Many in America tend to think of certain institutions as inherently biased, such as the “liberal media” and “woke universities.” It’s never been a secret that those working more laborious professions trend rightward, whereas the arts and social sciences trend leftward. Many might suspect that healthcare providers, like anyone in the country, lean more towards one side of the political spectrum than the other. Sure.
But seldom do people tend to think of medical professionals as politically biased, even in spite of the past few years of Covid overreach. The average patient would likely not conclude that a professional’s practice would be colored by their political bias when providing care to said client. However, political bias among psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, and social workers may be coming to a boiling point, with the general public unaware there was ever a conflict brewing in the first place.
A little exchange between a liberal and conservative therapist on Facebook….
The liberal therapist needs to “hold space” for her clients today in the wake of Trump’s victory. The conservative therapist quotes Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/aDudskhAzy— Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, LCSW (@truththerapist) November 6, 2024
One doesn’t have to look far on social media to find humorous instances of mental health professionals taking light-hearted jabs at one another over the election results of 2024. See the tweet above. However, things are not so facetious behind the scenes. While there are many public groups online for mental health professionals to support one another, there is a trend now for those in private groups to discuss serious violations of public trust and retaliation over politics.
Sources have indicated to me that across social media, supposedly impartial mental health professionals are going beyond voicing personal disappointment with the 2024 election results and the victory of President Donald J. Trump. Therapists are, in fact conspiring, to break their oaths and violate ethical standards in order to harm Trump-supporting clients and even clients who did not vote. Mental health professionals are holding their clients personally responsible for President Trump’s reelection.
Whistleblowers are exposing what is seemingly a group effort by licensed therapists to deny care to patients for their political views or even lack of political involvement. For instance, leftist therapists in one group, Therapists In Private Practice, openly encourage canceling appointments with clients last second if they didn’t support Vice President Kamala Harris for President against Donald Trump.
And the sheer diversity, in terms of reach across the country, is troubling. Thousands of mental health professionals, from every state, take part in these private groups.
“Get rid of them. Kick them out and refer them.” – McCall Evans, Drama Therapist at Mindful Way Therapy. Washington.
“Cancel them. Literally.” – Jennifer Kokes, Psychotherapist at Summer Counseling. Minnesota.
“If I cannot, I would have to refer them out. I think there are some populations we are not able to work with and that’s OK.” – Kaaren Tollaksen Anderson, Psychotherapist & Counselor at Kaaren Anderson LPC. Wisconsin.
“I don’t think that will happen from my clients. But if it goes: I’ll have to stop immediately and refer out. Because I’ll become dysregulated and won’t be able to ignore it. And yes, referring them to mental health center and psych today is acceptable.” – Carolyn Ann, CEO and Psychologist at Hope Springs Behavioral Health. Pennsylvania.
“I only have one client I know that will be celebrating and I don’t see them for a week, thank goodness.” – Amber Gambel, Clinical Social Worker at Emily Maddox Therapy & Associates. California.
“Yeah, I don’t have the patience to hold space for folks who have feelings with their inaction. They need to sit with this feeling. This is the decision they made! Deciding not to vote is a choice. Decisions and elections all have consequences. We can not lesson the blow of consequences.” – Keisha Bryan, Clinical Social Work & Therapist at Wake Renewal. North Carolina.
Health professionals openly insult their clients for voting for Trump or for not voting at all. The more extreme leftist professionals confess they’d have a psychological breakdown if a client came out as conservative. Providers conspiring to withhold treatment from clients who hadn’t voted but who were depressed by Trump’s victory as an extrajudicial punishment. These are licensed professionals who have been entrusted by the public, generally and legally, to care for all in an impartial fashion.
More concerning than the numbers of professionals in these groups espousing discriminatory views, or advocating violation of their clients’ rights, is the blatant endorsement of this by the group’s hierarchy. Top contributors to TIPP openly mock professionals disturbed by hostility towards clients over politics, especially providers who are white women. Marriage & Family Therapist Thomas Charles Keenan-Hunt, of Thomas Keenan-Hunt Psychotherapy, mocked white women opposed to client discrimination as suffering from “Y.A.W.W.N.S.” or “Yet Another White Woman Needlessly Speaking”.
Ironically, it would appear that radical intersectional ideology dominates the power structure of these groups. In fact, a head moderator seems to have joined in the suppression of conservative and moderate voices. Nam Rindani, Marriage & Family Therapist at Ebonaire Virtual Counseling Services, reenforced the group bias, citing herself as a “WOC” or woman of color in her lecture of white providers.
I spoke with providers about the development of this issue and its seriousness:
TIM: Alright, let’s- if you don’t mind, let’s take it from the top. So Donald Trump gets elected and then how does this group react?
PROVIDER: So this group is a group of therapists throughout the whole country. And they started posting messages about how are they going to cope with seeing their clients the next morning that are conservative and voted for Trump. And a couple therapists posted this on the page. It’s a group private page. And other therapists are jumping on saying that they are going to cancel their sessions. They’re going to drop any conservative clients that are celebrating the presidency. They’re going to cancel the appointments like last minute instead of just having a safe space, hearing the clients out, being neutral, which is what we’re supposed to be.
TIM: Right. Okay.
PROVIDER: It feels like there’s a growing issue within the therapy community related to political bias, particularly following the election of Donald Trump. Many therapists discriminate against clients who are Trump supporters or who remained apolitical and chose not to vote.
TIM: Apolitical even. As in a client says “I don’t care about the election and I don’t care about voting” or-
PROVIDER: Or- or someone didn’t vote but then Trump’s election, for whatever reason, has caused them serious mental distress. F*** them, basically, is the mindset. Them not voting for Kamala means it’s their fault Trump won and if they want to kill themselves that’s on them. Consequences.
