Phillips Public Comments LPC Board 6-6-25
I'm Phillip Crum, Citizen and co-founder of AMHP and I say welcome to the new board members.
Whether you realize or acknowledge it yet the mental health profession in America is on systemic life support.
The Failing Organs
Our family structure is broken and traditional roles have been vilified in the name of individual truth and half of our licensees support that with an "if it feels good it must be right for you" mindset.
Our K-12 education is under assault by Cultural Marxists masquerading as teachers and School Board members. I understand that BHEC has no jurisdiction over school counselors but the public doesn't know that or care and the school counselor involvement in the social grooming of kids is negatively impacting our side of the counseling profession.
Our higher teaching institutions are staffed by activists and our grad programs are producing professionals who have largely abandoned a Do No Harm ethos, concerned only about not offending a client, and affirming their self-diagnosis in the interest of subjective truth.
Many counseling students are opting to change career plans contributing to a workforce shortage and many in the above 50 crowd are opting for early retirement or other lines of work.
The healthcare disciplines are siloed and do not work well together and in fact are often at odds with each other.
Our licensee base is fractured into two groups: the old-school science and evidence-based practitioners and those who practice a form of faux-medical care driven by social ideologies.
The public is very aware of this split and doesn't trust us anymore. They're also aware that the 5 prescriptions they're on aren't fixing their problems.
Our legacy professional associations across all disciplines went woke a long time ago and now openly promote the social justice agendas, lobby against legislation that aims to protect our nation and its children, and do this openly on their websites and in public.
That realization is driving change at the grassroots level and while we're not yet at a public tipping point we're very close and this profession is no where near ready for it.
Any Good News?
The news is not all dire though as there are parallel economies in all businesses, on the academic level, and in the professions, including counseling, that are being developed right now.
Mental health care is about more than a myopic "neck up give 'em another pill" approach. It needs to address the entire body as well as the mind and spirt as contributing factors. The public is increasingly aware of this and I don't think we're ready for the change that's coming.
Educated Prediction
We believe that in 10-20 years, maybe less, the counseling profession and its practice will look nothing like it does today. There is a sea-change coming in the world of healthcare and counseling will be unavoidably swept up in it, largely because the American citizen is fed up with it all.
So again, I say welcome to the new board members. I sure hope you're up to the challenges ahead, I hope we're ALL up to it. Thank you.
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About the Author
Phillip's background has blessed him with a variety of interests, skills, and tools to get things done. He spent 25 years in the printing and marketing industry before meeting Kathleen Mills in 2015. They quickly figured out that they made a pretty good business team and, owing to Kathleen's story, embarked upon a mission that would see the creation of PracticeMentors.us and eventually the Association for Mental Health Professionals.
