The Political Bias of Mental Healthcare | The Gaslit Truth Podcast with Ryan Rogers, Dr Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz
The Gaslit Truth Podcast, hosted by Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz, examines critical issues in mental health, psychiatric medication harm, therapy culture, informed consent, and brain-based healing. In this episode, they’re joined by Ryan Rogers, author and clinician, for a candid discussion on political bias in therapy and how “therapy as activism” has become normalized within the mental health field.
The conversation traces how graduate programs, professional culture, and social media have shifted training away from evidence-based modalities toward ideological messaging—often leaving clients without the skills needed for real recovery. The hosts and Rogers explore how politics in the therapy room can narrow access to care, inflate labels like trauma and gaslighting, and weaponize ethical “safety” language.
Ryan shares personal experiences of being gaslit in clinical training, where therapist neutrality was dismissed and advocacy was framed as treatment. In contrast, the episode highlights the realities of working with addiction, suicidality, and severe mental illness, emphasizing practical interventions such as motivational interviewing, ACT values work, behavioral activation, risk assessment, and careful deprescribing.
The episode also addresses how intersectionality hierarchies can encourage unequal treatment and how online therapy culture increasingly pushes clients to choose therapists based on political alignment rather than clinical skill. This conversation challenges the field to return to ethical, effective, and truly client-centered care.
