The Secular Therapy Project: A Celebration of Humanity Instead of Dogma

Pioneered by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, Humanistic psychology is a framework for  mental health therapy and psychology in general that focuses on individual potential and personal growth. Notions such as free will and the importance of a supportive environment have become so ubiquitous in therapy that many are unaware that they originated in a humanistic appraisal of human needs. Humanistic psychology, via Maslow, really made a distinction from other therapeutic perspectives by promoting the notion of self-actualization. Put forward as an alternative to Behaviorism and Psychodynamic theories of human nature, as being too limited by promoting a deterministic view of behavior, Humanistic psychology started with the idea that human beings are far freer than the environment (Behaviorism) and instinct (Psychodynamic) would have us believe.

This notion of self-actualization is at the heart of mental health therapy. The ideas behind it, the focus on personal growth, creativity and self-fulfilment, are very much often used in therapy spaces all over. Clients come to therapy to figure out how to live their lives fully and creatively, with an emphasis on personal growth and feeling good about how their behavior aligns with their best selves. The heart of therapy post-Freud could very well be seen as being fundamentally founded on humanism, though the tools utilized will often flow out of other systems of thought like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Unfortunately, for many who come to therapy, rather than being met with an appreciation for humanity and each person’s capacity for creative self-discovery, they are instead met with attempts at ideological persuasion in the form of religious proselytizing. In one study, despite nearly half of therapists polled acknowledging they had no training in the proper utilization of religion/spirituality in their practice, nearly 60 percent said they were fully confident in being able to do so. This dismissal of training follows from how fundamentalist forms of religious ideology are felt to be true, where evidence begins and ends with the notion of a strongly held belief.

While not everyone seeks to overcome or work through the particular struggles that stem from involvement in high-control forms of religious ideology, those who are have been met by therapists with protests that they didn’t understand their religion properly, to simply pray for better discernment, for women to find their proper place in a marriage, and, as is particularly relevant these days in current court cases, whether a client’s views of their sexual identity are mere fictions.

Coming out of certain religious communities where authority was weaponized to promote ideological conformity rather than self-fulfillment, those who are seeking to healthily deal with the specific form of trauma that such experiences produce should not be met by yet another authority figure using their office to dismiss the uniqueness of the client who seeks help. Selecting a therapy is already a particularly vulnerable act to engage in, knowing that one is going to be placing themselves in an emotionally open environment where their hurts and scars are laid bare.

To help people find a therapist, the Recovering from Religion (RfR) organization has created the Secular Therapy Project (STP). Each therapist on the STP is screened for their dedication to evidence-based practices, licensure in their state, and commitment to a secular perspective. Secularism is not about bashing religion, since critical self-reflection about religious ideas and their connection to personal values and behavior can be hugely beneficial for anyone, regardless of one’s state of belief in them. The STP is concerned primarily with the ethical principles of client-first therapy, where providing the therapeutic care is about the personal growth and self-fulfillment of the client, not ideological conformity.

People seeking help should not have to worry about whether they belong. RfR and the Secular Therapy Project are letting you know that those concerns have been taken seriously and that mental health therapy is to help you be the best version your humanity already knows to be.

Learn more at www.seculartherapy.org.

---

Citations

Vieten, C., Oxhandler, H. K., Pearce, M., Fry, N., Tanega, C., & Pargament, K. (2023). Mental health professionals’ perspectives on the relevance of religion and spirituality to mental health care. BMC psychology, 11(1), 439. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01466-y