{"id":17093,"date":"2013-03-12T10:30:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-12T17:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=17093"},"modified":"2017-04-28T11:19:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T18:19:47","slug":"dr-drew-dr-phil-and-rehab-tv-draw-therapists-ire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/topic-expert-round-up-dr-drew-dr-phil-rehab-tv-draw-ire-0312135","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Drew, Dr. Phil, and &#8216;Rehab TV&#8217; Draw Therapists&#8217; Ire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-17096\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/empty-waiting-room.jpg\" alt=\"Empty waiting room\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" title=\"\">The recent news that troubled country singer Mindy McCready <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/learn-about-therapy\/issues\/suicide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">took her own life<\/a> has thrust the debate about the efficacy and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/tag\/ethics-in-therapy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ethics<\/a> of &#8220;rehab&#8221; television shows and the people behind them, such as Dr. Drew and Dr. Phil, into the spotlight. McCready is the fifth cast member from <i>Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew<\/i> to die, prompting one well-known musician to take to Twitter to compare host Drew Pinsky to assisted-suicide icon Jack Kevorkian: &#8220;Same results,&#8221; Richard Marx wrote.<\/p>\n<p>We wanted to know what our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/expert-therapists-counselors-psychologists.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Topic Experts<\/a> think, so we asked them the following questions: Is the criticism of Dr. Drew, Dr. Phil, and similar so-called experts-turned-media personalities warranted? Is it enough? After all, for many Americans, they are THE faces of therapy. Is that fair? Are they doing more harm than good? Is what they do simply exploitation, or is there more to it? With the popularity of reality TV on the rise, how can therapy professionals counteract any damage done by Dr. Drew, Dr. Phil, and others whose platforms extend into living rooms from coast to coast and beyond?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what they had to say:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapists\/profile\/deb-hirschhorn-20080109\">Deb Hirschhorn (relationships and marriage)<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Money is a problem, and even \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 therapists get green eyes. I cannot count how many Internet marketers have advised me to have \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreal clients\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 give video testimonials on my successful website\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I have refused. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBut,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 they complain, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcall the therapists are doing it!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 That may be true, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still wrong. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBut,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 comes the reply, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe clients <i>want<\/i> to do it. Aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they adults who can make their own decisions? If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think so, then aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you treating them like children and isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that disrespectful?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 The question is good and deserves a response. It was my first child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fourth birthday when my second child was born. The second needed a C-section, but that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop me from feeling the strong need to make a special birthday party for the first child. After all, I certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to provoke sibling rivalry by unduly fussing over the newcomer. I rushed to the grocery store and started shopping. Unfortunately, that provoked some pain and I phoned the doctor. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhat?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re running up and down the grocery aisles? No ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122am! You need to sit and take it easy after a C-section.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 The moral of this story is that although I am an adult and quite capable of making decisions, I did not see the ramifications of my actions. The same is true for clients who go live on the air to tell their stories: They do not see the ways in which they may be hurting themselves by airing their troubles, their weaknesses, their mistakes, and their pain in front of an audience of strangers. Therapists, on the other hand, although not clairvoyant, have enough experience with people to be able to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 into the future and know that this is a formula for disaster. And the reason is actually quite simple: People of all ages need a higher number of positives in their life than negatives in order to go forward. They need to believe there is something good about their choices, their history, and who they are as people in order to be able to meet each day with the strength it takes to master challenges. Focusing on the problem instead of their resources is a formula for hopelessness. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/50-signs-good-therapy-0110119\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">good therapist<\/a> will build on strengths and only dab a little drop of problem talk into the session as necessary to know what, exactly, needs fixing. Airing all this publicly does just the opposite.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapists\/profile\/darren-haber-20091204\">Darren Haber (addictions and compulsions)<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the criticism is actually too polite by half. It would help, for starters, if these guys were experienced clinical psychologists, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not. Dr. Drew isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/psychpedia\/psychologist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">psychologist<\/a>, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an internist, and Dr. Phil is more practiced at expert witness work for courtrooms\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich makes sense, given his sensationalizing, sometimes prosecutorial style (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcyou need a backbone,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcand this was a good idea <i>why<\/i>?