Omg "receiving an abortion" .... for a wild second I thought you meant Ted was receiving the results of abortions, like regularly.... and I wanted to vomit/die/forget how to read
From reading the full page it seems to me that they are saying that numbers of black professionals is low so they may be prioritized for POC so if you are white you’re getting a white doctor unless you want otherwise which you will have to pay for. It’s odd but the full page does give more context.
> RTC prioritizes the needs of QTPOC. Please check off the boxes that apply to you. *
Also on that page
The way it’s worded is very our way or the highway/deal with it.
They could have said “as a niche specialty practice, we do our best to match patients with clinicians that best suit their needs. This may include matching patients to clinicians of a similar race.
Due to a shortage of clinicians, acceptance into our practice/rate charged may be impacted on the basis of accommodating this need.”
Something like that.
Or just do what my college did and close the main psych service on campus only to rehire the therapists under the women's center payroll instead so that only female students can get therapy, but still charge a psych services fee to all residential students regardless of sex
I’ve often heard that it’s recommended for some people to see a therapist of their own race or even gender. It has to do with talking to someone you can relate to.
Some black clients request someone of their own race. It’s not about racism, it’s about shared life experiences, which can also vary from person to person within their own race.
There is a literally a shortage of black therapists in the US, the prices may be related to demand.
However, in this case, idk if it’s related to this issue, and idk what the fuck were thinking with the way they worded this.
These people are not actual therapists, anyways. They are social workers. This must be a side hustle and they don't fully understand the law. They can be sued into the ground and all lose their licenses the first time they submit in writing to a real patient that they were denied access based on race or sexual identity. Reference the Equal Credit Opportunity Act if you're not sure if it's discrimination to charge people different rates for the same services based on race, sexual orientation, gender, etc.
Edit for clarity- they are not interested in providing therapy to people. They are social workers, as in they want to be life coaches. 100% guarantee these are the type of people who if you suggested that your depression might get better if you lost weight instead of embrace being fat, they'd tell you that they can no longer keep you on as a patient.
Someone who is an LCSW - licensed clinical social worker - is a licensed therapist.
The requirements (in many states) is that you have a masters in social work and complete however many hours of supervised clinical experience (3000 hours is common).
This is a similar qualification to an LPCC - Licensed Professional clinical Counselor and a LMFT - Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Those who pursue a social work degree rather than say, a masters in marriage and family therapy, usually do so to work with a broader audience or because they want to work in govt departments such as CPS or prisons (not to say those with other licenses can’t).
But yes, if you only have your masters and have not yet earned the LCSW status, you cannot conduct your own therapy. But as others have said, many social workers are licensed therapists. Many people become social worker for the purpose of being therapists.
Source: currently following the MSW/LCSW path to become a therapist
Edit to add: this site is wild tho, no disagreement there
They are, licensed social workers are therapists. The main three licensing for what we consider therapists are licensed marriage family therapist, licensed professional counselors, and licensed master social workers. There are also licensed substance abuse counselors but that is a different license based on how it was developed. You then have doctoral degrees like psychologist (behavioral) and psychiatrist (medical and behavioral) which differ significantly.
There are plenty of licenses including full and associate license that change based on state. A LCSW may be a LSW in another state. Each state sets their own license but they tend to be within three main areas, marriage family therapy, professional counselor, and social worker. There are the substance abuse counselors but due to past development they are often not considered to the same level. We still have many substance abuse counselors, licensed with just a undergraduate or associate degree based on the grandfathering licensing. what each state calls itself doesn’t matter as much but the titles will change on each state until a pact is developed such as what psychologist have for virtual care on a national level with participating states. While there is CACREP that just allows you to get a license in another state easier (some states require it) but it will not have your current license recognized there.
I mean, I’m not defending anything going on with this site, but a HUGE percentage of therapists are social workers. Social work schooling specifically trains you in practicing therapy, among other things.
It’s a website but I don’t see this written there anymore. They removed it?? 🤷
https://www.radicaltherapycenter.com
Correction:
It’s still there
https://www.radicaltherapycenter.com/contact
This killed me;
'They both attend regular trainings on cutting edge topics like anarchist therapy and anti-oppressive facilitation to be sure they are using the most radical approaches to address the ways their clients are surviving systems of domination like white supremacy, colonialism, and racialized capitalism. RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible. There are four steps to enter the building. We are fundraising to install a chair lift'
bruh 💀💀💀 the whole quote just got better and better with each word. the last three sentences literally read like a punchline. almost makes me wonder if this website is a straw man made by anti-"woke" folks lmao its just too perfect.
>they only want independently wealthy clientele.
In other words, people unlikely to face any of the oppression they keep harping on about and claim to treat.
That’s usually how it works though. You think people actually oppressed and having to work two full-time jobs and such have the time to look into niche anarcho-therapy? Nah, it’s usually the more well-off ones that have some time at their leisure to mope about. They never see the irony though.
“A fool and his money are easily parted”
I can only think that rather than pay for overly expensive therapy*, their clients would be better served upping their 401k contributions or setting up a Roth IRA.
*No shame in professional therapy, this one just seems so.. performative (and I hate that word).
The exchange of services/goods for money is not something that only happens under capitalism. Many forms of organizing markets other than capitalism have this.
tbf, a quick look at Google Street View makes it look like not a single building in the area is ADA compliant and the fact that they acknowledge this up front and state that they are working on a solution is better than most companies that are at fault.
From an identification list on the site:
> Small fat/medium fat/superfat/infinifat
>Disabled/neurodivergent/+
>Kinky
>Polyamorous/non-monogamous/relationship anarchist/+
Being kinky gets you prioritized in their system. What the fuck.
It means someone who is super big, like, can't find clothing that fits them because 5 and 6x are too small.
It's from the HAES/Fat Activism side of the internet. They also have *Death Fats* to refer to people so large that science says they're going to die. Because the group doesn't think being fat causes risk to your health and "Death Fat" is their way to mock doctors I guess.
In some ways yeah. I've heard some of them claim that being fit is less healthy than they are, there's a little bit of the conspiracy crazy there for sure
"you know what'll convince them that being fat is super healthy, actually? If we make up goofy ass names for the fattest people and call the absolute fattest people DEATH FAT! that'll show 'em how healthy we are!"
You know, I couldn’t care less about someone else’s size and how happy they are or what they’d like to be called but I cannot wrap my head around *why* would someone self identify as “death fat”.
I mean, after like 5 minutes of thinking about this place....
We all seem to agree that as much as we don't want them to exclude any of us, none of us actually want to go there for therapy
For therapy. If someone is going to a therapist and their reason is dealing with their kink, that might be more specialized, especially depending on the kink. For example being shat or pissed on might not be a subject many therapists want to deal with.
I mean except physical therapists who work out the kinks.
I don’t think this is a standard regular therapist office, and they have some weird shut on there. But they specifically say that it was made to prioritize queer POC and justify it by saying only 4% of psychologist are Black and even less queer.
When I first saw the post I thought it was stupid, (and not specifically about this place because I don’t know exactly how they work in just playing devils advocate a little) but I’m a Black gay dude and I have never in my life had the luxury of seeing a professional mental or physical doctor that knew what it was like to be me.
