How Scary is Woke, Really?

An emboldening message for therapists, from a featured guest

A friend and supporter of my work recently took the time to elaborate his thoughts on matters of common concern for this featured guest article. His message is sound, well-researched, level-headed, and encouraging. I am honored by his kind words.

I recognize that it may land oddly for a message of encouragement to speak out to be coming from someone who nonetheless wishes to remain anonymous. However, having become personally acquainted with the writer, a therapist trainee in the early stages of his career, I can attest: he is thinking strategically, taking calculated risks, and will not live in the shadows forever.

Now on to his article.

How Scary is Woke, Really?

For the purpose of this article, I will take as a given that wokery has, quickly and to an astonishing degree, undermined some of the most central tenets of the mental health profession and introduced into the profession a complex of indoctrinations and cognitive distortions that proverbially poisons everything it touches. If you are not convinced that this is the case, the rest of this article may not interest you.

As a single example, the 2005 ACA Code of Ethics literally does not contain the term “social justice”. The 2014 ACA Code of Ethics, the current version, lists “promoting social justice” as one of the five “core professional values” of the entire profession. The 2014 ACA Code of Ethics’ glossary defines “social justice” as “the promotion of equity for all people and groups for the purpose of ending oppression and injustice affecting clients, students, counselors, families, communities, schools, workplaces, governments, and other social and institutional systems.” Neo-Marxist dogma is now enshrined as a core principle of counseling. It wasn’t mentioned in the last version. Now it’s a core principle.

I am a counseling trainee, and I did not realize how deep the woke infection was until I started my training. Over the past six months or so, through podcasts like You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist and The Radical Center and through organizations like Critical Therapy Antidote (CTA) and Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA), I have been relieved to find that I am not alone in my alarm about the state of the mental health profession vis-à-vis wokery. There are counselors, therapists, psychologists, and trainees all over the English-speaking world who feel similarly. Finding kindred spirits has restored much of my sanity and has given me a sense of community. Simultaneously, the combined number, experience, and intelligence of these kindred spirits begs an uncomfortable question: how did this happen when there are so many astute, experienced professionals that are committed to practicing mental health care with integrity and effectiveness?

Stephanie Winn, LMFT, host of You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist, was recently interviewed by Leslie Elliott, host of the The Radical Center. In the interview, Winn touched a key dynamic in spreading of the woke infection: the reluctance of mental health professionals to call it out.

“I think therapists are afraid to be whole people and that the culture of our profession can be quite oppressive and then that just sets us up for these indoctrination trainings to come in and tell us: “Here’s how you’re going to be a good person, here’s how you’re going to be a good therapist. Don’t ask any questions.” (14:29)

Within this culture, Winn identifies a particularly insidious cognitive distortion.

“I think therapists live in so much fear. …Have you ever seen those CBT worksheets on decatastrophizing? … It’s such a basic therapy tool. … There’s a worksheet anyone can download for free on the internet called “decatastrophizing” and it asks “OK, what’s this thing that you’re so afraid of? How likely is it to occur? If it did occur, how bad would it be?… It helps you debunk the myth that this thing that you’re worried could happen would absolutely destroy your life. I think every therapist who’s afraid of speaking out needs to do a decatastrophizing process with that.” (Winn interview, 23:33)

Here’s an example of such a worksheet.

The central fear that mental health professionals have, according both to Winn and to my experience networking with professionals, is that their licenses and, hence, their careers, would come under attack. Indeed, there is precedent for ideologically captured licensing boards to go after insufficiently ideological licensees. 

Winn is uniquely qualified to discuss this issue, since she was successful in defending her Oregon license from accusations that she was, essentially, not carrying the woke water. “So, I survived that. I survived every therapist’s worst fear, right? attacks on your license. And I lived to tell the tale.” (Winn interview, 23:15). In Canada, Jordan Peterson is facing demands from College of Psychologists of Ontario to attend social media “re-education” based on his social media posting.

