Times are really tough and I appreciate the fuck out of each and everyone of you therapists.
You’re absolutely right—therapy often feels like putting a drop of water on a raging fire. As mental health professionals and advocates, we find ourselves treating individual symptoms while the systemic causes of suffering—economic exploitation, discrimination, state violence—continue unchecked. But what if therapy itself could be reimagined as a tool of collective resistance and liberation rather than just individual adaptation?
The Limits of Individual Therapy in a Dying System
Traditional therapy, rooted in Western individualism, focuses on personal pathology rather than the oppressive structures that create distress in the first place. It helps people survive, but rarely challenges the conditions that make survival so difficult. As fascistic policies escalate—targeting marginalized communities, undermining democracy, and deepening economic inequality—our role cannot simply be to help people “cope” with injustice. Coping is not enough.
Therapy should not just help individuals endure oppressive systems; it should equip them to dismantle and replace those systems. We need a revolution in mental health—one that shifts from isolated, clinical solutions to community-based, justice-oriented healing.
A New Vision: Therapy as Collective Resistance
1. Worker Cooperative Mental Health Practices – Breaking away from profit-driven therapy models and creating mental health collectives that serve communities rather than corporations or insurance companies.
2. Radical Group Therapy & Mutual Aid – Encouraging healing circles, community networks, and activist spaces that treat mental health as a shared struggle, not an isolated condition.
3. Politicizing Therapy – Acknowledging that capitalism, racism, and state oppression are core mental health issues and helping people engage in direct action as a form of healing.
4. Revolutionary Care Networks – Moving beyond institutions and creating autonomous, grassroots mental health support systems that are independent of the state and its oppressive mechanisms.
Collective Action is Therapy
The mental health crisis is not just personal; it is structural. And the only real cure is collective liberation. Healing doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens in the streets, in mutual aid networks, in resistance movements. Therapy must evolve to be part of that fight, not just a salve for its wounds.
We don’t just need better mental healthcare. We need a revolution in how we understand and practice healing.
Mental health care and psychiatrics are traditionally rationed for the professional managerial class anyway.
“Take your SSRIs and exorcise your guilt at doing this soul-sucking job to a professional anxiety reliever” is for rich people.
“Take your weed gummies/cheap booze and watch enjoy some AI-generated wish fulfillment slop” is for poor people.
Big “diseases are caused by big pharma” energy here. I agree with the message though.
Not my intent to question the efficacy of medication, for sure. Just engaging with the reality that many people are medicating against factors that aren’t caused by brain chemistry.
In my experience therapy is something my therapist and I do together. My therapist isn’t giving me water. The two of us together are finding water that was always there.
I’ve had the same experience, therapy is about teaching a man to fish not giving a man a fish
Nobody wants to fish these days
God I fucking love capitalists
Well, all the fishing knowledge in the world won’t help when the fish are all gone.
Taught to catch fish but all that’s left are crabs
Crabs are edible. We’ll be stuck with jellyfish.
A therapist is not here to help you, they are here to help you help yourself. You cannot expect someone who you see once a week to fix your life, only you can do that.
Therapy is essentially gaslighting. They are not here to help you (of course, because they are charlatans and not real doctors), they are here to make you believe everything is fine. If you ignore a problem, it’s no longer a problem!
hi, i have problems in the most complicated organ in all of existence that I have accumulated for my entire life, complicating it every day for the past 20 years. I’d like you to press the off switch for it please.
what do you mean there is no switch? WHAT A SCAM
Been in therapy quite a bit for most of the last 8 years. I just canceled my future appointments because I’m actually doing OK at the moment, but I’ve seen the toll the last few months have taken on my therapist (since the election) despite her best efforts to hide it. I feel terrible for these wonderful people that help shoulder the burdens of others. They are the shock troops bearing the brunt of defense in the current culture war.
My wife is a mental health therapist. It is a very high turnover job due to the emotional toll it takes on them. For the good therapists it’s not something they can do indefinitely. It’s also not as high paying as many seem to think. The majority of the money goes to insurance and then insurance a lot of times strings them along and it can take months sometimes to actually get money from insurance.
