This is one of the biggest problems with therapy that I wish more people would acknowledge, especially with how socially acceptable it’s become to pressure people to go to therapy, and shame people who try and speak out about negative experiences with it.

Therapists not only tend to be people of privilege (i.e. white, non-disabled, cisgender and heterosexual), but have no concept or awareness of minority stress. It should be considered a form of abuse for a therapist to tell a marginalized client that their very real experiences of discrimination and lack of structural accommodations in society are “all in your head” or a result of cognitive distortion, or worse to put the responsibility on them for changing their thoughts and perceptions about it rather than on the rest of the world to treat them like human beings.

Minority stress theory should be a REQUIRED part of the curriculum in order to practice as a licensed therapist.