SGU and Mental Health Practice

The latest edition of the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe pays attention to a subject which interests me a lot and would like to see handled also in Shrinkrapradio and/or the Wise Counsel podcast. This subject is Skepticism in the realm of mental health practice.

I find it rather scary, that the title of 'therapist' is not protected and as a consequence, therapists range from conscientious mental help facilitators to quacks and scam artists. Similarly, the therapies used also range from soundly founded methods to pseudo-scientific or even potentially dangerous approaches. And last but not least, the way in which those therapies are presented, applied and followed range from properly attuned to blindly administered to all and again to the potentially dangerous. It is therefore very important that time and effort is spent into telling the ones from the others.

SGU interviews Scott Lilienfield, who is a psychology professor at Emory University and who was one of the editors to the book ' Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology' and to the magazine 'The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice'. Lilienfield delivers a talk on the subject and hands an initial expose on this problem. I am very happy with this SGU podcast and hope to learn more.