> While being religious in no way means someone cannot be a good therapist, far too many therapists integrate or insert spiritual, religious or New Age ideas into therapy, even when they know their client is not religious.
> We cannot make any assurances about therapist qualifications or experience. [...] We would advise you to look carefully at a therapist’s qualifications, licenses, etc. once you have made a connection and the therapist has provided you with their contact information.
So why all the cloak and dagger? Why not just get a bunch of therapists to sign a pledge or join a public registry?
I'm not sure I totally buy it, but at least that's their rationale, and it sounds fairly reasonable to a certain degree. Therapists might not want to advertise that they take a secular approach if they believe it might drive away potential customers. Though I'm not exactly sure why it would drive away potential customers -- isn't the point that they get recommended to by ministries because they are good therapists regardless of their faith? If they do not push spirituality onto their customers, and ministries still recommend them, would those ministries stop recommending them if they found out that they advertise that they don't push spirituality (i.e. the actual approach they take with patients)?
I have to say though that some parts of this feel a bit strange. The registration page has an (optional) question asking "What, if any, is your former religion?". Like, wouldn't it be reasonable for a currently religious person to seek out a secular therapist? Sure, this doesn't exclude religious people in any shape or form, but at the very least it feels a bit leading as a question, almost as if being an atheist is expected of the patient. Full disclosure, I consider myself to be vaguely religious, so I might be looking at this from a tinted lens, but I would also prefer a secular therapist to one that matches my beliefs.
Yes, this would definitely happen in many parts of the US.
Looking at the Secular Therapists project they clearly fall into the "think my beliefs are wrong/stupid/etc" category. The about us page talks about religion "infecting minds!"
