Blog #113; Part 4; Nationwide Mental Health Initiative

 Conclusion: A Better Way

People in Utah and all over this country must address this very urgent need for an emphasis on mental health in this country.  Not the pseudoscience of Truth and Distortion but logical, and results-based therapeutic treatments like Rational Emotive Therapy.  The results of the de-emphasis on mental and spiritual healing in this country are beyond alarming.  The amount of public mass killings has sky -rocketed, and the social disintegration of cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York is shocking and explains much.   By any measure, much of this country would be considered disintegrating into anarchy.  We have an ineffectual leadership on the federal level at best, and a social structure that is fast imploding.

 

But there is a solution.  Federal, state and local laws promoting sound mental health policies, more funding into treatment and research of mental health issues, particularly the causes and solutions of mental illness that ends in extreme violence, and assurances that while balancing our freedoms, we ensure safety for all in this country.

Blog #112; Part 3; Nationwide Mental Health Initiative

 What Is Rational Emotive Therapy?  (RET)

 When depression or anxiety hit, most of the time it is rooted in thoughts that are irrational or illogical.  RET is a proven way to argue against these deceptive and shaming beliefs and replace them with more accurate, more logical beliefs that more clearly mirror reality to us.  I will start this explanation with a thought experiment inspired by the Utah case that would point the way to a more healing approach to mental and emotional problems.

My example is the parent who is faced with a teenager who has been breaking boundaries regarding behavior, say with internet phone use with their peers.  Parents have a wide range of “punishments” or “consequences” for such things.  But to force the child to sleep on his or her floor for seven consecutive months without a bed, and later send the child to a “wilderness camp” that nearly kills him or her?  I mean, a good and well-qualified therapist would be much more reasonable in suggesting consequences that fit the offense, and in such a way that the child in question can honestly agree that the punishment fits the “crime”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truth and Distortion

Now let us examine some of the assumptions of the “Moms of Truth” that led to the shocking child abuse situation found lately in the news coming out of Utah.  First, there is nothing wrong with analyzing and examining one’s thoughts and beliefs in order to come to more logical conclusions.  My example above illustrates that.  But one must be sure that such broad, loaded terms like “Truth” and “Distortion” are not used, at least not lightly.  The definition of Truth, with a capital T, is an insoluble question that poets and philosophers have struggled to find words for since ancient times.  As far as I am aware, no thinker has come up with a definitive way of ascertaining what makes something “true” in the philosophical sense.

 

As we now know, the two minor children in question were being tortured and taught that they were inherently evil.  This very belief, much less to pass it on to the most vulnerable of our society, goes against nearly all mainstream and many off-shoot religions and standards of ethics.  The philosopher Joseph Campbell once said about religion. “A religion or belief system is most accurate to the degree which it is life-affirming.”  Is teaching people that they are born evil healing spiritually?  Is it life-affirming?  The people in question were Mormon, and I know for a fact that the Latter Day Saint faith is very life-affirming.

 

The other concept that these Moms of Truth are so fond of is Distortion, where the “life coaches” encourage their clients to invert what it means to clearly communicate and what it means to deceive.   Time and again, the lesson was to bring shame on the clients, so much so that many of the families were told they must live in separate housing, and open communication was discouraged.  Living in distortion, just like living in truth, is not defined by one all-powerful person, or small group of people.  That is known as a dictatorship.  Or at least a cult.

 

What we saw in southern Utah was the tip of the iceberg of a cult-like movement, hiding under the mask of mental health therapy.  I encourage the proper law enforcement to look into this deep network of bad faith actors working underneath the mental health industry, particularly in Utah.

Blog #111; Part 2, Nationwide Mental Health Initiative

 Defining the Crisis

This one instance is just a recent example of the dangers inherent in allowing those without training or license to practice as mental health professionals, so the first step would be to gather the experts in mental health and spiritual fields to train and speak to professionals regarding what constitutes sound mental health, and establish, based on the Utah state model, a licensing procedure for “life coaches”.  I have known many with less knowledge and experience in the mental health field than I have that have hung out their shingles as “life coaches”.  I personally am not writing this essay as a qualified mental health professional.  Think of this document as a letter to the editor from a concerned constituent of Utah and the US.  It is intended as an opinion piece.  Like I mentioned, I am no journalist, nor do I want to write about this particular case as “hard news”.  What I am interested in is how people can easily get off track when the “life coach” role as a professional does not rely on sound reasoning and hard psychological science to support the approaches taken and the tools implemented to solve the struggling people’s issues.

