# If I'm looking for a therapist, is it OK to ask if they are a Trump supporter?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 19, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400 "2020-12-19T14:46:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 12
### Author:  [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2021, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/223 "2021-11-29T23:01:20Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#):
>
> I’m sure they do, but that’s not therapy, and the dynamic is nothing like the relationship between therapist and client.
>
> It’s already been said, in many ways above, but people are traumatized. They have a right to process that trauma with someone who doesn’t think it’s “fake news.”
There are certainly therapy elements to this group setting. That’s why I brought it up. We don’t have a supervisor that’s a therapist, but when we are talking about these issues, someone is venting about an issue, I expect a certain decorum in how we are talking, what I’m saying to them, etc.
People do not need to talk about politics in this setting. At least, it is my opinion they do not. It is a work oriented group, I do not think politics should be on the table with it anyway. All are welcome. So to me, that takes politics off the table. As long as the people are abiding by the rules, they are welcome.
Per this thread, apparently an all are welcome group is less virtuous than one that excludes Trump supporters. Hence the need to ask. I don’t see that any particular flaw is being demonstrated by these people. Just that others now think it virtuous to ask about political affiliation and opinions for shunning purposes. I think history has shown a poor track record for what people want to do, but I suppose we’ll have to learn this lesson again.
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2021, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/224 "2021-12-01T18:00:41Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> There are certainly therapy elements to this group setting. That’s why I brought it up. **We don’t have a supervisor that’s a therapist** , but when we are talking about these issues, someone is venting about an issue, I expect a certain decorum in how we are talking, what I’m saying to them, etc.
The part I bolded means what you are describing is no in any way therapy. It’s no different than any other group where people can talk out their problems. At no point have you described someone whose job it is to tell you how to fix the problem. You’re just describing what is essentially a message board with a topic.
Since you don’t even seem to know what therapy actually is, perhaps it would be better if you didn’t try to 'splain to those of us who have actually had therapy what we can and cannot reasonably expect, or what could and could not cause problems.
The issue is that someone who supports Trump would have to be supporting a man whose entire platform is mentally unhealthy. They would have to think it’s okay to harass the mentally ill, as Trump has done. They’d have to look at his chronic lying disorder, as well as his narcissistic and megalomaniacal tendencies, and think they were all okay. They’d have to see all the women who have come out saying he raped them and think they were all lying. They’d have to be too stupid not to fall for his con artist arguments, and they’d have been okay with killing people by not wearing masks.
Rather than being judgemental about something you apparently know nothing about, maybe listen to those of us who actually have experience on this topic, and know exactly what we would or would not need.
---
### Author:  [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/225 "2021-12-02T02:04:28Z")
I tend to think one’s political views and values should/do reflect one’s ethical and moral views and values. If a therapist expressed political views that were ‘way different from mine, it would be cause for pause.
---
### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/226 "2021-12-02T03:14:45Z")
Some people ask because they want a Trump supporter.
---
### Author:  [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/227 "2021-12-02T03:34:27Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Since you don’t even seem to know what therapy actually is, perhaps it would be better if you didn’t try to 'splain to those of us who have actually had therapy what we can and cannot reasonably expect, or what could and could not cause problems.
In my group therapy experience, the psychologist did not really inject his own personality into it too much, since people there are paying for the experience and it’s usually more valuable for them to talk than him. Mainly he tried to keep things on track. I believe he mentioned he was an Eagle Scout at one point in indirect response to an offhand negative comment about Scouts by one of the members. Politics didn’t really come up, since the people there, myself included, were mostly occupied with their own problems.
In my individual therapy experiences, I’ve usually made the best use of my time by focusing on my own experiences, which politics has absolutely no impact on.
In personal life, yes, there are people that may have voted for Trump that have been kind to me, have helped me. You do you. Trump is going to die someday and life is going to go on. If you want to condemn all of these people to concentration camps, whatever you want to do with them, that’s your work, not mine.
---
### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/228 "2021-12-02T06:08:48Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> In my individual therapy experiences, I’ve usually made the best use of my time by focusing on my own experiences, which politics has absolutely no impact on.