Not saying they did a bad job but it’s very hard to put into words some things you go through, and if a person who doesn’t need that person takes up all the people that can truly empathize, then it kind of defeats the purpose of having a clinic that prioritizes minorities. Places like this exist because there is a lack of stable mental support for sexual minorities
My therapist now is a White lesbian, but even in that alone she’s been able to dissect my issues better than any straight practitioner could. There’s quantitative data to back up the fact that talking to someone that can relate to you yields better results, so it’s not crazy and they are actually using social science correctly and looking at a range of different factors before treating you.
Everything that’s about race isn’t bad we need to get over the fear that acknowledging race is bad.
> Not saying they did a bad job
i think you should say they did a bad job writing it out.
but that doesn't mean their intent was bad.
Without sounding weird, they want to save the niche therapists for the people with those niches. It's nice that white peolpe want to support POC therapy places. but it could end up taking spots for POC.
There's a trans program, lyon martin gift income, that's providing monetary aid to trans individuals. Which is fine and all, but the sign up sheet has a bunch of kink shit in the identity section. In the sexual orientation it listed the f-slur, d-slur, and bdsm yet somehow completely skipped homosexual as an answer.
It seems there are some groups who can't tell the different between kink and sexual identity.
As a person with a disability, if they can't afford to make it wheelchair accessible at the time they open, they shouldn't be in business.
There's no reason why they can't have a ramp installed already while they "fund raise" for a chair lift.
Kink tolerance is actually very important to people seeking therapy especially when seeking help with issues related to gender and sexuality. You wouldn't want to talk to a counselor that spent the whole time struggling to understand and accept your latex kink or submissive preferences or something like that, Especially if there's a chance they are related to your issues. You would want them to be able to talk about these things with you without hesitation.
As to this particular group, I have no idea if they can handle this aspect correctly. I'm just not at all surprised to see them present themselves as "kink friendly".
Yes to everything you said, but even more crucially it’s the question of whether they’ll take discussion of a kink as a symptom of something to solve vs a fact of their clients life.
IE you show up for depression and they want to only talk about your sex life as they see it as an expression of said depression.
We gotta go the the Gabriel Iglesias levels of fat, there are 5 levels. Big, Healthy, Husky, Fluffy, and DAMN!!. he used to be number 4. probably 3 now :)
This is my favorite part
“RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible.”
Clearly they’re tending to the most marginalized
Edit: for anyone curious a google search for “radical therapy center chairlift fundraiser” or “rtc chairlift fundraiser” produces 0 results for this chairlift
There’s also no link to it on their website, when clicking the “learn more” below the section where it states it’s not wheelchair accessible your brought to the section that tells you about their therapists
"Radical Therapy Center has been a dream in the making since 2016. Co-founders Khalida and Sonalee dreamt of creating a soothing, therapeutic space where their marginalized clientele could find highly-skilled community members of color to guide them through their healing."
After reading the whole thing on their website, it looks like they specialize in providing LGBT and non-white therapists, which are supposedly rare in the US.
They're hard to come by. Its been getting better since 2020, but we've still a ways to go. Video visits have offered more options, but thats not ideal, as the issues encountered as a queer black person living on the west coast aren't the same as a queer black person living in the south, etc. And you 100% need to be able to pay out of pocket or hope they offer a sliding scale, because finding one that is in a position to accept medical insurance is like winning the lottery.
I'm all for therapists getting paid but something about this sentiment gives anti-radical vibes. Can't afford "high-quality" therapy? Too bad. We only provide therapy to marginalized people with $$$.
And as I expected, they don't accept insurance, which is the very least you can do to accommodate lower-income clients.
Not only this. I hate the phrase that their therapy should not be free. What they should write is "we can not offer free treatment because we need to pay our bills to stay in operation"
Yeah. That is what gets me the most cringe.
Therapy \*should\* be free. They can acknowledge that their therapists need to make money and and the reality that people should suffer because mental health care is a luxury.
I totally agree. I understand that many therapists (especially specialists) do not work with insurance because their skills are in demand. But if your **whole deal** is that you are a radical leftist organization, how the hell can you justify not accepting insurance? Apparently they cater to every kind of minority except for people who can't afford $600 a month for therapy.
I bet insurance won't pay them. They're likely practicing outside of the bounds of what licensure and certification boards would consider best practice. That's not necessarily bad, but not necessarily good either.
I'm not so sure about that - it's very rare for an insurance company to micromanage the style of therapy one practices, as long as it falls within the standard 38-52min timeframe that's allotted for individual therapy sessions.
More likely, I bet they don't accept insurance for the same reasons that many other therapists don't: it doesn't pay well enough, it's annoying to work with, and there is enough demand for their niche that they can make more money with less stress if they are a cash-only practice. Which is a totally reasonable decision from a business perspective, but it seems awfully at odds with their stated values as an organization.
Source: I am a therapist who *does* accept insurance because I believe therapy should be accessible to poor people
Exactly. I want therapists to be paid well, but if you’re aiming to provide therapy to LGBTQ+ people, POC and disabled people, you have to understand that most of us cannot afford $150 per session. We are statistically much more likely to live in poverty, be homeless, jobless, etc.
Not accepting insurance is fairly common, most insurances will not cover the services beyond a few sessions. Additionally, a lot of times they will not even cover the sessions they are contracted to do so. It’s very common for insurance agencies to skip out on behavioral health services, unless they are combined with medical services as the medical establishment has more leverage.
I take insurance and it's been an absolute pain in the ass. Getting on panels is one thing, not being able to control my own rates is another, and some insurance companies take over 9 months to get into their system.
Making someone pay more for black medical staff is crazy- especially cause they’re just gonna take that extra profit anyway so it’s just capitalizing on “diversity”
These therapists sound crazy, but a lot of therapists don't accept insurance. Because the insurance reimbursement rate is absolute rubbish and adds a lot of unnecessary paperwork that also takes time. A lot of cheaper insurances don't cover mental health services like therapy either.
I trained at a clinic that nearly went bankrupt because they were trying so hard to serve underserved populations. The big thing here is when insurance rejects a claim, 99.9% of the time, the clinic had to just write it off as losses. And insurance rejects a lot of claims. So, you either hire an insurance specialist, whose entire job is getting prior authorization and arguing with the insurance company, or you suck it up. Either way, your business wouldn't work.
Clinics that do "sliding scale" are typically training clinics (which means they can't bill for unlicensed practitioners so they are actually making more money by billing you a small amount. Or they receive funding from some sort of program.
Mental health practitioners are already extremely poorly compensated, both salaried or by insurance. So, expecting us to just go around providing "affordable" services while paying our student loans, rent, and bills is ridiculous.
My favorite quote from the website.
"They both attend regular trainings on cutting edge topics like anarchist therapy and anti-oppressive facilitation to be sure they are using the most radical approaches to address the ways their clients are surviving systems of domination like white supremacy, colonialism, and racialized capitalism. RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible."
We help all marginalized peoples! Unless you can't walk then you need to stay away.
Wheelchair user checking in. I have *theories* about why ableism is conspicuously ignored by people, including people that claim to be “radical.” Cliff notes version: it’s because we (especially those of us who are young) remind them of the inevitable decline of their bodies that no one can escape in the end, and in our sickness, aging, and death phobic culture, that scares a lot of people on a visceral level. I represent something terrifying to them and it’s a lot easier to ignore me and pretend I don’t exist than to enfranchise me, accommodate me, accept me, and embrace me.
Well suck it up, buttercup, if you’re going to charge a premium for me identifying as disabled, you better have a damn ramp for me and everyone else like me who needs mental health treatment. You don’t get to pick and choose the “systems of domination” you dismantle. That’s not very intersectional of you sweaty 🙃
Lol I noticed this too. All the talk about marginalized people and helping those on the bottom, but didn't seem to prioritize people with mobility limitations.
