Does Your Social Media Make You Look Like a Bad Therapist?

Curt and Katie chat about therapists putting out advice on social media. We look at how bad this advice can be and when it can even be harmful. We talk about what makes this advice bad and what to do instead.  

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

In this podcast episode we talk about therapist influencers giving advice on social media

We look at really bad relationship advice that seems to proliferate on social media by therapist influencers.

Why is the advice oftentimes bad from therapists on social media?

·      Micro-validation of what clients are already believing about themselves or their partners

·      Lack of context and very specific related to your target client (but seen by all folks)

·      Focusing on the people around the person reading the post, rather than the reader themselves

·      Single posts that go viral or reach wider audiences may be misconstrued or taken out of context

What is the potential for harm for the therapy profession?

·      Bad advice = bad therapist, which can be generalized to all therapists

·      Harmful advice can lead to harm in the wider population

·      Saying that you’re speaking for all of mental health (when it is actually not grounded in the evidence base)

·      It is hard to distill nuanced information in very short timeframes

What should therapists do to improve their social media posts?

·      Citing sources rather than standing out as a sole expert

·      Grounding self in the evidence base or recognized psychological knowledge

·      Talking to clients about what they can do, rather than how to judge the people around them

·      Designing the content to be engaging, but also tie back to longer form content that can have more nuance and context

·      Each post has to stand alone, with sufficient context

·      Identifying questions or considerations for folks to look at (versus definitive statements)

What are the concerns with therapists being too limited with what they share on social media?

·      Not providing information that can help folks in abusive relationships

·      Coaches and “fake therapists” may be the only people in the space, putting out even worse advice

What are the characteristics of very bad social media advice?

·      Rigidity in perspective

·      Equating hurt and abuse

·      Overusing pop psychology terms like “trauma bond”

·      Giving overarching, single tactic coping advice that can be harmful for many folks

·      Putting things very definitively, without nuance related

Resources for Modern Therapists mentioned in this Podcast Episode:

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Relevant Episodes of MTSG Podcast:

Navigating the Social Media Self-Diagnosis Trend

Has Therapy Become the New Religion

What Can Therapists Say About Celebrities: The ethics of public statements

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