Thursday, February 8, 2018

The World View Of The Therapist

A comment on this post:

Every therapist brings an entire world-view into the room when treating a client. This world view includes religious outlook in addition to their own emotional baggage. We are ALL carrrying emotional baggage. 

Rav Moshe Feinstein wrote a teshuva forbidding one to see a non-Jewish or irreligious therapist. This is because what they may deem a pathology, for may be required behavior. [E.g. We wash our hands constantly even when they are not dirty - netilas yadaim, tefillah etc. Two weeks a month there is no touching at all between spouses, their beds are separated, they don't hand things to each other etc. I can see someone thinking that this is abnormal. For us it is holy:-)]

But even religious therapists are liable to mislead the client into thinking that to keep the Torah as required is unhealthy. So for example, they may tell a teenage boy not to feel guilty if he releases his sexual tension in halachically forbidden ways because he has done nothing wrong.

This is a complex topic and not a simplistic as I just presented it but it is an important point to bring up. If you have any questions - speak to a Rav who understands these issues.