Thank her for me. I don’t know how they do it. I talked to my therapist about my fear of causing her emotional distress working with me through my issues, and she assured me that where she is, they have plenty of resources to get their own help when they need it. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard as hell on them.
I will. I can’t speak for your therapists situation, but not all of them have access to necessary resources. There are all too many companies/orgs/whatever out there who see mental health as just a cash grab and hire therapists in and trap them financially and professionally (for lack of better description) into holes they can’t get out of. Not saying all of them obviously. Just be sure to check out the company thoroughly. A lot of them have some of the same worries and traumas you do, and honestly a simple thank you goes way further than you think. It happens far less frequently than you think and I know my wife always gets a boost when she hears a simple thank you or saying how much help she has given.
I figured it’s as much of a shit show as the rest of the healthcare industry. Which makes those that push through all the bullshit to help others that much more special.
I should add “as a therapist in the US.” I have a lot of gay and trans clients, and it’s… bleak.
I know I should go to therapy but then I feel bad burdening a therapist with things like, “I’m so angry that the only thing that helps me sleep is imagining the entire current administration getting hit by a very localized meteor,” because like, this shit is too big and we all have our coping mechanisms, right? At least mine isn’t substance abuse or self harm.
Oh, I encourage my clients to imagine stuff like that if it helps. Totally valid way to cope.
Are you telling me that, after a breakup, when I imagined my ex and the guy she went back to having horrible things happen to them as a way to fall asleep… I wasn’t being a sociopath?
Told my therapist that I often imagine running my ex over with my car, and he said that as long as I’m not planning on doing that irl that it’s perfectly normal and understandable.
Oh well then I’m doing great! In a manner of speaking.
This made me laugh outwardly. Thanks stranger. If it means anything I think your great. Get in a spell and just need to type something out, save my comment and send me a message. 4 years from now, no worries. Worst that happens is I don’t see it for a bit. Best case maybe I get lucky and say something comforting. But often I find that just knowing someone spent the time to listen/read makes people feel a bit of comfort
I’ve always wanted to traumatize a therapist by explaining how we live on a planet that is being systematically dismantled piece by piece.
Therapists aren’t made of psychic porcelain, they actually go to therapy to process the stuff they deal with.
And their therapists go to other therapists?
Babe wake up, new psyramid scheme just dropped.
You’re mixing up your con jobs. They don’t get paid progressively more at the top of the pyramid, it’s all just work.
It’s a laundering operation! But instead of money, the hot item is your trauma.
(I did enjoy psyramid though, gave me a grin)
But it fills my heart with joy to imagine it. Never gonna actually try to, I know they could handle it.
I’ve always wanted to traumatize a therapist by explaining how we live on a planet that is being systematically dismantled piece by piece.
Most therapists have a good understanding about systemic problems. If they are social workers that is basically all of what social work school is about. So you can’t say anything they haven’t heard.
My sister is trans and getting all of her forms of ID because she’s 18 (and needs a job), and we lost it in a move across the country. I have to be there along with two other people to prove she’s a person. She just wants to exist like anyone else, and people are shitting on her because she’s a girl. I want to strangle the world.
I see a therapist who mostly specializes in trans and queer clients (and is non-binary themselves). This last session was a worry fest of my anxieties and them going “honestly? Same” so it was validating, but I’m not sure how much therapizing we got in, lol. Not to say they don’t do a good job, just like, there’s only so much y’all can say or do right now.
And we’re not even American so I cannot imagine. Hang in there.
it’s still good to know you’re not alone and your concerns are valid, and even warranted. you’re not crazy.
Oh, this most certainly adds a lot of context, I’m sorry…
Yeah, it feels really awful right now. And I want to stick my head in the sand with the news but I know I can’t, or things will just get worse.
OMG yes, I soooo wish I could, but my brain needs input! Not knowing does not compute. I originally had the plan to block all the news/political communities as soon as I knew the election outcome, but not knowing what is coming feels worse than the emotional weight of knowing good people are being hurt as a distraction by some shit heads so that they can rob us for all we have (as a country).