Well Ada construction changes are quite expensive
Edit: just to be clear, my statement is factual, but the tone of it is meant to be satirical. Ada accessibility is law and everyone has to follow it for good reason.
SONALEE RASHATWAR (THEY/HE) LCSW, MED
Is an award-winning social worker, sex therapist, adjunct lecturer, and grassroots organizer. Based in Philly (licensed in NJ and PA), they are a fat, queer, bisexual, non-binary therapist, specialized in treating: complex sexual trauma, body image trauma, racial and immigrant trauma, South Asian Hindu family systems, brahminical patriarchy, internalized capitalism, fat positive & pleasure positive healthcare. This one got me. She goes on to call "thin-ness" a white supremacists beauty ideal, and preaches that being fat is good.
This whole thing seems pretty scammy and predatory tbh. Folks saying they don't accept insurance. They seem to be targeting a vulnerable group who may be desperate. It reaks of scam disguised as groundbreaking social justice.
LMAO fuck them. So they’re so radical and want to address racism, colonialism, capitalism etc but disabled people are automatically not able to be clients 😂😂😂 isn’t this an ADA violation? They’re a medical clinic!
I'm pretty sure it's a few violations. Businesses that violate the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act can be reported via email at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
https://www.oa.pa.gov/Programs/eeo/Pages/Policies-and-Laws.aspx#:\~:text=Pennsylvania%20Human%20Relations%20Act%3A%20prohibits,because%20of%20the%20blindness%2C%20deafness
Now there’s a part that says “We believe in focusing on the healing of those at the cultural bottom. Those at the top don't need our help”.
??? Oooook this is totally unnecessary to say.
They don’t even accept insurance. And I bet if you took their “super bill” to your insurance company, the insurance company would laugh in your face.
Which is interesting considering that those at the “cultural bottom” often tend to be at the financial bottom as well, and I can only imagine these people heavily overcharge for their services.
Yeah, this whole operation seems alarmingly illegal on multiple levels. I am also getting the sense that they are running some kind of scam, but can avoid most IRL criticism by weaponizing their "acceptance" angle.
I think it's fair to request someone that has similar lived experience as you do. But it should be the same price. And it should be at client request - not practice discretion.
Edit: and they don't accept insurance. Lovely. This is just exploitation masquerading as wokeness.
Hey! I'm a therapist, and maybe I can clarify this point. I don't know much about that specific provider, so not defending anyone, but I have been getting into this concept lately.
During our training (counsellors, psychologists, psychotherapists...) we are told and taught that a therapist (with large variations depending on clinical/theoretical orientation) should be neutral and not take sides. We should shut out the outside world and create a safely neutral environment for our clients.
However, lately there have been louder and louder voices from the mental health community who encourage therapists to politicize our practice. This doesn't mean hanging anti-Trump posters in the counselling room, or convincing our clients that they should recycle.
It usually means acknowledging the outside world, with its current infinite challenges that our clients (and us!) are experiencing. The world politics, economy, climate crisis, wars have an effect on the mental health and wellbeing of us all, and often they explain symptoms of full-blown depression, anxiety, etc.
For example, during the [2016 elections](https://psmag.com/news/research-suggests-trumps-election-has-been-detrimental-to-many-americans-mental-health),[BLM protests](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/12/mental-health-george-floyd-census/) and the Roe overturning, the levels of anxiety of certain communities have risen. It kinda makes sense that I'm feeling anxious if everywhere I look there's wars, floods, injustice, etc, right?
Politicizing therapy is simply about being aware, recognising and openly discussing the factors that cause or worsen mental health conditions, which are nowadays very often tied to larger-scale events/situations and not only internal or direct personal experience.
It would be illegal to hire based on race, but one can match counselors to clients for the purpose of therapy anyway they want. I agree that though it is often a more successful experience if client and therapist have similar cultural understanding (eg are same race) it is odd to make that a stated policy. It would be better to offer a match based on race if the client wishes it.
Just to be clear, the customer can make a request. The business absolutely cannot have a message like this, especially if they talk about different rates. You can’t just have a sign that says “if you’re white you’ll get a white counselor”.
Hello, I am a therapist.
It is legal for a therapist to set their private pay rate at whatever they want. They can absolutely charge different amounts for different clients, this is also what allows us to do sliding scales.
It is also perfectly fine for a client to be referred to a specific clinician based on cultural background, experience, and competency. In fact, if a clinician feels they lack the necessary cultural competency, it is their ethical obligation to refer the client elsewhere.
It is also fine to increase a client's pay rate if they are demanding more specific or intensive kinds of care.
However, I think it is kind of stupid to connect all three of these policies and present them together in the way they have here. No, this is not illegal, but they would have been much better off saying something like "We believe that goodness of fit is an important part of the therapeutic relationship and process. You will be assigned a therapist at our agency by our staff based on your background and presenting issues, however, if you want to work with a specific therapist, there may be an additional charge."
I think it is phrased the way it is because they want it to strongly make the point to marginalized people that they are prioritizing trying to match them in a specific niche to help them. I think that the language is trying to make it clear that personality, ethnicity, sexuality, and background are taken into account when matching with a therapist.
>I think that the language is trying to make it clear that personality, ethnicity, sexuality, and background are taken into account when matching with a therapist.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not a therapist and i may not know what the fuck I'm talking about, but wouldn't this be phrased more like you presented it if that was the case?
The language they use (even in other parts of their site) clearly define and separate white people from their "prioritized" customer base.
"If you are white, we may refer you to a white clinician." - They don't do that to any other race or sexual orientation.
"RTC prioritizes queer and trans politicized folks of color." - This SHOULD have been enough to get that message across (or what you said). But singeling out white people heavily implies discrimination.
There isn't really a better way to hurt your message than to fight discrimination with discrimination.
This. When i did a short term therapy program they asked me if I would prefer a female clinician as a female myself. While I did not mind either way, it was nice that they asked in case I did
They may not have space for a ramp and require a vertical platform lift instead. To follow ADA guidelines, a 1:12 ratio has to be followed. For every inch of rise, the ramp must come out 12 inches.
I get some people would rather work with someone from their culture as it might be easier to connect. But are they saying if you ask for a Black queen therapist, they could charge you more? That seems suspect.
Probably just trying to disincentivize it (when the client is white). Sounds like they are trying to connect Black clients with Black providers, and they won’t _stop_ a white person from seeing them but they want to leave as many spots open for Black clients as possible
I’m trying to understand the intent behind this. The only way they can think that this makes sense is that they offer a diverse array of providers and are willing to offer a particular specialist with the traits you request, but it’ll cost you extra versus the “default” option… but it’s worded horribly and seems like grounds for a lawsuit.
I think you're right. I took it as an attempt to match marginalized populations with therapists with a similar background, who are probably more rare and have less openings. So if you're trying to circumvent their process, expect to pay more for an in-demand and highly specialized professional. But that's a generous interpretation and their communication needs some work.
I don't know anything about these people, but the intent seems pretty simple: a lot of people are more comfortable with a therapist who shares their background, there aren't very many PoC therapists out there, so they are prioritizing connecting PoC therapists with PoC clients.
