psyhcologist/therapist... and lawyer needed to help fight woo on the web!

[kittynh]

I posted this in community but I am also going to post it here! Help fight the woo!

This may not be the best place, but why not hope there are a few lawyers and therapists (though most of us NEED therapists) that hang out here. On the cruise Krelnik pointed out the need for narrow focus type web sites. I have been working with UFO types and such for a few years. I've never done a UFO web site as there are so many.

However, Krelnik inspired me to start a narrow focus web site, with the working title "So You Think You Have Been Abducted by Aliens?"

I get a LOT of alien abduction questions, and a site that answers those, plus gives a quick over view would be lovely.

I need a lawyer because I want whatever it is I need to have written in small print saying the advice and information given is not meant to replace a visit to a doctor or health professional. Something butt covering.

I have a few psychologists I work with, but they don't want to really commit to writing something I really NEED (though I can wing it I guess). I need what someone that goes to a therapist if they feel they have had an alien abduction can expect when they tell the therapist. People will not believe me when I assure them that they will not be instantly locked up, and the therapist/psycholigst will not laugh at them. Too often the only therapists that advertise they treat alien abduction victims are those looking to scam them. They keep their victims coming back for years with hypnosis and other "treatments" that simply feed their fears. I have had people go to real theratpists and have great results. But I need a therapist or mental health person to simply write what they would say to someone that came to them with this problem. NOT what they would say to help treat this person. Just simply what they would SAY, as in NOT LAUGH AT THEM, and not say "WOW ARE YOU NUTS?". It's a very real fear.

If you dont' want to use your name it's ok. Just simply some reassurance that it's safe to go seek help.

If anyone can help please PM me or go bug your therapist/psychologist/lawyer.

[minorwork]

I'll give you a PM recommendation.

[Phrost]

I know a great lawyer who has experience in working with Skeptic-based causes.

[jhunter1163]

If anyone can help please PM me or go bug your therapist/psychologist/lawyer.

Mine are all the same person too.

[LONGTABBER PE]

I posted this in community but I am also going to post it here! Help fight the woo!

This may not be the best place, but why not hope there are a few lawyers and therapists (though most of us NEED therapists) that hang out here. On the cruise Krelnik pointed out the need for narrow focus type web sites. I have been working with UFO types and such for a few years. I've never done a UFO web site as there are so many.

However, Krelnik inspired me to start a narrow focus web site, with the working title "So You Think You Have Been Abducted by Aliens?"

I get a LOT of alien abduction questions, and a site that answers those, plus gives a quick over view would be lovely.

I need a lawyer because I want whatever it is I need to have written in small print saying the advice and information given is not meant to replace a visit to a doctor or health professional. Something butt covering.

I have a few psychologists I work with, but they don't want to really commit to writing something I really NEED (though I can wing it I guess). I need what someone that goes to a therapist if they feel they have had an alien abduction can expect when they tell the therapist. People will not believe me when I assure them that they will not be instantly locked up, and the therapist/psycholigst will not laugh at them. Too often the only therapists that advertise they treat alien abduction victims are those looking to scam them. They keep their victims coming back for years with hypnosis and other "treatments" that simply feed their fears. I have had people go to real theratpists and have great results. But I need a therapist or mental health person to simply write what they would say to someone that came to them with this problem. NOT what they would say to help treat this person. Just simply what they would SAY, as in NOT LAUGH AT THEM, and not say "WOW ARE YOU NUTS?". It's a very real fear.

If you dont' want to use your name it's ok. Just simply some reassurance that it's safe to go seek help.

If anyone can help please PM me or go bug your therapist/psychologist/lawyer.

I'm not completely sure what you are asking for

[Baby Nemesis]

I have a few psychologists I work with, but they don't want to really commit to writing something I really NEED (though I can wing it I guess). I need what someone that goes to a therapist if they feel they have had an alien abduction can expect when they tell the therapist.

There isn't a standard therapist response. There are several different types of therapy, from ones that delve deeply into childhood problems and don't do much to help people move on, to ones where people can come out feeling unheard because the therapist didn't seem to want to know about their past but only wanted to focus on the future, and several in between. Some therapists are more sympathetic and knowledgeable about the topic than others. Some therapists might not have a clue about it, just as some therapists might be good with a variety of relationship problems but not nearly so good with issues like severe anxiety. It's a case of shopping around for something you think suits you, and also asking a therapist questions to try to discern how well they'd know how to deal with that kind of thing, and how understanding they'd be towards someone who presented with such a problem. Someone should only go to a therapist they feel happy with. If after a session or two, they realise they're not happy, they should change therapists if they can.

