personal medical decision to decline the COVID vaccine. I was not able to acquire a medical exemption due to the fact that California‘s government threatened doctors that wrote medical exemptions. Unaware of this stronghold, I had already told HR that I would file a medical exemption, so I had no option but to leave my new position.
However, for the approximately six months I was working, I was shocked at the changes I observed since I had been on hiatus. Due to my disability, I had essentially been asleep, like Rip Van Wrinkle for four years. When I returned, In the teen unit, 3/10 kids identified as non-binary and they were all girls. The more shocking part was not that the kids were following this trend, but how the adults behaved. They were scared and tip-toed around the pronouns, even when the patients weren’t present. They were so concerned about being politically correct, they stopped doing the most basic task they were supposed to: provide therapy, insight, and address obvious underlying issues. The kids discovered they could use their new pronoun status as a way to control adults and control their world, a world they felt very powerless in. Many of the girls had a trauma past or struggled socially. In the beginning of every therapy group, the kids insisted on leading with pronouns and the program reinforced this ritual. (I was the only therapist that did not prompt pronouns) Even those patients who did not use a unique pronoun felt a sense of purpose by praising their gender non-conforming peers. It was a way to superficially fit in, but in the end, this practice left them less genuinely connected. Note-pronouns were not used on the adult unit and when I asked the therapists why, I got no answers, just “I hadn’t thought about it.”
In the teen unit, I also saw a big trend in victim mentality and using victim status to evade responsibility. The kids were advising each other on how to use their minority or mental health status to get out of doing work or getting better grades. They were even frank about lying about these topics for gain when I asked them direct questions about it. They boldly told me, yes, they are purposefully lying and playing up their victim status. Of course they would, they are kids, they are human! But I wondered why the adults weren’t guiding these empty and depressed teens to work towards fulfillment and genuine connection.
The other major concern I had was the mask mandate for severely mentally ill patients in group therapy. Imagine doing therapy with a mask on and your anxious, paranoid, depressed patients can’t even see your face. They can’t see you smile and they can not hear you. It was awful. Imagine being a trauma patient who uses deep breathing as a coping skill and you are forced to wear an oxygen-depriving mask. That June, Gavin Newsom had lifted the statewide mask mandate, but it didn’t end in health care facilities. In fact, in this facility and all health care settings, patients are STILL required to wear masks today as I type this on 10/19/22. What shocked me was how complacent my colleagues were. Anyone with common sense knows how damaging masks are, especially for those with mental health issues. And you would think mental health professionals would be passionate about advocating for optional masking. But there were crickets. Nothing. Not even an inkling of rebellion. I was the only one speaking up. But I was only part-time, relatively new and never got a chance to establish myself there. (I did get a very positive review the week I was fired.)
All of these observations were very shocking to me. None of this was normal before, regardless of political affiliation. I was metaphorically “under a rock” due to my disability and couldn’t believe how much had changed in those four years. I had been working with kids for so many years, and none of this was happening before. In fact, in 2015, I was the site director of the counseling program at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California. For context, there was only one transgender student. They gave her her own changing area because the administrators recognized the dilemma. No once was forced to share safe spaces. My counseling team never kept important secrets from parents and we did everything in our power to involve families. That was the standard of practice.
So here I am left with the culture shock of a few years in time and fired from my job for a vaccine that has been proven to be ineffective. I was one of those health care workers who lost their job. But what did that do? It put me in a position to speak the truth. This Rip Van Therapist is fully awake and not afraid to speak the truth. My website is www.thetruthfultherapist.org. My IG is @the.truthfultherapist, my twitter is @redpilledlcsw.
As one working toward a degree in counseling for licensure, I've noticed how my coursework has "evolved" to accommodate the "pronouns" and all facets of such thinking. For some reason, it seems this profession is moving to "affirm" everything rather than to come along side and truly help clients. If a therapist has any reservation at all, it's as if the therapists themselves are the issue. How strange.
That said, just know that your voice in this space is greatly appreciated!
I can so relate. I was "asleep" too for four years. Came back. Decided on career shift to social work. Came to the classes and discovered pronouns.