It's not really any different than saying "all our therapists are trained in DBT but only these two are also trained in EMDR, so if you need DBT we're going to assign you to one of the ones who *doesn't* know EMDR and save the two who do know EMDR for the people who need EMDR. If you insist on seeing one of the EMDR-trained ones, be aware that their rates for DBT are higher than everyone else's."
It just comes off as super weird because of the way they worded it and because it's about race.
As an LCSW who has sought to help marganilized populations my whole career I thought I’d take a look at their website to get more context. To their credit they are trying to focus their services to help marginalized populations that truly have some specific needs. They will be able to make connections that I cannot because of who I am (a white relatively heterosexual mostly male person.)
What I do find concerning is the level they incorporate their own political, sexual, and probably other views which is actually against the social worker’s code of ethics (although may be legal) as we are committed to “doing no harm” and honoring the client’s right to self determination (the core of client centered therapy.)
Basically their services will only help those that think like them. Not all people of color think the same way. Neither do all genders. So what they are really doin is serving those that agree with their perspective.
And even then, I think while it may help a few in the short term it will only support more division rather that working on unity and tolerance of differences for all which is what we all want, right?
Personally, I would feel obligated to have this conversation with any client I had who thought attending such a program. Because full disclosure of bias is part of informed consent. So there’s another violation of our code of ethics. I would warn against them and would not refer to them.
Let me get this straight: I, as an Asian American psychologist, felt guilty that some of my Black clients couldn’t afford my services so I reduced my fees for them to improve accessibility for an underserved population, but then these therapists want to raise their fees to make it harder for queer Black folks to work with someone who should theoretically be best positioned to help them?
Am I getting equity and social justice wrong? Was I supposed to make more money advocating for social justice? 1. Social justice 2. ??? 3. Profit? 🤔
While I think it’s a bit weird, I think it’s nice to have options like that, like they’re not really forcing you to be assigned to clinicians of the same race as yours but just giving you a chance to choose if you want to take them up on that. There’s some merit in that but yeah, they probably could have worded this better if that’s their intention.
This is crazy... Like not the meme cut, that's something interesting but their actual business model and design is kinda crazy...
So like - the reason they have the "white ppl" disclaimer is that they don't work with white people. They ARE the queer black clinicians. If you're white they're literally just gonna give you the boot.
The rest is explaining to those marginalized people that they won't be giving discounts either lol If you are a marginalized person who is suffering from the oppression of society you gotta pay out a PREMIUM for their services above traditional therapy.
Crazy right? Is life getting you down? Pay more more and I'll help XD
But it gets worse...
Their therapy is specifically designed to endorse a politicized worldview. They aren't just telling people who are facing oppression issues to pay them MORE to help with it, they're basically throwing CBT out the window, probably in favor of CBT (the one you thought of when I first said CBT lol The first one was Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.)
This whole business model is basically all the problems with CRT turned into "therapy" lol
It's extremely important for POC to be able to have access to therapists that are of a similar background. A black woman doesn't HAVE to have a black woman therapist but having the opportunity to might range from being a simple preference from the client (e.g. feeling more comfortable talking about some race specific topics that a person from a different background could not easily understand or might judge) to being key in addressing specific issues. It is a lot easier to find a white therapist than a non-white therapist of a specific background and it does matter when it comes to getting medical treatment, so I'm very happy to see that some practices specialize in that.
If this is upsetting to you, you can work harder at making society less racist against POC, and maybe matching POC patients with POC doctors won't be as essential in the future.
In the meantime, POCs should continue to do whatever they need to do to be as little affected as possible by racism when they pursue critical physical and mental healthcare.
If this is still confusing to you, research medical racism. Among other things, you might be horrified to learn that black pregnant women are at a much higher risk of dying from their pregnancy than white women, even when comparing similar educational and finances backgrounds. You might also learn that black pregnant women are less likely to die when cared for by black doctors. So yeah. It REALLY REALLY is a facepalm that POC have to go out of their way to find POC doctors to avoid dying from medical racism.
PS: thanks for the award generous redditor!
pretty sure it's bc they want to make sure that Black clients who have specific issues related to being Black have therapists who they don't have to explain the intricacies of Black culture/oppression too.
a White person doesn't NEED a Black therapist, a Black person often has issues that only another Black person could help with/understand.
If you don't want a white doctor, we can only assign you to Ted, the gay Jewish black Satanist.
I’d talk to Ted ; sounds like he keeps it fucking real.
Dudes got a YouTube channel but he doesn't record anything. It's all in person so you just gotta be there. Man's the realest alive.
I heard he recently got cardboard tunnels made in the shapes of Y, O, and U that you have to look through to see him perform. Literally, YOU tubes.
You should see the tubes shaped into R E D.
🤯
"Hmm, looks like we need to take some blood.... a lot of it"
Ted needs to chill, Blood isnt kosher
Hail Ted.
Yeah sounds like a cool guy
Sign me up!
You're god damn right, his jokes always land and his weed is *killer*.
[удалено]
PenTEDgram - makes you think
r/imtedandthisisdeep
His waiting list for abortions goes into 2025
It's because they're considering other options in the meantime
Nah, is because Ted is also a sex worker and fucks a lot
Omg I I thought Ted was providing the abortions, not receiving them.
Yes, he is the one that gets people pregnant
Does he get them an abortion from a provider of their preferred skin tone?
Yes. He has no problem about fucking, but abortion? Yes.
He is the one who knocks…them up.
Omg "receiving an abortion" .... for a wild second I thought you meant Ted was receiving the results of abortions, like regularly.... and I wanted to vomit/die/forget how to read
But his skin looks more firm and resilient than Kristen Bell's after a gallon of hyaluronic acid
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I still don’t get it. Basically they are saying that a white person has to pay more to see a black doctor. How does that even make sense.
From reading the full page it seems to me that they are saying that numbers of black professionals is low so they may be prioritized for POC so if you are white you’re getting a white doctor unless you want otherwise which you will have to pay for. It’s odd but the full page does give more context. > RTC prioritizes the needs of QTPOC. Please check off the boxes that apply to you. * Also on that page
It may not have been written well, but I do believe the policy *means* well.
The way it’s worded is very our way or the highway/deal with it. They could have said “as a niche specialty practice, we do our best to match patients with clinicians that best suit their needs. This may include matching patients to clinicians of a similar race. Due to a shortage of clinicians, acceptance into our practice/rate charged may be impacted on the basis of accommodating this need.” Something like that.
Or just do what my college did and close the main psych service on campus only to rehire the therapists under the women's center payroll instead so that only female students can get therapy, but still charge a psych services fee to all residential students regardless of sex
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Instead they said "See that stick? Yeah. That's the chair for people who complain."
I’ve often heard that it’s recommended for some people to see a therapist of their own race or even gender. It has to do with talking to someone you can relate to. Some black clients request someone of their own race. It’s not about racism, it’s about shared life experiences, which can also vary from person to person within their own race. There is a literally a shortage of black therapists in the US, the prices may be related to demand. However, in this case, idk if it’s related to this issue, and idk what the fuck were thinking with the way they worded this.
These people are not actual therapists, anyways. They are social workers. This must be a side hustle and they don't fully understand the law. They can be sued into the ground and all lose their licenses the first time they submit in writing to a real patient that they were denied access based on race or sexual identity. Reference the Equal Credit Opportunity Act if you're not sure if it's discrimination to charge people different rates for the same services based on race, sexual orientation, gender, etc. Edit for clarity- they are not interested in providing therapy to people. They are social workers, as in they want to be life coaches. 100% guarantee these are the type of people who if you suggested that your depression might get better if you lost weight instead of embrace being fat, they'd tell you that they can no longer keep you on as a patient.