There's no guarantee a person won't get scammed by a therapist or treated unsympathetically, or even laughed at. I think your best bet would be to research good questions to ask a therapist before committing to trusting them for therapy, so people can increase their chances of finding therapists that'll be good for them.

[kittynh]

good suggestion. I guess what I'm finding is that the aliens abductees I know are afraid to go seek therapy. One way around this I've found is to point out they need treatment for PTSD. It's worked really well. People write to thank me, because most therapists seem to be good at reassuring people and then helping the person get control of their life again. In some major areas, LA and NY there are therapists that actually advertise for alien abductees. They are BIG TROUBLE. What I've tried to do is steer people to the average therapist (most of the people that write me are from the Mid West), and those that go almost always find it works out wonderfully.

It's that first visit, and just opening the mouth to say what has happened, that bothers them. The first step is the hardest, and I just actually need someone to write, "A therapist is not going to laugh". We aren't talking everyone is of a high IQ here, or that they have any family members with experience with the mental health field.

[Baby Nemesis]

There's no guarantee a therapist won't laugh at them, although they shouldn't. Perhaps the best reassurance you can give them would be to say something on the lines of what you've just said - that in your personal experience of recommending people to therapists to talk about alien abduction experiences, everyone has been treated well, and helped to get control of their lives, and has been pleased with the outcome.

[kittynh]

thanks, good suggestion.

Despite the tv shows assurig us that the "average person" is abducted by aliens, what I've found is it's very cofused people that get their science from bad cable tv shows. We aren't talking National Geographic readers here. Maybe they are the "average person"?

Sleep paralysis is rather common, it's scarey even if you KNOW what is happening to you. Usually that's what I find out it is...but I've had a few people end up on medication and end up livig happily ever after....or at least alien free.

[Baby Nemesis]

Perhaps you could link to some good articles about sleep paralysis then, especially ones that explain what people can do to stop it happening, if you can find articles like that. You could say on the website that that's what often seems to cause people to come to believe they've been abducted by aliens.

Stopping it might sometimes be very simple. I encountered one person who was being tormented by what he thought were spirits threatening him. He was scared. His symptoms completely disappeared after he started refocusing his thoughts on good things instead of the dross he used to fill his mind with, reading nice bits of the Bible before he went to bed, and so on. I don't suppose that would work for everyone, especially non-religious people. But if such things can cause a dramatic halt to the symptoms, then maybe there are other easy solutions that would work for quite a few people, and there might be easy-to-read scientific articles on the Internet that suggest some.

[Nucular]

I would also imagine that, as well as the fear of being laughed at, many people will have a more realistic fear of not being believed - this is extremely common in the field of mental health, from full-on psychosis all the way down to common anxiety or depression.

Although there are, as posters above have pointed out, many, many different therapeutic approaches, most 'mainstream' therapists would share a common base of assumptions: that the client should be afforded "unconditional positive regard" (would not be judged by the therapist); that the content of an individual's anxieties are valid regardless of real-world literal truth; that a client's cultural beliefs are his or her own, and would always be sympathetically discussed; that nobody can be forced to change anything, and so any changes in one's beliefs would always be through an individual's own choice, not the therapist's.

Obviously you can get bad anythings, so therapists are no exception; but people should always feel able to discontinue any therapy they don't feel is helpful (that's not to say that psychological therapy is necessarily easy to embark upon either).

And again despite there being many different approaches to therapy, I should expect some degree of predictability about the content of a first session for someone with possible PTSD and a belief that they have been abducted by aliens. A 'normal' session would last about 50 minutes; various background details would be discussed, early childhood, previous traumas, family, educational and employment background, etc. There would likely be some orientation to the particular therapist's way of working. The presenting problem would also be discussed, hopefully with an air of detached curiosity - expect 'how did you know that was true?'; 'how did that feel?'; 'describe that to me in more detail' and so on as the sorts of prompt questions you will hear a lot of. Where trauma is involved, if there are things which are difficult to talk about, the therapist will be sensitive and sympathetic to this.

How the conversation is then taken on, and what interventions might be employed further down the road, would vary depending on the treatment modality. But you could be fairly certain that the things I've said above would usually hold true.

[kittynh]

could I use parts of the above post on the web site? I really like your wording.

[Nucular]

I'd be honoured. I've pm'd you anyway.