Is Politics Hijacking Therapy? When Ideology Gets in the Way of Mental Health
The Dr. Phil Podcast
Dr. Phil McGraw
4.4 • 13.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some patients say they went to therapy for help—but left feeling judged, dismissed, or even harmed by political bias. Dr. Phil investigates the growing concern that therapists and psychology educators are allowing personal agendas to influence treatment.
You’ll hear from Claire, an 18-year-old who says her therapist’s post-session political outburst pushed her to cut ties during a critical moment. Dana, a mother, claims a therapist’s social justice stance deepened the rift with her daughter in just three sessions. Dr. Phil also speaks with Soad, a licensed therapist who openly promotes her conservative views and insists clients know where she stands before they begin. Megan, a clinical counselor, says cancel culture came for her after sharing her political beliefs online. And Dr. Hartz, founder of the Open Therapy Institute, joins to discuss the movement to remove ideological bias from mental health care nationwide.
Should patients have to navigate politics in the therapist’s chair? And what happens when trust breaks down? Dr. Phil gets answers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | America, we've got issues. |
| 0:02.0 | My therapist put her political agenda before my mental health. |
| 0:05.0 | Some therapists have actually said, |
| 0:07.0 | I can't see you if you embrace certain beliefs. |
| 0:11.0 | So huge chunks of the country that just are being excluded from care. |
| 0:14.0 | I believe there are two sexes. |
| 0:16.0 | And I want to make sure you understand that before you start with me. |
| 0:19.0 | Therapy is so important, but do I have to worry about them |
| 0:21.7 | putting their political bias before my mental health? |
| 0:24.0 | I guess the bottom line is you just can't all have Dr. Phil. |
| 0:43.3 | Well, well, America, we've got issues. None more evident than when it comes to supposedly trusted professionals and big businesses |
| 0:50.3 | using their social and political biases to attack every facet of this country. |
| 0:56.0 | And you know I have been very vocal about this. |
| 1:01.0 | We have social media platforms censoring free speech, |
| 1:05.0 | particularly political viewpoints. |
| 1:08.0 | I've seen this in the last few days. I put up a video about Israel. |
| 1:15.7 | Choked right down until it disappeared. Media outlets foregoing journalistic integrity in an attempt |
| 1:23.1 | to sway elections, institutions of higher education endorsing what I call intellectual rot and allowing |
| 1:30.3 | activism to supersede what's best for students, corporations running their own agendas and turning |
| 1:37.3 | a blind eye to meritocracy. And there is so much more, including now many claiming mental health professionals |
| 1:47.0 | with the majority being liberal, |
| 1:50.0 | bringing their socio-political agendas into therapy sessions, |
... |
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