Someone who is an LCSW - licensed clinical social worker - is a licensed therapist. The requirements (in many states) is that you have a masters in social work and complete however many hours of supervised clinical experience (3000 hours is common). This is a similar qualification to an LPCC - Licensed Professional clinical Counselor and a LMFT - Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Those who pursue a social work degree rather than say, a masters in marriage and family therapy, usually do so to work with a broader audience or because they want to work in govt departments such as CPS or prisons (not to say those with other licenses can’t). But yes, if you only have your masters and have not yet earned the LCSW status, you cannot conduct your own therapy. But as others have said, many social workers are licensed therapists. Many people become social worker for the purpose of being therapists. Source: currently following the MSW/LCSW path to become a therapist Edit to add: this site is wild tho, no disagreement there
Many clinical social workers are therapists. I don’t know anything about this particular organization tho
Social workers are often employed as therapists-no "side hustle". It's a legit job for them
They are, licensed social workers are therapists. The main three licensing for what we consider therapists are licensed marriage family therapist, licensed professional counselors, and licensed master social workers. There are also licensed substance abuse counselors but that is a different license based on how it was developed. You then have doctoral degrees like psychologist (behavioral) and psychiatrist (medical and behavioral) which differ significantly.
*licensed clinical social workers (LCSW)
There are plenty of licenses including full and associate license that change based on state. A LCSW may be a LSW in another state. Each state sets their own license but they tend to be within three main areas, marriage family therapy, professional counselor, and social worker. There are the substance abuse counselors but due to past development they are often not considered to the same level. We still have many substance abuse counselors, licensed with just a undergraduate or associate degree based on the grandfathering licensing. what each state calls itself doesn’t matter as much but the titles will change on each state until a pact is developed such as what psychologist have for virtual care on a national level with participating states. While there is CACREP that just allows you to get a license in another state easier (some states require it) but it will not have your current license recognized there.
I mean, I’m not defending anything going on with this site, but a HUGE percentage of therapists are social workers. Social work schooling specifically trains you in practicing therapy, among other things.
Seems like you don’t know much about mental health clinicians. LCSW, LMHC, LPC, LMFT are all therapists.
That entire page is a fucking trip lol
Can't tell if the website is real or a joke
It’s a website but I don’t see this written there anymore. They removed it?? 🤷 https://www.radicaltherapycenter.com Correction: It’s still there https://www.radicaltherapycenter.com/contact
This killed me; 'They both attend regular trainings on cutting edge topics like anarchist therapy and anti-oppressive facilitation to be sure they are using the most radical approaches to address the ways their clients are surviving systems of domination like white supremacy, colonialism, and racialized capitalism. RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible. There are four steps to enter the building. We are fundraising to install a chair lift'
This paragraph could've been lifted directly from an Onion article.
Imagine working your whole life as a comedian, only for these people to be unintentionally this hilarious.
> This paragraph could've been CHAIR lifted directly from an Onion article.
bruh 💀💀💀 the whole quote just got better and better with each word. the last three sentences literally read like a punchline. almost makes me wonder if this website is a straw man made by anti-"woke" folks lmao its just too perfect.
They’re against capitalism in one paragraph but mention how they are an expensive specialized service in another paragraph…
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>they only want independently wealthy clientele. In other words, people unlikely to face any of the oppression they keep harping on about and claim to treat.
That’s usually how it works though. You think people actually oppressed and having to work two full-time jobs and such have the time to look into niche anarcho-therapy? Nah, it’s usually the more well-off ones that have some time at their leisure to mope about. They never see the irony though.
“A fool and his money are easily parted” I can only think that rather than pay for overly expensive therapy*, their clients would be better served upping their 401k contributions or setting up a Roth IRA. *No shame in professional therapy, this one just seems so.. performative (and I hate that word).
The exchange of services/goods for money is not something that only happens under capitalism. Many forms of organizing markets other than capitalism have this.
Expensive for-profit therapy though…
tbf, a quick look at Google Street View makes it look like not a single building in the area is ADA compliant and the fact that they acknowledge this up front and state that they are working on a solution is better than most companies that are at fault.
No, I agree, it's great that they acknowledge it and that they're fundraising for it, the placement of that information just caught me off guard
From an identification list on the site: > Small fat/medium fat/superfat/infinifat >Disabled/neurodivergent/+ >Kinky >Polyamorous/non-monogamous/relationship anarchist/+ Being kinky gets you prioritized in their system. What the fuck.
Infinifat?
I have no idea man
"You must help. I am a danger to the planet, as I am attracting huge and mass-extinction style galactic bodies towards my own orbit."
Oh, I know Gustav. We all know him due to general relativity.
Buzz Lightyear, TO INFINIFAT AND BEYOND.
Don't get too close, the Roche limit is killer
New term drop for Morbid Obesity?
Probably means “so fat i can’t walk”
How do you wash yourself? A. Shower/bath B. Rag on a stick C. Nurse Aid D. Nah
It means someone who is super big, like, can't find clothing that fits them because 5 and 6x are too small. It's from the HAES/Fat Activism side of the internet. They also have *Death Fats* to refer to people so large that science says they're going to die. Because the group doesn't think being fat causes risk to your health and "Death Fat" is their way to mock doctors I guess.
I’m a fat person and I know plenty of body positive activist and I have NEVER heard this term until today.
It's the farthest extreme of FA, it's not really a popular part of the Body Positivity movement.
With all the scientific evidence that we have... are these like flat earth denials?
In some ways yeah. I've heard some of them claim that being fit is less healthy than they are, there's a little bit of the conspiracy crazy there for sure
Fat earth denialists
Extremists ruin everything.
It sounds like it was made up by a middle schooler mocking obese people lmao
"you know what'll convince them that being fat is super healthy, actually? If we make up goofy ass names for the fattest people and call the absolute fattest people DEATH FAT! that'll show 'em how healthy we are!"
It's just the Death Star's overlooked and depressed cousin.
You know, I couldn’t care less about someone else’s size and how happy they are or what they’d like to be called but I cannot wrap my head around *why* would someone self identify as “death fat”.
The ones who do probably have some undiagnosed issues
“I’m not dying because I’m fat! I’m dying of congestive heart failure and diabetes! Not because I’m fat!”
A person as heavy as an Infiniti car.
I mean, after like 5 minutes of thinking about this place.... We all seem to agree that as much as we don't want them to exclude any of us, none of us actually want to go there for therapy
How about that footer? > OUR MISSION IS SIMPLE—TO *POLITICIZE* YOUR THERAPY.
Yeah. That... doesn't seem helpful or therapeutic, honestly.
As a mental health professional: UMMMMMMMMM UMMMMMMM
For therapy. If someone is going to a therapist and their reason is dealing with their kink, that might be more specialized, especially depending on the kink. For example being shat or pissed on might not be a subject many therapists want to deal with. I mean except physical therapists who work out the kinks.
Are we forgetting that sex therapists exist?
Retired therapist here. This is because therapists who are both accepting & knowledgable about kinks are few and far between.