I don’t think ill of therapists, but the fact so many issues come down to money doesn’t endear me to the idea of therapy needing to take another chunk of it for dubious gains until you find the right therapist for you, and possibly even after that. Again, blame the system, not people, but hearing folks tell me I must pay people to fix me as the system grinds onward is tiring.
What if people who fix your body were paid by taxes? The brain is also about health and health costs should be free.
Not sure what you were expecting, here. I support universal healthcare, and mental health is part of everyone’s health. Still paying if I want any, though, and that’s not changing anytime soon. Sucks to suck, severely sucks for suckers scoring less than me on the income lottery.
Completely vulnerable moment
As a person long overdue to get some mental help. I’ve been really motivated to get myself better since early last year. Had some events happen where I was like, yeah I need to handle my shit.
I’ll say the process so far is my biggest hurdle. Took ages to get a referral, once I got the referral took ages to get seen. When I finally was seen it was the wrong fit. Now I’m waiting until next week to start again and push for different referrals, all so my insurance covers some of it (maybe).
Meanwhile I’m doing the best I can, but certainly think about just throwing in the towel and drowning myself in drugs again. Which worked a long time until it really really didn’t work. But the thought of finally getting my foot in the door to spend months and thousands trying to even find a root cause just feels utterly pointless. Also now raw dogging life without anything to dull it but some doctor prescribed sleeping pills is challenging to say the least.
Still the worst part is explaining the laundry list of my past trauma to strangers just to get them up to speed. Hopefully to help pinpoint where I need to focus my efforts on getting better. Last fellow just had to say “well you made it this far and seem to be doing better than most of my patients”. Essentially call me back when you have a full blown meltdown, because I only deal with extremes. That shit was deflating, sorry for being proactive and trying to get help before I get committed somewhere?
I’ve spent a really long time keeping my issues in check, I’ve become very good at what to say or not say that is bouncing around my skull. Now that I can’t do it anymore it seems to throw a lot of people for a loop.
Anyhow feels like some sort of shitty race to see if my mind breaks first or I get help before that happens. Than when I do get to the right step 1 there will be this slow trial and error I need to go through. Which I completely understand is necessary, but it’s not giving me much hope.
That person on fire is probably like that because the healthcare system just kept dosing it with gasoline before they stepped foot in the office.
Idk if it will make you feel any better, but you’re not alone. I have a few people in my life who struggle the same as you are, and it emotionally fucks with me. As someone who is somewhat put together myself, to see these people I care about genuinely try to get help and do the right thing to get better - all to be mistreated and counted as another number hurts so bad. I can see it in their tear soaked eyes, and I can hear it in their cries and desperate pleas for help that they feel so helpless and feel like nothing is working no matter how hard they try. I try to listen, to comfort, and to maybe give advice and motivation to keep trying, but it’s all so hard.
The mental health care system in the u.s. is abysmal, it’s gut-wrenchingly bad. It fails people every day. Every day people relapse because they feel like it’s the only way to cope with whatever it is they’re dealing with. I wish I could help more people, I wish I could help you all.
Thanks it helps.
Just started with a therapist after a decade or two of mistrust in them, and yeah, getting them up to speed on all your past and trauma is time consuming, especially when you only get an hour a week to walk through your life story and try to get techniques that help you feel less like shit.
I’m sorry you are going through that. If you’re unaware psychologytoday.com is a great resource. They let you search based on insurance, specialties, in person/virtual, any preferences one might have, and the professionals also might include info about them maybe even a video. I hope you get the help you have been fighting for soon.
Thanks, I have gone there and it was helpful.
I made the mistake the first time by just taking my family doctor’s opinion because I’m newer to the area and have no idea where to start. He sent me to the group who had asshole #1 and I found out afterwards that guy had a lot negative reviews for the same issues I had. The group was ok, but he was the worst and I got placed with him because everyone else was full. I was ignorant and was just desperate to get “somewhere”. Boy was that a mistake.
Bigger problem I’m finding is there is a very small list for my area. Once I popped in the filter for non-secular it gets barren. I live in a very religious area, I’m not anti-religion. But I am an atheist that doesn’t want to go to someone who tells me to confide in God to heal myself. Been to one of those before, just doesn’t work.
Essentially I have narrowed it down to two.
