Battle for the Mind Sit-Rep
With so much going on I thought I'd assemble a cursory "battle for the mind sit-rep" of my latest thoughts.
Make No Mistake, There is a War Happening
Winning a war requires good leadership, a clear view of the battlefield and a deep understanding of your opponent. The current conflict is about political superiority and population control. The battlefield is the mind and, the primary weapon is ideology. Wrap your mind around that before you read on.
We're a nation under attack and have been for over 75 years now, arguably longer and if you know your Marxist/socialist history then you know what I'm talking about. For my points here today, in the popular vernacular this ideology is currently referred to as "woke".
Why Should You Care?
What does this have to do with mental health counseling? Well unless you live and practice in a vacuum it's walking into your office every day. In fact, even our counselors are being trained as social activists, not science-based counselors, and have infiltrated the profession. Don't believe me? Join any of the larger counselor Facebook Groups, voice a conservative thought and prepare to be viciously assaulted by leftist activists (who truly believe they're trained therapists) masquerading as credentialed counselors.
The one-world puppet-masters want to literally destroy America, specifically it's market systems, financial health, our political structure (the Republic), and the spiritual backbone that keeps us grounded. Keep in mind that most of the woke counselor converts don't understand that they're pawns in a larger game that's being played. They think they believe and act as they do because it'll produce a better world full of rainbow colored unicorns and other ideas that have been proven not to work. If you think the counseling world is somehow exempt from the assault, well, you're wrong.
This War is Different
This is going to be more difficult than traditional conflict where we throw bullets and mortars at each other and the last man standing wins. What makes this fight different is that it's being waged in the battleground of the mind; competing worldviews and beliefs. The most dangerous opponent is one who has no interest in discussion or compromise, one who would gladly die for a belief (or kill you for having a differing opinion) and that is who we are up against.
How We Fight Back
Getting our national and state laws on our side is the first step and we seem to be winning that fight. Both State and Federal Supreme Courts are issuing rulings largely in favor of the conservative effort to fight all things Woke/DEI including the trans agenda. The Trump administration shows no signs of slowing down the assault on a very non-West oriented, destructive way of thinking.
The grassroots level is getting organized. People are speaking up and organizations and parallel economies are manifesting. People are abandoning institutions which refuse to do away with very non-American, anti-Western agendas within their ranks. Progress is definitely being made.
What About the Counseling Profession?
Changing the minds of the licensed hardcore leftist counselors who view their cult-like doctrine as an irrefutable religion is a steep hill to climb. Some will see the light, be saved, and will make positive contributions to this profession.
As more and more of the vast conservative majority figure out why they don't want to see counselors who view mental illness issues through a socio-political lens, many will simply go out of business and move on.
The majority of them will slink back into the employment shadows of government facilities and hospitals. There they can meet minimum standards of competency without giving up their views and not be held accountable because, you know, "work force shortage", right?
And Our Academic Supply Chain?
We have to clean up academia or they'll just keep churning out more socialist activists (unqualified counselors) to replace the ones I just mentioned. This is going to take a while but I believe money will be the pivotal driver behind most of the impactful change.
The framing irony of a far-left ideology that wants to destroy a free-market capitalist system is that it needs that very system to fund it's destructive efforts. So we defund them. Even communists have to eat.
I think once the two major sources of university funding are threatened or dry up (endowment programs aside) things will change quickly and dramatically. We've seen evidence already that the current administration is willing to stop funding to universities that fail to comply with EO's and established laws. When university donors realize exactly what they're funding then that gravy train will dry up as well until meaningful change is implemented.
Since the collegiate administrators can't have that they will clean house of the activist professors and return to a science-based approach to mental health. Remember the Golden Rule? He who owns the gold, makes the rules! Allegiance to an ideology ends when it interrupts cash flow.
Barriers to Entry or Minimum Levels of Competence
Did I mention that a lot of grad schools now forgo the GRE entrance exam? And the post-grad oral exams given to make sure the graduate is a good fit and qualified to deal with the public? Those have been eliminated in all 50 states, too. So much for licensing to protect Joe Citizen.
So we lowered the bar to get in (no GRE), then eliminated the last hope we had (oral exams) to screen out the unqualified pre-licensing. Their professors should have done that during the program but career competency is not a requirement for activism.
Their lame justification for opening the gates of incompetence was, "workforce shortage", because who's going to argue with that? (Pro Tip: Adding incompetent professionals to a workforce shortage fixes nothing and only creates new problems to solve.)
Battle for the Mind Sit-Rep Summary
A multi-pronged approach is what's required. A President who refuses to back down, wins of all types at the State and Federal levels, then the grassroots movement has a platform upon which to fight. New organizations (like AMHP and many others) to replace the corrupted guard, a reformed education system brought about through several forms of financial pressure, and endless herds of angry mother-bears which I did not mention, and we get our country and our profession back.
What does your participation look like?
Got Something to Say?
These posts are based on the beliefs and personal experience of the post's author. Please feel free to leave your civil, constructive comments below. We try very hard to back up our statements with fact-based data and we ask you to do the same in your comments. You do not need to be logged in to leave a comment.
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.
