[Wiggle118]

A couple sessions ago (the week the vaccines were first announced in the news), my T asked me to list everything that I was feeling anxious about at that time.

I gave the vaccine as an example (among others), because it was/is very new. My T said that it was understandable that I was anxious and that apparently it contained cells from aborted foetuses. I didn’t say much at the time, but it sounded like utter rubbish to me. I did check it out later and it turned out to be a myth doing the rounds.

I just think it was an odd thing for T to say. That she believed it does make me lose a little of my respect for her, to be honest. That she told me, when I had specifically told her that it was something I was anxious about, makes me question her professionalism a little bit. But then I also think, does falling for rubbish in the news automatically make her a bad therapist? I don’t know.

[chihirochild]

That's ridiculous on so many levels. I wouldn't be able to trust her after that--how could someone so ill-informed make a good therapist?

[stopdog]

Therapists are not better than other humans - and they are equally susceptible to all sorts of crap (I mean they decided to be therapists so right there should tell something). They have a (very loose and suspect) job to do and outside of that I wouldn't expect anything more. I also never cared what a therapist thought about anything -whether a therapist takes a vaccine or not or believes in it or not is their problem - not mine. It would not cause me to lose respect for the therapist but that is probably because I had no respect for that profession in the first place. I am always surprised when one of those people is relatively not horrible

[LonesomeTonight]

Wow, that would really bother me, too. Maybe see how she reacts if you tell her you investigated it, and it turns out to not be true? And see how she reacts? (Possibly have a link to an article ready, too.) If she insists on it, I'd be inclined to ask her what her source is. And to say how it bothers you.

[atisketatasket]

Originally Posted by Wiggle118

But then I also think, does falling for rubbish in the news automatically make her a bad therapist? I don’t know.

I actually think this is the right way to think. If she had a weird opinion on therapy, I’d question her as a therapist. A weird opinion or a mistake on something not related to therapy, eh. (Not to mention she could just have misunderstood something she heard.) What really matters is whether she is an effective therapist for you.

My current therapist is very different from me politically and religiously, and I consider it irrelevant. In fact I think it’s good she’s not in the echo chamber I sometimes feel I move in in my daily life.

That would bother me too. It is concerning that she believes such a thing. It's more concerning to me that she didn't have the objective perspective to know how potentially inflammatory sharing that information could be. It was not a good choice to disclose that. If she thinks it, keep it to herself!

Not certain if her intention was to empathize with you. So I encourage you to talk to her about it. Maybe send an email, so it doesn't take up your therapy time.

[daisydid]

I can see both sides of this. As a client, I would have a reaction to this because how could my therapist believe something so ignorant, but at the same time, I wouldn't want one of my clients to judge me too harshly if I was ill-informed about something like this. I agree with those who are saying to discuss this with your therapist, but I don't know that I would focus on changing her mind or anything like that. I would want to approach it from the stance that you were addressing your anxiety and how the way that she tried to alleviate your anxiety was ineffective.

[Rive.]

That doesn't necessarily mean she is a bad therapist but rather, ignorant.

I would lose respect for a health professional who was so uninformed.

I don't take issue with the fact that she is not well-informed. However, as a health care professional, I think it is important for them to check their 'beliefs' before conveying them as facts to clients. Not doing any basic research is what would make me lose respect.

[ArtleyWilkins]

Here is the actual information (took me 30 seconds to find and maybe a minute to read -- it isn't that complicated): PolitiFact | The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine does not contain aborted fetal tissue

I'd have a problem with a therapist who a) is ignorant of the facts and didn't take two minutes to quickly fact check her ignorance and gain some basic scientific understanding; and b) has views that honestly do not align with mine in a way that I'm a bit repulsed by to be quite honest. Her views would send me running for the hills.

[Flinders40]

Originally Posted by LonesomeTonight

Wow, that would really bother me, too. Maybe see how she reacts if you tell her you investigated it, and it turns out to not be true? And see how she reacts? (Possibly have a link to an article ready, too.) If she insists on it, I'd be inclined to ask her what her source is. And to say how it bothers you.