Even as someone who’s religious, I’m not going to pay a therapist what a priest will tell me whether or not I pay. (This is pretending my religion would even have therapists peddling it as though this wasn’t just an extremely Christian thing).
i feel this so much.
i have a referral on the table to begin sessions with a new therapist and have been putting off making the appointment because of the tedium of “getting it all out there” only to find out months from now that (for whatever reason) it was a wasted effort.
i honestly don’t know what progress would look like. does it make sense for me to get my expectations in order before making the appointment?.. or should i just jump in?
I feel like this the blind leading the blind. But I settled on trying to push for a psych evaluation instead of jumping into sessions. I’ve also been journaling my mental state and sleep daily, so I can be prepared this time. Roughest thing I did was physically writing out my past trauma/history, but figured I’d have that on hand too so I had a checklist of things I can remember to talk about. Maybe disconnect it when I talk about it.
Figure with all that at least I can get a baseline opinion out of it and if I don’t like the person this time I have some actionable items I can plug in for people that specialize in what might crop up.
My issues though are not clear so I’m just struggling to find the right path. I hope you keep at it, just as much as I do.
this is excellent advice. my immediate response to it is, of course, to cringe and shy away. but i admit that a bit of journaling would raise my confidence level a lot.
Oh it’s not easy, I keep stopping and forcing myself to restart. But it’s been invaluable, because when I look back I realized how shitty my memory is. Half of the things I put in there I wouldn’t remember if I didn’t write them down.
I’ve been using an app called eMoods if it helps.
i have decided to call in the morning and find out what their scheduling looks like for the next couple of months, and also what prescribing looks like if we want to go that route.
those two pieces of information, and also simply making contact, will help me get my mind right about it.
Best of luck. I feel like I hit the jackpot when I found my current provider last year. It’s definitely a process, and I also put it off. There are good people out there.
If you’ve been burnt to a crisp, even that tiny splash of water can feel like finding an oasis in the desert.
Thank you for your service.
That’s great to know! And thank you.
lol there’s definitely a few clients like that. how many of them are holding the kerosene?
How many of them have to swim through kerosene uphill both ways to clock their time at the kerosene factory so they can afford to have a little food and a kerosene-soaked roof over their heads?
cues the Monty Python Yorkshiremen skit
…that will be $300 thank you.
I’m reminded of the scene in Office Space where Peter goes to his therapist to “transfer” his negative energy, and the therapist has a heart attack on the spot.
Peter is my spirit animal.
Hypnotist iirc, but still relevant
Looks like you need a psychologist to put out the fire then go to the therapist to tame any random flare ups.
I went for years of therapy and they would take the dropper and miss me completely. I don’t know what the fuck I did but this angel dropped out of heaven claiming to be part of my benefits and started checking in on me every week to help orginize my healthcare needs. She got me in therapy, then got me to a psychologist. The psychologist was able to treat me within a few sessions and everything got easier.
I honestly could never get the therapist part to work, I don’t really need someone to give me advise. I need someone to make me feel sane and stand me back up. I haven’t found that yet.
As for the angel, she found a new job, passed me off, and the new guy wasn’t as concerned with me.
I don’t know, really it was the work of that random benefits person that saved me. It’s so overwhelming to have suicidal idealation and constant anxiety/panic attacks and then have to deal with a broken healthcare system. What ever that fuckkng service was I cannot praise it enough.
What could the psychologist do that the therapist couldn’t?
Psychologist and therapists have very little overlap. Some therapist can diagnos and prescribed but that’s all psychiatrist do. I’m no expert though, so you’d be better off asking the google.
That is so awesome. I love that you called her an angel because that’s what these people are. She might not even know how much of a difference she made for you, she was just doing the right thing because it was the right thing.
Had to look it up, name of the program was On Trak Health. Can’t vouch for this ai stuff they are advertising now but like I said first care coach saved me and second one was meh. The second one was probably fine but I had been spoiled.
The second one was probably fine but I had been spoiled.
Not spoiled. The second one was meh because the first one was doing their job well, which is exactly what you deserved as a client of any health service.
To be fair, she really was exceptional, and had found her true calling.
