"It's too political!" I've heard this comment several times in the past few weeks in relation to the civil discussion of ideas and it gave me pause to consider its usage. Controversial is Not Political First, I'm not convinced there is any such thing as "too political". What does that ...

The propaganda machine is never very far behind a crisis, is it! Less than two weeks ago, as of this writing, the Hamas-Israel conflict began and last night during Game 3 of the World Series I had to endure a commercial about how hate comments against Jews have increased a ...

The fight in our world today is not about USA vs China or Russia, left vs right, Democrat vs Republican, or black vs white. It's quite simply a good vs evil, winner take all world event. It is a spiritual battle that has been raging for centuries and manifests in ...

A client's introduction to your holistic approach to mental healthcare should begin the very first time they visit your website. We'll discuss that in-depth in another article. The very first live encounter a client has with your holistic approach to mental healthcare should be in your intake packet. I'm going ...

The word "affirming" is being used a lot these days particularly in the phrase, "affirming care". Before we consider what type of care we are affirming, or unpack the word itself, we need to consider some ethical basics. What is the main role of a counselor? Should it come from ...

I want you to think for a moment about the economy at large and what you're charging in your practice. We've always recommended, and still do, that a practice should be accepting clients from a number of sources (hedging your bets) but we'd like to make that case again in ...

Got an email this week from a non-member that I want to address. I'm not going to respond directly to that person because frankly I think they're just looking to pick an ideological fight and that's simply a waste of time. It is a good opportunity for us to state ...

Earlier this month Dr Sherry Tenpenny, an MD from Ohio and one of the early outspoken critics of the government's mandated treatment of Covid, especially the jab, had her license suspended indefinitely by the Ohio licensing board for making comments that ran counter to the board's official narrative on Covid. ...

Oh, the next round of lockdowns! There's already a good bit of rumbling out there on the news sources that I monitor regarding the "annual cold and Covid Variant" season (formerly "cold and flu season") about yet another wave of variants, masks and lockdowns. What I want to share with ...

Let me be very clear right up front. I don't have a crystal ball and if I did I'd be at the horse-track right now, not writing blog posts to you about self-pay clients. What I do have is the ability to read and a bit of common sense so ...

We started this association in December of 2022 for three main reasons, which you can find right here, and the membership response has already surpassed our goal for 2023. So, thank you very much for that! Our first Annual Conference is coming up in October and the challenge is to ...

What's in your inbox? Probably a lot of the same woke messaged material we're finding in ours. But it's never a good idea to send that stuff to Therapy Sister, Kip Rodgers, cause you're liable to get an unexpected response! That's exactly what we have for you this week, a ...

Was asked a very good question about showing up in Google on Page 1 last week and so I thought I'd address that directly in some detail. Let me give you a list of things that are working against you as a small business then I'll give you a focused ...

On LifeTreeCounsling.com, my practice website each of our counselors have their own dedicated web page, and I've just updated mine. In fact, I had so much new material to add about what I'm doing in the holistic arena that I've added a second page and I want to share that ...

If you're old enough to remember, back in the late '90's every public corporation had to have Mission and Vision Statements. It was all the rage and most of them were crap. They were either outsourced to some 3rd-party PR firm or developed by an in-house committee and they sounded ...

Post-modernism began its take-over of the universities in the late '50s and have had almost 70 years now to commandeer the liberal arts colleges. This is where they recruit and train their ranks of indoctrinated believers and send them out into every conceivable corner of our nation, including our profession. ...

There are at least 3 major, systemic pathways that are negatively influencing and impacting our profession: Academia via the Post-Modernism/Woke movement, Big Pharma, and Big Finance. In this post, the 6th in a series of 7, we will address the first leg of that trifecta, how the Post-Modern/Woke culture has ...

I am contending that "social contagion" explains the rapid rise in transgenderism in the last 20 years, paralleling the advent of social media as the primary vehicle for facilitating the active spreading of information. That's a mouthful but all it means is that social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and ...

The table that follows lists two schools of thought you need to understand for our next segment: Modernism, which is what built America, and Post-Modernism, or Woke as it's called now. The main pillars of each camp are listed below. The tenets of Modernism are listed on the left-side of ...

This is the second-half of a blog post which details an overview of the Post-Modern/Woke Movement in the 20th century. It's a detailed backdrop against which the Woke tactics can be viewed in an attempt to explain how we got here and what we need to do to save our ...

I remind you that Modernism is the predominant philosophy of thought in America. It started in England in the 1500's, transformed the British economy and was quickly picked up by the French. The Germans toyed with the concept for a while before historical events conspired (French Revolution and Napoleon) to ...

In a recent email I used the term, "war on Woke stupidity". One reader asked me what I meant by that and while I thought that was fairly obvious from prior posts on the topic I responded to his fair and straight-forward question. My reply appears below with some additional ...

Our annual conference is shaping up nicely. In fact, Day 2 has been totally populated with the speakers we targeted, and Day 1 is a whisper away from being complete. As of this writing we have them all lined up, just awaiting confirmation on 3 of them and how many ...

Any era of philosophical thought is played out in at least two stages: the academic arena where ideas are hammered out and refined, and the societal level where they are tested and police cars and careers burn. Part 2 requires that all of the lofty ideas, ivory-tower terms, and academic ...

There is a proposed bill before the TX Senate to amend Chapter 111 of the Occupations Code (that's one of the additional 9 Codes BHEC requires you as a licensee to be familiar with, right?) to include all (4) license types under BHEC's jurisdiction. Here are our first-blush notes on ...

The past 10 years, especially the last 3, have made me question every single aspect of our profession, with a particular focus on whether we're being as effective as we could be with our clients. I'm not seeing it. Could holistic options help? The number of pills my clients are ...

  April 2023 Update: A quick review of the LPC Rulebook late last week revealed the existence of a 2nd "effective date" that 3-4 pair of eyes belonging to some of the most eagle-eyed talent in all of N. Dallas had failed to spot. Essentially, part of the newly minted ...

A friend of mine asked me a number of questions earlier this week about becoming a CE provider here in the state of TX and getting on the Approved Provider list. Thought I'd pass that Q&A session along in the hopeful knowledge that it might help someone else as well. ...

This week a client asked one of my associates, "what's therapy?" When she told me that my initial thought was, "it's therapy, what do you mean, "what's therapy?". But then I gave it some thought and began to wonder what might prompt such a question from a non-counselor. Like a ...

The woke community uses something I call the 10% rule to achieve their objectives. That rule would have you change a definition ever so slightly in your favor, just a little bit, when no one's looking. Then let your target audience hear your argument through the filter of their understanding ...

We're already well underway planning the AMHP Annual Conference and I'm confident in saying it will be like no other counseling conference you've ever attended. In fact, that's our stated goal. How Will It Be Different? We see two very specific areas of concern affecting counselors that we want to ...

"All work and no play makes a dull counselor" is how I think that quote goes, right? So this week let's have a little fun. I want to know in the comments below who the very first concert you ever attended was. Who did you see and what was the ...

I am so excited for you, for me, for us, that we're coming together like this in the AMHP program. I believe in you, I believe in me, and I believe in the work that we're doing and I'm asking you to travel our yellow brick road together. I believe ...

Welcome to the Association for Mental Health Professionals. Kathleen Mills, LPC-S, CEAP and I are creating this institution just for you and this is an open invitation to join us. It's our effort to provide a home for disenfranchised counselors who do not feel welcome anymore in our long-standing professional ...