Big Businesses: Therapy Nation, Awarding Those Academic Degrees and More

America, the land of optimism about improving ourselves, was a sitting duck for the businesses of psychotherapy, becoming educated at college and more to take off. And that they did.

The therapy sector is almost at $100 billion. Higher education is at almost $218 billion. And, BTW, another category of self-improvement, that is, managing our weight that's at about $90 billion.

So, it's predictable there is an outcry about the overuse, misuse and abuse of both psychotherapy and what had been heading to be the universal rite of passage of going to college. After all, they are businesses. And most nations, including the US, had to establish a regulatory framework to oversee business. Consumer beware. 

This week psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert is blowing the whistle on other players in his line of work. Published on May 19th is "Therapy Nation." Alpert's beef: Essentially therapists not only side with their clients' perception of grievance. They reinforce it. There's no attempt to unravel how they might be creating that reality and learn methods to manage it. 

My raw take on that: Psychotherapists don't want to lose the business. So, you bet, humor the client.

About 50% of psychotherapists are self-employed. It probably never occurs to the clients that they are paying the bills and supporting the lifestyle of this earnest listener, tissue handler and comforter-in-chief. This is business, just like having my Toyota fixed at Midas is business. 

Maybe therapy nation is one more to blame on the Boomers. The oldest of them I and my fellow classmates were coming into our state of acute grievances in our early 20s. That coincided with the wild embrace of Freudian psychology to reconstruct damaged psyches. The faith in that was blind, just as in higher education. The more education the better. The more deep therapy the better. The New Yorker had cartoons about our quoting our analysts at parties.

Smirk. What reconstructed our damaged psyches was probably the horrific economic recession of the mid 1970s. But meanwhile, we had kicked off therapy nation. 

Our legacy, of course, also included developing the illusion that academic degrees insured employment security. In mentoring younger generations we insisted that they "get through the system." Currently, of course, thought leaders such as Apollo CEO Marc Rowan are showcasing what's very wrong in both the moving parts and the assumptions about why the university exists. It goes without comment that the promise of life-long employability through degree-getting has gone poof. Mea culpa: I mentored you wrong. And, yes, leave the MBA off the resume.

The solution? Give up on the intense chase after self-improvement. Among the successful and satisfied is the buzz about radical acceptance. In the tarot, that's symbolized by The Chariot card.



Radical acceptance isn't new, though. 

William Shakespeare hammered the reality of how flawed humans are and how myopic. The Roman Catholic Church called that lacking "original sin." Psychologist Carl Jung, who broke away from Freud, called it our "shadow side." 

In coaching I guide clients in the reality that we're a bunch of screwups. It isn't that we screw up. It should be about how well we fix all that.

Careers? So Over. It’s about Earning a Good Living. No matter what.

Complimentary consultation. No Pressure. Street-smart Guidance. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.


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