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 etc.). The bigger problem is the awkward marrying of psychology with entertainment,<i> <\/i>a devil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bargain to begin with. Real clinical work is slow, repetitive, ambiguous, and often plain boring. It can also be exhilarating and tremendously moving \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but after the kind of slog I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m describing herein. The big Hollywood cathartic breakthrough (a la <i>Good Will Hunting<\/i>) is rare, and only occasionally leads to change. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve witnessed crying jags that are forgotten the following week.) The values of entertainment\u00e2\u20ac\u201dof, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face it, tabloid TV\u00e2\u20ac\u201dare contra the values of psychology, which in its authentic form is probably better suited to something found on PBS or NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor, better yet, as a book or classroom discussion, etc. To take one example of how the medium corrodes the message, via Dr. Drew: Many people in recovery have narcissistic tendencies; life is itself often a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcperformance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in a desperate seeking of approval and attention. Sticking a camera into a therapy group is exactly what so many recovering people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need. (It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help those who are painfully self-conscious, either.) A camera changes the equation, period. It is naive and even dangerous to pretend otherwise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapists\/profile\/sarah-swenson-20110804\">Sarah Swenson (Asperger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \/ autism)<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Electronic communication is like any other form of communication in one very misunderstood way: Most of what is communicated is nonverbal. We can see the truth in this when we are speaking directly to someone and we incorporate tone of voice, gesture, facial expression, and other cues into our comprehension of what we hear. But when we are watching reality TV, which is a misnomer at best and an outright lie at worst, these cues are scattered to the wind. Viewers can be lulled into a false sense of reality, by design, and it would be a natural next step if they were to take these TV performances seriously and consider the outcomes of the treatments and advice as if they were valid and complete. Individuals who are less skilled at \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreading between the lines\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to begin with are all the more vulnerable to the illusory nature of the reality being portrayed on reality TV. Even the so-called experts, such as Dr. Drew and Dr. Phil, are not working as psychotherapists, whose work takes place session after session in an environment of building <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/learn-about-therapy\/issues\/trust-issues\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interpersonal trust<\/a> and a therapeutic liaison in which healing can occur. Yet these TV experts proffer advice through the airwaves, advice which often suggests that there are quick fixes to even the deepest problems, such as substance-abuse issues or mental illness. If a viewer sees someone (a celebrity, for example) take her own life after experiencing the supposed advantage these so-called experts proffer, and that viewer has an even less supportive environment than the celebrity, he or she runs the risk of thinking that if someone who has it all can commit suicide, can fail, then the odds against solving personal problems are overwhelmingly bleak.\u00c2\u00a0It is ingenuous to suggest that copycat suicide is an unlikely event. These TV experts do all psychotherapists a disservice. Most significantly, however, they do a gross disservice to their viewers, who are primed to fall into despair for having taking them seriously when their own clients,\u00c2\u00a0their so-called success stories, choose to end their lives.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Moushumi Ghose (sexuality \/ sex therapy): \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have asked myself this question, too: Did media kill psychology, or did it bring it to life? I think Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew definitely have a lot of insight, advice, tips, and suggestions to offer the greater public, and to help many to make changes in their lives. However, in the field of psychology, one of the rules of thumb is that the client is the expert. So, in this medium\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhether it be Internet, TV, or otherwise\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe client is an audience of millions subscribing to the same views. With the plethora of self-help and coaching, it seems that there is a lot of advice out there being misconstrued somehow as psychotherapy. Dr. Drew and Dr. Phil are educators giving insight into the process of self-growth, and should be seen as such. Their work is to reach a broader audience to get the ball rolling but in no way should be seen as a substitute for working on yourself. Media to reach a larger audience is great, but it&#8217;s too easy to fall into the trap of seeing their word as gospel. These shows don&#8217;t encourage individuals to find a path of growth that is unique to themselves; it encourages a sheep-like mentality, which is not the goal of psychotherapy at all. We also have an overabundance of coaches nowadays who base their teachings on personal experience and their practice on advice giving. I believe all of these have a tendency to water down the field of personal growth. There is a lot of information out there and much of it is free, so one must weed out the self-help information and TV shows, decide what is entertainment and what is real, and recognize which do not suit their needs and which ones may actually prohibit their own journey of personal growth.