Agree 100% with @
Abra.
When Ali was announced on Launch day, I was lowkey excited about her background, because I really did want to see how that dynamic could play out. That would've gone well if she kept a boundary between her profession and how she chooses to treat others in the house. Sadly, she's kind of been enabling some perceptions I already had of therapy folk who use their credentials as a personal sledgehammer to pound on about their pet peeves and social issues. I don't find those people to be credible and so she's already disqualified herself for me. It would be entirely different if she held such strong views but managed to professionally distance that from the way she practices in the field.
Juicy Story Time regarding psych care in the US (for entertainment purposes only and generally off-topic from here...)... @
Crimson Dynamo would be triggered... :
In the US, there must be a very relaxed standard when it comes to medical/psych, because social workers/counselor roles can be abused under the guise of "spiritual" or "religious" acceptance. We had a very close friend who was told by his "therapist" post-divorce that his ex-wife was an actual soul mate, that they were connected energetically and thus having issues severing or something. "In addition to therapy" he was informed on what crystals would help and received psychic assistance. All the therapy he received related back to "energy work" somehow. I'm very open-minded, but when it comes to dealing with the mind, I don't believe we should be playing games like that. He never straightened himself out emotionally, partially because he was enabled by such therapy, which is readily accessible under insurance, since it's very easy to find a person who tells that person what they
already feel and validates it...
He ended up in the hospital years later, after ignoring all
practical advice given to him, even by professionals, because he'd been led down so many rabbit holes and told essentially he was too frail to work it out because {insert therapy logic}, which just made him even more prone to therapy shop. He didn't know what was up and down. This used to be someone who worked very hard his whole life, who could be called up anytime you needed help and had lost hundreds of lbs of weight on his own(!). He was quite informed on health matters. I think that's where he ended up getting in trouble because his ex-wife, also a crystal enthusiast (she's also a licensed Acupuncturist), had fed him a load of nonsense and he made some personal decisions that are lifelong/irreversible based on her terms she had set during that marriage. She legitimately had left him in a seriously bad way emotionally between the manipulation and the "psychic connection" she kept referring back to when things got difficult in their marriage. That connection of course, ended up leading back to an ex. He liked that he found another fixer in her and well, she fixed him up alright.
So I share this just say a
whole lot of woo has invaded our medical fields in the US. People here are also fixated on celebrities and because much of them are addicted to woo (It's not certain
Oprah—
Prince Harry's friend…— practices with the Orishas or not, but she's certainly close to that community of practitioners... if you know Santeria, it's under the same pantheon). A lot of modern Feminism gets mixed in with this stuff. Celebrity here still holds enough sway that it leads people to try a lot of alternative things that don't necessarily have any real science to them. So unfortunately we have to take everything we hear with a grain of salt now, even what simple physicians can say as to our care, because their "expertise" can come from odd places. I can't compare that to the UK, as I live in the US obviously, but it's a problem here depending on where you choose to seek your care. And obviously it has implications as well with the criminal justice field and how even lawyers can be chosen.
For myself, I had a PCP (Gen Prac I think in the UK?) that was available through my insurance which was not great insurance. He'd been treating me for a while, but then one day informs me that my pain that I'd had been experiencing at the time was tied to issues I held in my childhood. What did he suggest? He pulled out some book and said read these lines (basically affirmations) and had me wave a metal object back and forth in my hand while reading it out loud to myself for several minutes. It became obvious he wasn't interested in helping me find the cause, but I did eventually find help. That doctor lost his practice where he tried to push these services and he moved to a poverty-stricken areas where they take Medicaid (govt welfare). Thankfully I have much better health coverage now.
On the other hand, my physical therapists post-pregnancy, some who are into the woo but in a much more practical manner, have been amazing regarding connecting spiritual/emotional states with my overall health and recovery (not related to the above concern). So mindfulness indeed has a place and can be life-altering/personally affirming, but it's critical that it's a time and place thing... something a seasoned professional would be able to more easily recognize.
