“The therapeutic culture has to shift because our world is shifting. The landscape is shifting. And I think that we ignore it at our peril and, honestly, at the peril of our patients and clients." ~Kirsten Lind Seal
Why political neutrality isn't necessarily possible—and how to navigate values, boundaries, and ethical self-disclosure in therapeutic relationship with clients.
There’s a saying: “If you don’t do politics, politics will do you!” Variations of that theme have been around since Pericles traded jabs with council members in Ancient Greece.
You, dear therapist, live in modern times, and navigating politics hasn’t gotten any easier. Our profession asks us to leave our biases and personal experiences on the other side of the office door. But none of our clients make choices or approach healing from inside a comfy, unbiased little bubble. So, I’ll ask: Is therapy political?
“The personal is political. The political is personal,” says Kirsten Lind Seal, Ph.D., LMFT, a Minneapolis-based therapist, educator, and researcher. Kirsten is an ethics and boundaries expert who hosts CEU trainings via PESI. She’s here to help us dissect political disclosure in the therapeutic relationship.
“Therapy, of course, is political,” Kirsten continues. That doesn't mean that therapists should always put their political beliefs on display. “My strong recommendation is for people to really think about how they can actually help people deal with the political realm in the therapy room because it’s affecting people's lives.”
When a client wants to “talk politics,” how do we retain professional integrity? How do we welcome open dialogue if a client holds different political views? Kirsten advocates for practicing a generosity of spirit toward clients. That said, we must also acknowledge the context in which some of us live and practice. No one is obligated to sit with a nationalist or supremacist.
I’ve watched the question about political disclosure play out in Facebook groups. Conservative-leaning peers often challenge the social justice roots of social work education. Those conversations routinely devolve into over-intellectualized arguments about therapy as a space for personal betterment that exists beyond political reality.
Kirsten has watched those same discussions play out among her students. “There are all kinds of people who take my trainings,” she observes. “And one of them said something like, isn’t promoting social justice a liberal or political stance? And the answer is, it's not; it’s a therapeutic stance.”
Whether and how much you choose to disclose is always your prerogative. Staying true to your values is your imperative.
GUEST CONTACT & BIO
Kirsten Lind Seal, PhD, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist, educator, and researcher. She teaches graduate students at Chaminade University of Honolulu and Saint Mary’s University in Minneapolis, with a focus on ethics, cultural awareness, and the role of power and oppression in clinical practice. Her research and presentations explore culturally responsive care, implicit bias, and the influence of cultural context on ethical decision-making.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES
The Ethics of Taking Politics into the Therapy Room with Jordan Conrad
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Psychology Networker Symposium
American Psychological Association
Irvin Yalom, M.D.
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