TIM: Consequences?
PROVIDER: Elections have consequences. They don’t care. And I- look, our entire profession involves listening to a lot of people recovering from bad decisions. I’m not saying voting one way or the other is a bad- you know what I’m saying. Abandoning a client to despair, even if you did think that their one vote mattered, is horribly unprofessional.
TIM: I mean… Can someone’s political views affect whether they receive treatment? I’m using “can” I suppose as an ‘ought’ versus an ‘is’ question.
PROVIDER: Absolutely not. It’s completely unethical.
TIM: Right, well, on the topic of ethics. When reviewing messages and comments on these private Facebook groups, therapists have been found to use derogatory terms for their politically conservative and moderate or apolitical clients…
PROVIDER: They are labeling them as “maggots”, “racists” and “homophobes”. They gas eachother up and promote severing access for clients, pushing off appointments, and justifying referrals to other providers because they’d have mental breakdowns if they provided care to anyone who didn’t vote for the Vice President. You absolutely cannot do that. This behavior contradicts the ethical standards expected in therapy. We’re professionals and are to maintain neutrality and foster a safe space for all clients, regardless of personal beliefs or political affiliations.
TIM: Ok, maybe I’m off the mark for even asking this, maybe it’s a salient observation, you tell me. Should a mental health provider reevaluate their career choice if their prospective clients’ voting patterns… well, cause the provider to have a mental breakdown? I mean if the job is to listen to and understand the client, how can so many of these people be so mentally unhealthy themselves? And I- look I understand everyone has trauma but-
PROVIDER: Well there’s a process for this kind of thing. There are rules. If a client is a rapist, and we do get that, and the provider is a survivor of sexual assault and doesn’t have the constitution to get through that kind of session, right, you need to go through the proper channels to- you can’t just turn away a client and or refer them out because you don’t like them. There are rules. Counselors and social workers both have-
TIM: Like the Hippocratic Oath, but for-
PROVIDER: Yes. Everyone expects doctors to follow the Hippocratic Oath, but most people probably don’t realize that those of us in the mental health field, social workers and counselors, have ethical codes to follow. You cannot let your personal bias override your obligation to help. You’re literally there to provide a safe space- I know that term is joked about a lot, but that’s your job. Our ethics codes literally demand you avoid harm, don’t impose your own values, and don’t discriminate against clients! It’s in our codes!
TIM: So when some therapists attempted to voice concerns about this breach of ethics, they faced backlash, with some even being ostracized. These therapists encourage others to reject conservative clients and anyone who might differ from their political standpoint, effectively censoring their therapy community. You mentioned avoiding harm. This vindictiveness, especially if clients rely on therapy for serious issues like depression or suicidal thoughts, could get people killed. And yet, opposition to this is the minority view in the group you’re a part of. It’s that toxic.
PROVIDER: Yes. At best most are scared to speak up out of fear of retaliation, but it doesn’t feel like they’re scared. It feels like they’re all for it. The issue has escalated past ethical concerns being overlooked, and therapists are cancelling sessions based on political differences. This is contrary to the ethical commitment therapists make when obtaining their licenses, which includes serving clients without bias based on race, gender, financial status, or political views. It’s discriminatory.
Recent developments suggest this problem is more widespread than one would think. Providers think there’s been a shift in the mental health field’s dynamics, roughly within the last ten years. “If you asked me before the election if there was widespread corruption within our profession I would have said no with certainty. Now I’m questioning everything.”
When I asked providers if the field was just attracting students who were already hyperpartisan, or whether these sentiments are being indoctrinated into the new blood of mental health practitioners, I got some pauses followed by “Both.” There’s a fear now that hyperpartisan values during mental health training could be influencing an entire generation of toxic mental health providers.
It appears that there might be deeper structural issues within the education and supervision of upcoming therapists, potentially contributing to this growing bias. Licensed therapists are expected to demonstrate strength of character and professionalism, ensuring they don’t allow personal beliefs to interfere with client care. Despite these ethical expectations, the reality within the field seems to be shifting, with personal political sentiments overshadowing client interactions – whether the clients know it or not!
The discrimination doesn’t end with quiet discrimination against clients. Therapists and counselors are devouring eachother and targeting the practices of dissenters. Conservative, centrist, even principled liberal providers are targeted in groups for expulsion. Conservative, moderate and even liberal providers within TIPP willing to provide care to rejected clients were asked to provide their information to be referred to. Those willing to take on the rejected clients were then banned from the group.
“It was entrapment, you could say”, according to one provider. “Even liberal providers who think this is getting out of hand are being targeted. So you not only want to reject these clients, you also want to shut out those of us willing to have them?” Some believe their licenses will be targeted for trying to uphold an impartial environment for clients. In light of these incidents, there are ongoing discussions and actions to report these ethical breaches, but even these efforts are met with opposition. Groups advocating for neutrality face uphill battles. Leftist professionals are infiltrating the more moderate groups to undermine their efforts.
“This situation underscores the necessity for therapists, and the institutions that certify and regulate them, to reassert professional standards and ensure that personal bias doesn’t impact mental health services provided to the public. Despite anyone’s beliefs, mental health professionals constantly provide care to clients of all backgrounds and political persuasions. A mental health provider allowing their personal political bias to override their ethical obligations is a serious threat to the public. I never thought Trump Derangement Syndrome would be weaponized against counseling patients. But here we are.”
Here we are, indeed, but for how long?