How fortunate for you.
I’m guessing you never had to talk about how the responses to Trump’s bragging about sexually assaulting women remind you of how people ignored and minimized your own sexual assault.
I don’t ask my therapists their political orientation but if they are MSWs that usually means they’re liberal. Other hints are whether they specialize in LGBTQ issues. I do discuss politics in therapy, but I guess my thinking is if they disagree with me now they have to stoically listen to me enumerate how utterly fucking awful their decision was.
---
### Author:  [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/229 "2021-12-02T21:02:50Z")
And how is not hiring someone equivalent to “putting them in a concentration camp?”
I believe that it’s not possible to be a Trump supporter and a decent human being. I think everyone that supports Trump is completely and totally amoral, or completely and totally stupid. I need to have a certain amount of respect for my therapist, so that’s a no. But I have no desire to cause harm to any Trump supporter, I just think they are inherently untrustworthy because they have no moral center.
And it’s partly due to the persecution cult aspect, in which “not hiring someone for a position of trust” equates to “being put in a concentration camp”.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/230 "2021-12-02T21:48:08Z")
As the meme notes, the clitoris may have 6,000 nerve endings, Ann, but nothing is as sensitive as a white man being corrected.
Myself included at times! 😕
---
### Author:  [@LordHarry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordHarry)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/231 "2021-12-07T01:44:31Z")
I am a psychologist, and I say it is reasonable. I mean, obviously ask tactfully. I can tell you I work with people who have a WIDE variety of things they feel are important in a therapist. Some seem pretty reasonable (share racial or ethnic background, religious understanding/frame, LGBTQ community member, etc). Some are highly specific to the person (like/ understand astrology). Sometimes people get overly specific as a way to avoid therapy (i.e therapist must only be a blonde, who went to these specific schools, who was divorced by age 30, and loves dalmatians). You don’t seem to be in that boat.
So yeah, if it’s gonna really matter to you, ask about it.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400/232 "2022-01-07T19:44:33Z")
My lawyer posted something pro-insurrection on Facebook. “Be careful of those saying an ‘Insurrection’ occurred, it was a riot.”
I responded forcefully to his comment, telling him that one of his clients predicted this Insurrection long before January 6th, providing links to two threads, the first being my thread of 11.9.2020 predicting a coup:
> [@The American Coup: 11.9.2020 -](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182):
>
> thinking Trump fired his Secretary of Defense, replaced Esper with Chris Miller. This is a totally normal thing for an outgoing President to prioritize. Esper then says, in an interview in Military Times, that for the George Floyd protests he (Esper) would not support Trump’s desire to invoke the Insurrection Act against the Floyd protesters: [[Google Photos] ](https://photos.app.goo.gl/9xqbCpACp8jJAxHG6) We know if you’re Donald Trump and you want troops on the streets for a Portland police stat…
The second thread was the January 6th thread itself:
> [@6 January 2021; A Day worth a Thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-january-2021-a-day-worth-a-thread/929770):
>
> I’m starting this now so it is in place (it is 10:30pm Central, 11:30pm Eastern as I type this) when the day dawns. I know we have more than a few threads, but IMHO January 6th is going to be a day of such consequence that it deserves to be remembered by it’s own stand-alone thread. I mean, tomorrow: a. Should bring about a final result in the Georgia Senate Races, and if…if…they go Democratic, there will be loud and vociferous reaction. b. An unknown number of Proud Boys and other reaction…
I also noted that the Insurrection began long before 1.6.2021, reminding him the first impeachment was about Trump gaming the election via coercing a country to generate fake evidence.
I then called him this morning to pull my business. I did not say why… and there isn’t a lot to pull, to be honest, only talking to his assistant.
… and he has since deleted the post! Which sucks because I so wanted to post a screenshot of it here.
Hasn’t blocked me yet, might need his kid to tell him how. 😂
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-im-looking-for-a-therapist-is-it-ok-to-ask-if-they-are-a-trump-supporter/928400.md?page=11)