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Another Rant

If you want Christian therapist - that is, one who has a strong Christian value system AND thinks it's appropriate to share information about that value system with clients (why wouldn't it be? Everything is better with the Lord!), please don't email me asking me if I work out of a "Christian framework," and if I don't, then what framework do I use. Because my approach is client-centered, and I don't disclose information about my spirituality (or my sexuality, or my politics...) to my clients precisely so that they can explore anything they need to explore (spirituality included). I work this way because I understand, even if "Christian therapists" do not, that knowledge of a therapist's belief system can act as a barrier to exploring things that need to be explored. Let's say a new client asks if I'm Christian, and I tell her I am. Does that mean I understand everything about whatever she is struggling with? Does it mean I know if she dances, she's going to Hell? Does it mean if she tells me she had an abortion when she was 15, I'll judge her, or automatically forgive her? Does it mean I think Heaven is a real or a metaphorical place? How many different kinds of Christian are there? And, let's say she gets to a place where her faith is changing, and she needs help dealing with that? How can she do that and feel safe about it if her understanding of my being Christian means what it once meant for her, which is that there is no doubt - only faith? It's the same reason I never answered the question about whether I'd used illegal drugs, when I was doing therapy with women in prostitution who had addictions. If I said yes, they could assume I understood their experiences without their needing to examine and work through them, and really not get what they needed. If I said no, maybe that meant I couldn't possibly understand, and then they'd not utilize my skills, and also not get what they needed. Screwed either way. Better not to have that knowledge.

So, if you are Christian (or whatever) and need a therapist who can help you with wherever you are, I can do that, and I would love to. If you are Christian and you need your therapist to be Christian and "out" about her Christianity, I don't think you're really looking for change. I don't need you to change your spiritual beliefs, whatever they are. But if you're Christian and your therapist has to be too, you're looking for answers that fit only into your belief system. Go talk to your pastor.

And...(what started this rant), if you're going to email me and ask me if I work out of a Christian framework, don't ask me the "if not, then what" part, because you aren't really interested. Just ask what you really want to know: will you help me solve my problem and confirm my way of thinking? Because I am learning that what will happen is that I will answer the question thoughtfully, and you will absolutely blow me off, and it will have been a waste of my time and energy. Again, go talk to your pastor, because that's what you want. I'm not even referring to the Christian counseling centers around anymore, because they scare me. Google it yourself. You don't need your heart surgeon to share your faith. Well, maybe you do, but if that's the case, good luck to you.

posted by PTW | 12:27 PM | 6 comments 

I don't want to see commercials in movie theaters. Unless I am willing to rip out my eyes and shove them into my ears, apparently I am going to experience commercials when I choose to go to the theater (when will there be live-action commercials in live theater?) Given that, the companies that advertise could have the decency to make the ads palatable. Entertaining, even. To whom does that Fanta crap appeal? I'm not linking to it - it's annoying, potentially seizure-inducing, and mind-atrophying. I just can't be responsible for the effects on you if you choose to go looking for it yourself. Look at us! Drink Fanta! Are our breasts moving too fast for you to see? Drink Fanta! You know you wantawantawantaFanta! If I liked to ogle women, I can't imagine I'd find this interesting.

At least the Coke commercial was imaginative. I still don't want to see it in the theater. It's bad enough I pay for DirectTV that has commercials.

posted by PTW | 7:18 AM | 1 comments 

If you want to go see a movie that is violent and frightening and has monsters killing people (for Christ's sake), get a babysitter for the infant and toddlers.

I wanted to say to the parents in front of me "Here's my card. Call me in three years when your kids are a fucking mess."

posted by PTW | 2:00 PM | 1 comments I don't like it that there are Americans and citizens of America's allied countries trapped in Lebanon while it's being bombed. But this, from CNN a bit after noon today, was too much: it seems that Americans who were working or vacationing (really?) in Lebanon are awaiting evacuation by cruise ships, including the Orient Queen, where they can have the "comforts and conveniences one would expect on a sea voyage, even a relatively short one of five to six hours."

The military vessels will get there faster, but let's not settle for expediency at the expense of luxury.

Yep, let's help our citizens escape. But in the hour I sat in D. Brian's eating lunch today so that I could catch some news, no one on CNN said a word about where Lebanese citizens are going to escape the bombings or what might happen for them in the coming weeks.


posted by PTW | 11:07 AM | 0 comments 
Don't Mess With Texas

I love that the article describing the psychological explanation for why former Army Private Steven Green participated in the raping of an Iraqi wokman and the murder of her family mentions that he's from Midland, Texas, but doesn't toss in that Midland is W's hometown. It absolutely doesn't matter that they claim the same hometown, but if Private Green had - say, saved someone from drowning, or won the Tour de France, you just know that detail would be in there.

Antisocial Personality Disorder? Megalomania? I think I'll just stay out of Texas.

posted by PTW | 1:13 PM | 1 comments 

...means a very happy little girl with flaming sticks of metal in her hands: Scooter and Eryn in between the neighbors' (very cool) illegal fireworks: First flaming metal stick of the evening: And, Christy and Eryn running away from the large fountain Scooter had just lit... I'm sure Scooter will YouTube a video or two from the evening.

posted by PTW | 8:16 PM | 0 comments