So, yes, this could happen: a mental health professional could be threatened by his or her licensing board for being insufficiently woke. But how likely is this to happen?

Portland is, arguably, the wokest city in the country. I recently went to the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Therapists and Counselors (OBLPTC) and found a list of all disciplinary actions against counselors and therapists (psychologists and psychiatrists not included) between January 2008 and November 2022. I called OBLPTC and asked whether there were any disciplinary actions that might not have been made public. I was told that every disciplinary action is made public. So, they are all here, about 260 or so actions in total. I performed a sequence of word searches for woke terms in this document:

1.  racist

2.  racism

3.  bipoc

4.  privilege

5.  sexis (for sexism and sexist)

6.  patriarchy

7.  trans (for transition, transgender, trans)

8.  gender

9.  identity

I found three actions:

12/11/2020 Donato, Tony – Licensed: C1712 Licensee met with Client A on five occasions between October 2018 and December 2018. During these sessions, Licensee expressed his personal opinions regarding gender identity, and transgender care, which were not relevant to Client A’s purpose for seeking professional counseling. Client A did not consent to the discussion initiated by Licensee, and found his comments to be offensive and emotionally upsetting. Discipline: Reprimand, 6 hours of continuing education and payment of disciplinary costs.

06/09/2017 Kauffman, Katherine – Licensed: C3371 Licensee composed a referral for medical transition based on another QMHP’s referral letter when it was deemed insufficient. The referral was composed on behalf of someone with whom she had a personal relationship and was not a client. Discipline: Reprimand, payment of disciplinary costs.

08/13/2012 Shin, Jordan – Licensed: C2690 Improperly diagnosed a minor client with gender identity disorder and provided information on the gender transitioning process. Discipline: Supervision for one year, education on adolescent development and sexuality, payment of disciplinary costs.

So, in the past 15 years or so, the board has disciplined a counselor or therapist for something woke-related a grand total of three times, all about “trans” and “gender identity” issues: none about race or sexism. That’s about once every five years. Furthermore, from my perspective, it appears that two of these licensees may have actually been disciplined for being too woke. Hard to know, since there is not much detail provided, but these summaries do not read, to me, like the commissars crashing down on wrong think. You, dear reader, can make your own assessment.

However, even if I am incorrect and all of these actions were to penalize licensees for being insufficiently woke, it was once every five years or so. Furthermore, in none of these cases, was a license revoked.

Let me summarize and emphasize that point. In the state of Oregon, arguably the wokest state in the country, in the past 15 years literally not a single therapist has had his or her license revoked for being insufficiently woke. Not one. Not in 15 years.

Getting back to Stephanie’s comments about catastrophization, maybe this will embolden some licensees out there: as a matter of history, the likelihood of a revoked license in the state of Oregon based on being insufficiently woke is essentially nil. It is more likely, in fact, that a licensee will be disciplined for being too woke.

A basis for courage, methinks! As Winn pointed out in her interview, the difference between a fear and a well-founded fearis important, and the difference is often data. The data do not, too me, support very much concern about a counselor or therapist losing his or her license for actively opposing or ignoring the pressures of woke.

Now, there are concerns other than those related to licenses. For instance, I am now a trainee and about to start my field placement in my home state. The community mental health institution with whom I am scheduled to work is very woke: it’s the only offer I received and, frankly, most of these facilities are very woke now. Now, if I sign my name to this article, I am concerned that my field placement site might find out and terminate me on this basis, since they openly and publicly accept the utter insanity that goes by “transgender ideology”. So, even if I am not in danger with my state licensing board, I might be in danger of losing my position with my field placement site. I can think of no way to assess the risk of my losing a field placement in a way that would sooth my concerns. Therefore, I am making the calculated decision to publish this anonymously, which is disappointing, but, I think, prudent. I imagine that counselors and therapists that work for large organizations may have similar fears. 

It's a difficult time for mental health professionals who are exasperated by woke. However, a look at available data may embolden many. For those who embrace CBT: time to walk the walk!