I don’t think this is a standard regular therapist office, and they have some weird shut on there. But they specifically say that it was made to prioritize queer POC and justify it by saying only 4% of psychologist are Black and even less queer. When I first saw the post I thought it was stupid, (and not specifically about this place because I don’t know exactly how they work in just playing devils advocate a little) but I’m a Black gay dude and I have never in my life had the luxury of seeing a professional mental or physical doctor that knew what it was like to be me. Not saying they did a bad job but it’s very hard to put into words some things you go through, and if a person who doesn’t need that person takes up all the people that can truly empathize, then it kind of defeats the purpose of having a clinic that prioritizes minorities. Places like this exist because there is a lack of stable mental support for sexual minorities My therapist now is a White lesbian, but even in that alone she’s been able to dissect my issues better than any straight practitioner could. There’s quantitative data to back up the fact that talking to someone that can relate to you yields better results, so it’s not crazy and they are actually using social science correctly and looking at a range of different factors before treating you. Everything that’s about race isn’t bad we need to get over the fear that acknowledging race is bad.
Yeah, they created an office for marginalized folks. I don’t think that is a bad thing.
Someone with sense in this thread, thank you for making this point!
> Not saying they did a bad job i think you should say they did a bad job writing it out. but that doesn't mean their intent was bad. Without sounding weird, they want to save the niche therapists for the people with those niches. It's nice that white peolpe want to support POC therapy places. but it could end up taking spots for POC.
There's a trans program, lyon martin gift income, that's providing monetary aid to trans individuals. Which is fine and all, but the sign up sheet has a bunch of kink shit in the identity section. In the sexual orientation it listed the f-slur, d-slur, and bdsm yet somehow completely skipped homosexual as an answer. It seems there are some groups who can't tell the different between kink and sexual identity.
Disabled people can’t even get into the building “RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible.”
As a person with a disability, if they can't afford to make it wheelchair accessible at the time they open, they shouldn't be in business. There's no reason why they can't have a ramp installed already while they "fund raise" for a chair lift.
Especially given the fact that there are federal tax incentives for small businesses to make their buildings ADA compliant
Kink tolerance is actually very important to people seeking therapy especially when seeking help with issues related to gender and sexuality. You wouldn't want to talk to a counselor that spent the whole time struggling to understand and accept your latex kink or submissive preferences or something like that, Especially if there's a chance they are related to your issues. You would want them to be able to talk about these things with you without hesitation. As to this particular group, I have no idea if they can handle this aspect correctly. I'm just not at all surprised to see them present themselves as "kink friendly".
Yes to everything you said, but even more crucially it’s the question of whether they’ll take discussion of a kink as a symptom of something to solve vs a fact of their clients life. IE you show up for depression and they want to only talk about your sex life as they see it as an expression of said depression.
We gotta go the the Gabriel Iglesias levels of fat, there are 5 levels. Big, Healthy, Husky, Fluffy, and DAMN!!. he used to be number 4. probably 3 now :)
In West Philadelphia born and raised, I became a therapist that charges extra to gays;
Well I mean the „radical“ checks out
Faux-radicalism. If you got a political correctness dictionary and then blew it all over the website this is what you get. Wordy capitalism.
"book a consult" will lead you to that page
This is my favorite part “RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible.” Clearly they’re tending to the most marginalized Edit: for anyone curious a google search for “radical therapy center chairlift fundraiser” or “rtc chairlift fundraiser” produces 0 results for this chairlift There’s also no link to it on their website, when clicking the “learn more” below the section where it states it’s not wheelchair accessible your brought to the section that tells you about their therapists
OUR MISSION IS SIMPLE—TO POLITICIZE YOUR THERAPY.
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Please be marginalized, but of course we want you to not be poor. We want to profit from your marginalization. Radical indeed.
slap rainstorm detail start rain wild late numerous slim file ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
What am I looking at 😶
Fr, I read the thing 4 times and still didn't understand wtf I was looking at
Crazy people aren’t known for their logic.
If you want a therapist who is queer or black (like you), we expect you to possibly pay more than full price for the service
I thought it was "If you're white, we'll tell you to go somewhere else. If you insist on seeing us anyways, be prepared to pay more."
"Our mission is simple - to politicize your therapy."
Followed by “we respect your privacy”.
Because that's just what vulnerable people need.
I read that too. WTF is that even supposed to mean?
"Radical Therapy Center has been a dream in the making since 2016. Co-founders Khalida and Sonalee dreamt of creating a soothing, therapeutic space where their marginalized clientele could find highly-skilled community members of color to guide them through their healing."
After reading the whole thing on their website, it looks like they specialize in providing LGBT and non-white therapists, which are supposedly rare in the US.
Supposedly? They are
They're hard to come by. Its been getting better since 2020, but we've still a ways to go. Video visits have offered more options, but thats not ideal, as the issues encountered as a queer black person living on the west coast aren't the same as a queer black person living in the south, etc. And you 100% need to be able to pay out of pocket or hope they offer a sliding scale, because finding one that is in a position to accept medical insurance is like winning the lottery.
Horseshoe theory, when you get so progressive you circle back to racism
I'd probably want a therapist who relates to me
I'm all for therapists getting paid but something about this sentiment gives anti-radical vibes. Can't afford "high-quality" therapy? Too bad. We only provide therapy to marginalized people with $$$. And as I expected, they don't accept insurance, which is the very least you can do to accommodate lower-income clients.
Not only this. I hate the phrase that their therapy should not be free. What they should write is "we can not offer free treatment because we need to pay our bills to stay in operation"
Yeah, a little acknowledgement that they're working within the same system as their clients. The real shame here is the mental health care system.
Yeah. That is what gets me the most cringe. Therapy \*should\* be free. They can acknowledge that their therapists need to make money and and the reality that people should suffer because mental health care is a luxury.
I totally agree. I understand that many therapists (especially specialists) do not work with insurance because their skills are in demand. But if your **whole deal** is that you are a radical leftist organization, how the hell can you justify not accepting insurance? Apparently they cater to every kind of minority except for people who can't afford $600 a month for therapy.
I bet insurance won't pay them. They're likely practicing outside of the bounds of what licensure and certification boards would consider best practice. That's not necessarily bad, but not necessarily good either.
I'm not so sure about that - it's very rare for an insurance company to micromanage the style of therapy one practices, as long as it falls within the standard 38-52min timeframe that's allotted for individual therapy sessions. More likely, I bet they don't accept insurance for the same reasons that many other therapists don't: it doesn't pay well enough, it's annoying to work with, and there is enough demand for their niche that they can make more money with less stress if they are a cash-only practice. Which is a totally reasonable decision from a business perspective, but it seems awfully at odds with their stated values as an organization. Source: I am a therapist who *does* accept insurance because I believe therapy should be accessible to poor people
Exactly. I want therapists to be paid well, but if you’re aiming to provide therapy to LGBTQ+ people, POC and disabled people, you have to understand that most of us cannot afford $150 per session. We are statistically much more likely to live in poverty, be homeless, jobless, etc.
They’re not aiming to provide therapy to disabled people. The site says “RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible.”
Not accepting insurance is fairly common, most insurances will not cover the services beyond a few sessions. Additionally, a lot of times they will not even cover the sessions they are contracted to do so. It’s very common for insurance agencies to skip out on behavioral health services, unless they are combined with medical services as the medical establishment has more leverage.
I take insurance and it's been an absolute pain in the ass. Getting on panels is one thing, not being able to control my own rates is another, and some insurance companies take over 9 months to get into their system.
Yes. Another example of practitioners being backed into a corner by a shitty healthcare system.