Exactly. The majority of the crap being peddled is NOT by journalists/ media - rather by internet trolls with Google medical degrees. I would be really bothered by her quickness to relay incorrect information in your session without backing up such an absurd claim.

[*Beth*]

Yikes. I G N O R A N T.


That degree of uninformed stupidity would be over the line for me. I would have to open up a conversation about the subject with her - bring in some printed out information, if necessary. If she refuses to be educated, and to accept the truth about the covid vaccine (including what stem cells are) I would have an extremely difficult (impossible?) time trusting her with anything.

[emmaleemochizuki]

My apologies if I'm wrong as I wasn't there and don't know the full situation.

Could she have said that with an assumption that this is what you might have believed? If you get what I mean.

Anyway either way is bad.

Hope you are ok though. If you do feel that you can't trust her anymore you have every right to terminate and find another therapist that suits you.

Best wishes xx

[Taylor27]

It really concerns me that a therapist would tell you this with out back it up with truth behind it. I have talked to my therapist about the vaccine on a numerous occasions and she has always given me websites, doctors to check out. I think it's very scary for a therapist to tell there clients mis leading information

[divine1966]

Ignorant.

I’ve met (professionally) quite a few very ignorant social workers. And I am not putting social workers down, but I knew and worked with a number of really strange ones.

One believed that unusual gate, posture or manner of walking are all symptoms of schizophrenia (there was no other symptoms). When pointed out that one had high functioning ASD and one was walking certain way because of cerebral palsy and neither had schizophrenia, she insisted that she read it somewhere and it’s a sure sign . She believed that everyone who stays up late is doing so because they are depressed. She wouldn’t buy an explanation that the person was at a party or had some other fun stuff keeping them up or that someone might be a night owl

Then I knew one who had hard time learning basic computer functions, that certain things don’t automatically save and if you don’t save them they get lost. She routinely typed stuff over other peoples reports deleting what others typed because she just couldn’t grasp how it works. She also couldn’t figure out any google functions and the concept of a shared drive of shared files

One I know now is so ditzy, dumb, lazy, clueless and gullible that we are all scratching our heads

Now having said that, they also are NOT good at their job. I don’t know if ignorance made them bad or it’s just a coincidence but I suspect ignorant peipke can’t do a good job with anything that is not a menial job. But then again I
Might be wrong

Is she a good therapist otherwise?

[nottrustin]

This is really hard because many people truly and honestly believe some of the myths. They also believe there are cover-up in the media to trick people into believing the vaccines are safe and ethical. They belive it all a ploy to get everybody vaccinated. So the 30 second Google search means nothing to them. I know several highly intelligent people who are against the vaccine. Many because of the aborted fetus theory. Somebody who I adore and look up to in many ways honestly believes a microchip is injected into the serum. So that we will be tracked. No mater what information is given to her or how much we try to reason with her, she is afraid to get the shot. She doesn't want to be tracked. She us not a therapist but this shows how many people can believe the nonsense and be educated

[Wiggle118]

Thank you for all your replies.

As some have said, it’s the lack of critical thinking or thought in general that must be behind that comment. I’m not expecting her to have a thorough knowledge of healthcare science.

So, today we were discussing my anxiety again and the current situation with COVID, ports having been blocked in/out of England, etc. came up. I mentioned that my mum was anxious about the food situation (there have been rumours about food shortages) and that whilst I was also a little anxious about the situation as a whole, I was not going to panic about it. I also said that panic buying can make the issue worse and I didn’t want to feed the problem. My therapist said that these were not usual times and that it might be a good idea for me to buy a few extra things and tuck them away. I don’t feel that this is helpful.

I also mentioned that I thought other countries had handled the pandemic better than us. My therapist repeated my statement and said that other countries had also not brought in such “draconian” rules. She said she had spoken to colleague earlier that day, who was passionately against these rules, felt that they were “fascist” and something that we had previously fought against. She paused after saying this, like she would when she’s waiting for a response from me, and when I didn’t say anything she just said that she thought it was interesting. I’m not sure how this would be relevant to my therapy or anxiety

All things considered, I think I have to find another therapist or specifically request that we don’t discuss current affairs.