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapists\/profile\/john-sovec-20070810\">John Sovec (LGBT issues)<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153As the market for reality television shows expands, many more therapists are being asked to step up to the plate and represent the field of psychology, with all of its benefits and challenges. The major players in the television field often seem to be playing for the television ratings rather than looking out for the best interests of the clients. The well-known television therapists are often represented in an omnipotent role with an expertise in every subject that is presented to them. The reality is that therapy is a personal and ongoing experience and that it is virtually impossible for a client\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s issues to be resolved in 50 minutes and then neatly wrapped up in a bow. Clinicians need the time to establish rapport, learn about the challenges that are facing their clients, and then work together with their clients to find the appropriate tools for success. As a therapist who has appeared on television, it can be a very tricky balance to respond to the needs of the clients you are working with and at the same time create a sense of safety in the middle of a chaotic filming experience. Much of what the television audience sees is only a small part of the actual therapeutic process that goes into the making of these shows. The challenge is that most people are now viewing therapy as a sensational, dramatic, and immediate solution to their issues, and place unrealistic expectations on the process and their relationship with their therapist. Are media therapists doing harm? Maybe to the perception of what therapy is and how the process works, but at the same time, if television therapists can remain ethical and authentic, they can demystify the experience and open the doors for more people to consider the benefits of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/find-therapist.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seeking therapy<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapists\/profile\/jill-v-denton-20070703\">Jill Denton (sexuality \/ sex therapy)<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGood therapy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the truest sense is therapy that provides safe, private, confidential space for a client to truly \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgo deep\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and explore their hopes, their fears, and their dreams. I&#8217;m deeply saddened when someone equates what Drew, Phil, or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrehab TV\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offers to the healing work that happens in my office, which is sacred space. What these charlatans are doing is downright reprehensible!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapists\/profile\/sarah-noel-20100920\">Sarah Noel (person-centered \/ Rogerian)<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have very mixed feelings on this issue. In some ways, the Dr. Drews and Dr. Phils of the world have increased the awareness of mental health issues and normalized seeking treatment. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapy-myths-and-facts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">decreases stigma<\/a> and has probably led some people into therapy who may not have considered such a thing in the past. That said, what gets good television ratings and what qualifies as good, quality psychotherapy are, more often than not, very different things. While that seems an obvious distinction within the professional community, it is quite possible that your average viewer is not making such a distinction and therefore they believe what they are seeing on television is what psychotherapy is supposed to look like. This seems to lead to very dangerous territory that could be the tipping point into doing more harm than good.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/therapists\/profile\/judith-barr-20080716\">Judith Barr (power: healing to the root)<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For television personalities to be the face of psychotherapy\u00e2\u20ac\u201deven TV personalities who were once practicing medical doctors or psychologists\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis a huge disservice to the essence of psychotherapy. And it is a limitless disservice to members of the public who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet know the best of what psychotherapy can be and who need, want, and could be deeply helped by real depth psychotherapy. Having TV personalities be the face of psychotherapy coast to coast and even abroad is not only a disservice, but also a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/warning-signs-of-bad-therapy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">misuse and abuse of power<\/a>. The true essence of psychotherapy is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153soul work.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It originally meant the healing of soul or spirit. With the best of psychotherapists, it remains so today \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but that is in the privacy of the therapy room. Once someone takes psychotherapy into the public media for the purposes of entertainment, financial exploitation, and money generation off the backs and hearts of vulnerable people, the essence and process of psychotherapy becomes disfigured, and the healing of the person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soul becomes secondary or tertiary to showbiz. A huge part of my intention and commitment of my energy has already been to help people widely get a better sense of how deep psychotherapy is and can be, when the therapist does his\/her own inner healing work to the root, and then offers the same depth to his\/her clients. I am not sure how else to fulfill this intention and to help counteract the damage of the abuse done to therapy and its name in many ways\u00e2\u20ac\u201dincluding by TV personalities. Perhaps if those of us who are like-minded work together, we can help educate the public on the possible dangers of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTV therapy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and help to give a more accurate representation of the best therapy can be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d For more from Judith Barr, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/television-therapy-harmful-effects-0306134\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What do you think about so-called &#8220;rehab TV&#8221;? Do you agree or disagree with our Topic Experts? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amid a wider debate about the ethics and effectiveness of rehab television, Topic Experts share their thoughts with GoodTherapy.org about Dr. Drew, Dr. Phil, and the dangers they perpetuate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[31,61,475,466,25,57,441],"class_list":["post-17093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-topic-expert-roundup","tag-psychotherapy-practice","tag-ethics-in-therapy","tag-pop-culture","tag-power","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-the-human-being-of-therapy","tag-values-clarification"],"acf":{"author_show":false,"author_name":"","author_role":"","author_avatar":null,"author_profile_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}