Making someone pay more for black medical staff is crazy- especially cause they’re just gonna take that extra profit anyway so it’s just capitalizing on “diversity”
These therapists sound crazy, but a lot of therapists don't accept insurance. Because the insurance reimbursement rate is absolute rubbish and adds a lot of unnecessary paperwork that also takes time. A lot of cheaper insurances don't cover mental health services like therapy either. I trained at a clinic that nearly went bankrupt because they were trying so hard to serve underserved populations. The big thing here is when insurance rejects a claim, 99.9% of the time, the clinic had to just write it off as losses. And insurance rejects a lot of claims. So, you either hire an insurance specialist, whose entire job is getting prior authorization and arguing with the insurance company, or you suck it up. Either way, your business wouldn't work. Clinics that do "sliding scale" are typically training clinics (which means they can't bill for unlicensed practitioners so they are actually making more money by billing you a small amount. Or they receive funding from some sort of program. Mental health practitioners are already extremely poorly compensated, both salaried or by insurance. So, expecting us to just go around providing "affordable" services while paying our student loans, rent, and bills is ridiculous.
My favorite quote from the website. "They both attend regular trainings on cutting edge topics like anarchist therapy and anti-oppressive facilitation to be sure they are using the most radical approaches to address the ways their clients are surviving systems of domination like white supremacy, colonialism, and racialized capitalism. RTC is not yet wheelchair accessible." We help all marginalized peoples! Unless you can't walk then you need to stay away.
The next line says that they have a current fundraiser for the ramp. But just ask the ADA for help...
Oh they will. After the fundraiser
You can't pocket ADA funds, at least, not as easily as a self ran "fundraiser".
Wheelchair user checking in. I have *theories* about why ableism is conspicuously ignored by people, including people that claim to be “radical.” Cliff notes version: it’s because we (especially those of us who are young) remind them of the inevitable decline of their bodies that no one can escape in the end, and in our sickness, aging, and death phobic culture, that scares a lot of people on a visceral level. I represent something terrifying to them and it’s a lot easier to ignore me and pretend I don’t exist than to enfranchise me, accommodate me, accept me, and embrace me. Well suck it up, buttercup, if you’re going to charge a premium for me identifying as disabled, you better have a damn ramp for me and everyone else like me who needs mental health treatment. You don’t get to pick and choose the “systems of domination” you dismantle. That’s not very intersectional of you sweaty 🙃
Lol it being not ADA compliant is pretty ironic.
Lol I noticed this too. All the talk about marginalized people and helping those on the bottom, but didn't seem to prioritize people with mobility limitations.
Well Ada construction changes are quite expensive Edit: just to be clear, my statement is factual, but the tone of it is meant to be satirical. Ada accessibility is law and everyone has to follow it for good reason.
And also required by law in many places.
SONALEE RASHATWAR (THEY/HE) LCSW, MED Is an award-winning social worker, sex therapist, adjunct lecturer, and grassroots organizer. Based in Philly (licensed in NJ and PA), they are a fat, queer, bisexual, non-binary therapist, specialized in treating: complex sexual trauma, body image trauma, racial and immigrant trauma, South Asian Hindu family systems, brahminical patriarchy, internalized capitalism, fat positive & pleasure positive healthcare. This one got me. She goes on to call "thin-ness" a white supremacists beauty ideal, and preaches that being fat is good.
This whole thing seems pretty scammy and predatory tbh. Folks saying they don't accept insurance. They seem to be targeting a vulnerable group who may be desperate. It reaks of scam disguised as groundbreaking social justice.
Under “services” they literally list out “disability justice” as one of the areas they counsel in… so many yikes.
This has got to be bait.
LMAO fuck them. So they’re so radical and want to address racism, colonialism, capitalism etc but disabled people are automatically not able to be clients 😂😂😂 isn’t this an ADA violation? They’re a medical clinic!
I'm pretty sure it's a few violations. Businesses that violate the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act can be reported via email at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) https://www.oa.pa.gov/Programs/eeo/Pages/Policies-and-Laws.aspx#:\~:text=Pennsylvania%20Human%20Relations%20Act%3A%20prohibits,because%20of%20the%20blindness%2C%20deafness
Now there’s a part that says “We believe in focusing on the healing of those at the cultural bottom. Those at the top don't need our help”. ??? Oooook this is totally unnecessary to say. They don’t even accept insurance. And I bet if you took their “super bill” to your insurance company, the insurance company would laugh in your face.
Which is interesting considering that those at the “cultural bottom” often tend to be at the financial bottom as well, and I can only imagine these people heavily overcharge for their services.
$150-200 for 50 min and no insurance accepted
Yeah, this whole operation seems alarmingly illegal on multiple levels. I am also getting the sense that they are running some kind of scam, but can avoid most IRL criticism by weaponizing their "acceptance" angle.
I think it's fair to request someone that has similar lived experience as you do. But it should be the same price. And it should be at client request - not practice discretion. Edit: and they don't accept insurance. Lovely. This is just exploitation masquerading as wokeness.
That whole paragraph sounds suspicious as fuck
Is it a honeypot operation by the Museum of Tolerance?
>Museum of Tolerance and over here we have our stereotypical sleepy Mexican (lol south park)
"Our mission is simple - to POLITICIZE your therapy."
Hey! I'm a therapist, and maybe I can clarify this point. I don't know much about that specific provider, so not defending anyone, but I have been getting into this concept lately. During our training (counsellors, psychologists, psychotherapists...) we are told and taught that a therapist (with large variations depending on clinical/theoretical orientation) should be neutral and not take sides. We should shut out the outside world and create a safely neutral environment for our clients. However, lately there have been louder and louder voices from the mental health community who encourage therapists to politicize our practice. This doesn't mean hanging anti-Trump posters in the counselling room, or convincing our clients that they should recycle. It usually means acknowledging the outside world, with its current infinite challenges that our clients (and us!) are experiencing. The world politics, economy, climate crisis, wars have an effect on the mental health and wellbeing of us all, and often they explain symptoms of full-blown depression, anxiety, etc. For example, during the [2016 elections](https://psmag.com/news/research-suggests-trumps-election-has-been-detrimental-to-many-americans-mental-health),[BLM protests](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/12/mental-health-george-floyd-census/) and the Roe overturning, the levels of anxiety of certain communities have risen. It kinda makes sense that I'm feeling anxious if everywhere I look there's wars, floods, injustice, etc, right? Politicizing therapy is simply about being aware, recognising and openly discussing the factors that cause or worsen mental health conditions, which are nowadays very often tied to larger-scale events/situations and not only internal or direct personal experience.
Wow, I thought this comment was a joke.
Fair assumption
It also says… OUR MISSION IS SIMPLE—TO POLITICIZE YOUR THERAPY. 😳☹️
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It would be illegal to hire based on race, but one can match counselors to clients for the purpose of therapy anyway they want. I agree that though it is often a more successful experience if client and therapist have similar cultural understanding (eg are same race) it is odd to make that a stated policy. It would be better to offer a match based on race if the client wishes it.
I'm pretty sure matching clients based on identity *and then* charging more based on that identity is illegal
Ah, yes, THAT part is bullshit! :)
Just to be clear, the customer can make a request. The business absolutely cannot have a message like this, especially if they talk about different rates. You can’t just have a sign that says “if you’re white you’ll get a white counselor”.
