All About the Abusive
Manipulation of Clients.
ALL ABOUT MANIPULATION OF CLIENTS
I recently posted the following article to my website, avoiceformen.com. I also sent an email to all the mental health professionals from the state of California that are listed on that site informing them of ethical breeches and advising them that it was my intent to expose those breeches to the public at large with every measure at my disposal.
Subsequently I have received several emails from those listed advising me that they were terminating their affiliation with the site. It is time, especially after conferring with Publisher Mike LaSalle, to provide even more incentive.
Here is the article I referenced, followed by the email I sent them. After the 30 days have elapsed, I will write an update to this story and will include the name and contact information for all mental health professionals from California still affiliated with ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM
I urge all MRA’s to post this article to their blogs and websites, and to use the keywords “counseling” “client abuse” and other similar phrases for the benefit of search engine results that will tie the disinformation on the site and its unethical practices directly to it’s subscribers.
Here is the original article:
ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM IS ALL ABOUT ABUSE
Most of the mental health related “helping professions” e.g., psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists and counselors, have a code of ethics that guides their professional conduct. They are sworn, supposedly at the risk of their professional licenses, to follow the ethical mandates of that code in how they conduct their practices and in their relationships with clients.
The rules require them to maintain objectivity, to offer accurate information to the best of their ability and to act in the clients best interests at all times.
Failing to do that is considered professional abuse and is subject to sanctions. In most places, professionals are admonished to take all this into account regarding their professional affiliations as well.
In other words, aligning themselves with other professionals or organizations that act to the detriment of those ethical standards is strictly forbidden.
Why then, one must wonder, are there so many therapists that get client referrals though the website that operates under the name ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM?
ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM is on the surface a simple referral resource for helping people find mental health services, and for connecting mental health professionals to possible clients.
What is disturbing is that the site doubles as a tool for the political indoctrination of prospective clients. They weave information on mental health services with a pro-feminist and overtly anti-male agenda, and target that message at people who are logically presumed to be at highly vulnerable points in their lives.
ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM quotes statistics on issues like rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence and even alleged wage gap information. Almost all of it is wildly inaccurate and misleading, much of it without the benefit of research sources. Most of this “information” has been thoroughly debunked by sound and unbiased research so its presence on the site can only be interpreted as calculated to deceive.
For example, they state that half of all marriages experience domestic violence, a complete falsehood. The Centers for Disease Control put the percentage at less than one quarter, and many other valid studies point to even less frequency.
The site erroneously claims throughout in the information pages that it is almost exclusively women that are the victims of that violence and that the small fraction of women who are violent only commit that violence in self defense.
Women who are victims of violence are a serious problem, but they won’t be helped with deceptive propaganda that is designed more to indoctrinate than it is to help. And this is where ethical violations are quite clear.
ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM proffers a redundant message that demonizes men, and paints women as victims in every way imaginable. And intertwined with their entire body of false statistics and misleading statements are pitches for feminism, dangling the philosophy like a carrot before clients with the unmistakable implication that it is an integral part of the overall mental health picture for women.
Think about what that means. People come to the website, usually in enough emotional pain to make them vulnerable and impressionable, and rather than offering an objective, truthful and beneficial doorway into improved living, the authors of the site exploit that pain and vulnerability in order to further their own political agenda.
What would you think of a psychotherapist that implies to their clients that some of the solutions to their emotional difficulties are to be found in the Republican Party? How about a solution that tells people that saving the environment will also save their marriage?
That is precisely the approach taken by ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM
Political organizations and philosophies are not considered a valid form of mental health treatment by caring, objective and competent professionals. In fact, the truly professional and skilled in the field would never associate themselves with such practices.
This insanity needs to end, and that starts with the professionals who list their services in the ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM directory.
Following is a list of said clinicians (original article only) from the state of California, with their names and contact information as listed in the directory.
I will start with them, sending and email and a link to this article and an explanation of why they should divest themselves from ALLABOUTCOUNSELING.COM
It is hard to know how many of them are aware of the breeches in ethics on the site, but they will after being contacted.
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I agree totally, messing with people's lives when they are in a fragile state is just poor practice. Thanks for having the courage to bring this issue forward!
ReplyDeleteCheers