 

Most Effective Way to Attack Illogical Thinking: The Albert Ellis Method

Around 100 years ago or so, a New York City psychologist named Albert Ellis founded an organization that promoted using logical thinking as an answer to the dilemma of ill mental health.  Ellis had a great deal of success with this approach, mainly because using rational thought to undercut unhealthy beliefs usually wins out over damaging emotion-driven, or shame-based self-talk that lurks behind the disruptions in self-perception, and our perception of others.  This proven track record of success is something that is verifiable and found easily in any simple internet search or library visit.  Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Therapy can be understood and applied fairly easily to thought issues and problems.  This is time-tested and not confusing.  It does not rely on a overbearing therapist assigning value judgements to the client that would force the struggling person into unhelpful labels like “living in truth” and “living in deception”.  These terms are misleading at best, and destructive and powerfully shaming at worst.

Blog #110; Intro to the Nationwide Mental Health Initiative

 In the next few blogs, I will be outlining and filling in some ideas I have regarding the mental health crisis we face in this country.  I do this as a concerned, active, thinking citizen, and as someone who has endured abuses while seeking help for mental/emotional issues.

In this first blog, I will share the introduction to the essay.

Peace,

Chris

Introduction

There is a fact-based case playing out right now in the Utah legal system regarding the role of untrained and poorly trained therapists and their abusive impact on the vulnerable.  But I am leaving reportage of the particulars of the news stories to the writers who craft it best: the news journalists.  My aim in this short essay is to draw from my own experience with the therapy communities in the West, particularly Utah, and from that experience define and comment on for the reader the “truth” and “distortion” that certain life coaches and therapists use to treat their patients’ emotional and mental trauma.  The philosophy of distortion enacted particularly on these vulnerable children in question is what led to the abuses that broke the headlines in 2023.  As time goes on, no doubt more abuse, and of more and more people, will be unearthed by the reporters on the case.  Meanwhile, I believe I am in a unique position to shed some light on how this crisis in the mental health industry in Utah blew up to such grave proportions.

 

In this essay, I will map out what a healthy, balanced Rational Emotive approach to illogical personal beliefs looks like, and how one can dismantle erroneous beliefs about oneself and others in such a way that one can clear the mental and emotional debris of false beliefs and start embracing a more positive and logic-based view of yourself, and others.

 

Next, I will outline the severe harm that certain “life coaches” cause when they attempt to practice therapeutic medicine without the proper licensing and testing.  Let me be clear: I am not a life coach.  I have personally benefited from many counselors over the years but I am hardly an expert in anything other than learning from my and others’ mistakes.  I have an advanced liberal arts degree from a major university in the South, and worked many years as both a professional writer and a college writing and literature instructor.  I consider myself a self-educated student of life.

 

At the end of the essay, I will describe the psychological harm outlined earlier and give tools that you can use to combat destructive beliefs about yourself and others.   It will end with a call to action where legislation on the federal level could be introduced in a comprehensive way to help those in this country struggling with mental issues find a more rational, peaceful way to co-exist with others.  I suggest nothing less than sparking an animated discussion including religious, psychiatric, and social leaders that together could fashion a very workable solution to this particularly troublesome aspect of modern society in our country.   In 2024, especially in America, it is more important than ever before that citizens learn to peacefully co-exist.  Our very survival as a society, and as individuals, hangs in the balance, as well as our way of life that so many have fought and died for over the decades and centuries.

Blog #109; James R.: An Irish American Family Saga by Chris McClelland (Author) new episodes on Kindle Vella

I have new episodes on Kindle Vella of James R.: An Irish American Family Saga by Chris McClelland (Author). Please click below to read:

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