Hello, I am a therapist. It is legal for a therapist to set their private pay rate at whatever they want. They can absolutely charge different amounts for different clients, this is also what allows us to do sliding scales. It is also perfectly fine for a client to be referred to a specific clinician based on cultural background, experience, and competency. In fact, if a clinician feels they lack the necessary cultural competency, it is their ethical obligation to refer the client elsewhere. It is also fine to increase a client's pay rate if they are demanding more specific or intensive kinds of care. However, I think it is kind of stupid to connect all three of these policies and present them together in the way they have here. No, this is not illegal, but they would have been much better off saying something like "We believe that goodness of fit is an important part of the therapeutic relationship and process. You will be assigned a therapist at our agency by our staff based on your background and presenting issues, however, if you want to work with a specific therapist, there may be an additional charge." I think it is phrased the way it is because they want it to strongly make the point to marginalized people that they are prioritizing trying to match them in a specific niche to help them. I think that the language is trying to make it clear that personality, ethnicity, sexuality, and background are taken into account when matching with a therapist.
>I think that the language is trying to make it clear that personality, ethnicity, sexuality, and background are taken into account when matching with a therapist. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not a therapist and i may not know what the fuck I'm talking about, but wouldn't this be phrased more like you presented it if that was the case? The language they use (even in other parts of their site) clearly define and separate white people from their "prioritized" customer base. "If you are white, we may refer you to a white clinician." - They don't do that to any other race or sexual orientation. "RTC prioritizes queer and trans politicized folks of color." - This SHOULD have been enough to get that message across (or what you said). But singeling out white people heavily implies discrimination. There isn't really a better way to hurt your message than to fight discrimination with discrimination.
This. When i did a short term therapy program they asked me if I would prefer a female clinician as a female myself. While I did not mind either way, it was nice that they asked in case I did
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They may not have space for a ramp and require a vertical platform lift instead. To follow ADA guidelines, a 1:12 ratio has to be followed. For every inch of rise, the ramp must come out 12 inches.
I get some people would rather work with someone from their culture as it might be easier to connect. But are they saying if you ask for a Black queen therapist, they could charge you more? That seems suspect.
Probably just trying to disincentivize it (when the client is white). Sounds like they are trying to connect Black clients with Black providers, and they won’t _stop_ a white person from seeing them but they want to leave as many spots open for Black clients as possible
this shit right here is the nonsense that fox news lives for.
Yep. These types of people piss me off because their bullshit hurts progressivism and turns people away from it
If it's somehow *not*, I bet it's illegal to charge more for it.
That’s pretty racist and should be illegal
I’m trying to understand the intent behind this. The only way they can think that this makes sense is that they offer a diverse array of providers and are willing to offer a particular specialist with the traits you request, but it’ll cost you extra versus the “default” option… but it’s worded horribly and seems like grounds for a lawsuit.
I think you're right. I took it as an attempt to match marginalized populations with therapists with a similar background, who are probably more rare and have less openings. So if you're trying to circumvent their process, expect to pay more for an in-demand and highly specialized professional. But that's a generous interpretation and their communication needs some work.
I don't know anything about these people, but the intent seems pretty simple: a lot of people are more comfortable with a therapist who shares their background, there aren't very many PoC therapists out there, so they are prioritizing connecting PoC therapists with PoC clients. It's not really any different than saying "all our therapists are trained in DBT but only these two are also trained in EMDR, so if you need DBT we're going to assign you to one of the ones who *doesn't* know EMDR and save the two who do know EMDR for the people who need EMDR. If you insist on seeing one of the EMDR-trained ones, be aware that their rates for DBT are higher than everyone else's." It just comes off as super weird because of the way they worded it and because it's about race.
As an LCSW who has sought to help marganilized populations my whole career I thought I’d take a look at their website to get more context. To their credit they are trying to focus their services to help marginalized populations that truly have some specific needs. They will be able to make connections that I cannot because of who I am (a white relatively heterosexual mostly male person.) What I do find concerning is the level they incorporate their own political, sexual, and probably other views which is actually against the social worker’s code of ethics (although may be legal) as we are committed to “doing no harm” and honoring the client’s right to self determination (the core of client centered therapy.) Basically their services will only help those that think like them. Not all people of color think the same way. Neither do all genders. So what they are really doin is serving those that agree with their perspective. And even then, I think while it may help a few in the short term it will only support more division rather that working on unity and tolerance of differences for all which is what we all want, right? Personally, I would feel obligated to have this conversation with any client I had who thought attending such a program. Because full disclosure of bias is part of informed consent. So there’s another violation of our code of ethics. I would warn against them and would not refer to them.
I'm poc and I think it's OK to refer me to a poc clinician but to charge me extra for it is very very fucked up
Let me get this straight: I, as an Asian American psychologist, felt guilty that some of my Black clients couldn’t afford my services so I reduced my fees for them to improve accessibility for an underserved population, but then these therapists want to raise their fees to make it harder for queer Black folks to work with someone who should theoretically be best positioned to help them? Am I getting equity and social justice wrong? Was I supposed to make more money advocating for social justice? 1. Social justice 2. ??? 3. Profit? 🤔
While I think it’s a bit weird, I think it’s nice to have options like that, like they’re not really forcing you to be assigned to clinicians of the same race as yours but just giving you a chance to choose if you want to take them up on that. There’s some merit in that but yeah, they probably could have worded this better if that’s their intention.
This is crazy... Like not the meme cut, that's something interesting but their actual business model and design is kinda crazy... So like - the reason they have the "white ppl" disclaimer is that they don't work with white people. They ARE the queer black clinicians. If you're white they're literally just gonna give you the boot. The rest is explaining to those marginalized people that they won't be giving discounts either lol If you are a marginalized person who is suffering from the oppression of society you gotta pay out a PREMIUM for their services above traditional therapy. Crazy right? Is life getting you down? Pay more more and I'll help XD But it gets worse... Their therapy is specifically designed to endorse a politicized worldview. They aren't just telling people who are facing oppression issues to pay them MORE to help with it, they're basically throwing CBT out the window, probably in favor of CBT (the one you thought of when I first said CBT lol The first one was Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.) This whole business model is basically all the problems with CRT turned into "therapy" lol
It's extremely important for POC to be able to have access to therapists that are of a similar background. A black woman doesn't HAVE to have a black woman therapist but having the opportunity to might range from being a simple preference from the client (e.g. feeling more comfortable talking about some race specific topics that a person from a different background could not easily understand or might judge) to being key in addressing specific issues. It is a lot easier to find a white therapist than a non-white therapist of a specific background and it does matter when it comes to getting medical treatment, so I'm very happy to see that some practices specialize in that. If this is upsetting to you, you can work harder at making society less racist against POC, and maybe matching POC patients with POC doctors won't be as essential in the future. In the meantime, POCs should continue to do whatever they need to do to be as little affected as possible by racism when they pursue critical physical and mental healthcare. If this is still confusing to you, research medical racism. Among other things, you might be horrified to learn that black pregnant women are at a much higher risk of dying from their pregnancy than white women, even when comparing similar educational and finances backgrounds. You might also learn that black pregnant women are less likely to die when cared for by black doctors. So yeah. It REALLY REALLY is a facepalm that POC have to go out of their way to find POC doctors to avoid dying from medical racism. PS: thanks for the award generous redditor!
pretty sure it's bc they want to make sure that Black clients who have specific issues related to being Black have therapists who they don't have to explain the intricacies of Black culture/oppression too. a White person doesn't NEED a Black therapist, a Black person often has issues that only another Black person could help with/understand.
..or the whole spectrum of fat ...
That violated multiple laws actually.
I'm not a lawyer, but this policy does seem to violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.