# Lucinda Bassett: Quack? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068 "2006-04-24T23:14:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/1 "2006-04-24T23:14:49Z")
You’ve been annoyed for years by [this person’s](http://www.stresscenter.com/) adverts on the radio, now, she’s metastasized up to the early AM paid programming. Is she for real? A kook? ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/2 "2006-04-27T09:24:11Z")
I called the number out of curiosity, but they wouldn’t sell me anything. They wanted me to make an appointment to talk to a “counselor”, no doubt a high pressure salesperson. I did not get a good feeling, so I say scam. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/3 "2006-04-27T09:41:26Z")
Her advert says her treatments will attack anxiety and depression. Not cure them. She claims you ‘will overcome’ stress, anxiety and depression. She doesn’t say when. Elsewhere she advertises that her company is ‘Helping patients recover from anxiety and depression through a scientifically validated psycoeducational product based solution. The most comprehensive patient empowerment program of its kind, offering guaranteed results. Whether your goal is patient improvement or cost containment, call today.’ Gosh. Guaranteed results! Does that include a cure, or just a lightening of your wallet? Perhaps a clue is in the words ‘cost containment’. Could this mean that you pay her rather than treat a patient? Finally we come to those boring scientific tests: ‘it certainly wouldn’t be the largest selling self-help program of its kind in the world if it didn’t work for an awful lot of people (more than 500,000 at last count).’ Well there you have it. No scientific testing, just slick marketing selling to loads of desperate suckers. ---
**Author:** ![Iris\_Rings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d78d45/32.png) [@Iris\_Rings](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iris_Rings)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/4 "2006-04-27T22:37:15Z")
I’m sure she’s as good as every single shrink, at least as far as anxiety and depression treatment goes. So I vote scam. They are all quacks in these areas. I have a lot of broke family members as my evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/5 "2006-04-28T09:16:34Z")
That’s not true, in my experience. I’ve been treated by two very competent psychotherapists, one of whom worked for a free clinic. Thanks to them, my mental health is much better than it once was. Lucinda Bassett, on the other hand, I have my doubts about. I hear her ads at least once a morning on my drive to work. I just Googled her and came across [this discussion](http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=19&m=353214). From what I read there, it sounds like her methods may work, but they’re expensive. There was a reference to a book she’s written, and a set of her tapes are apparently available on e-Bay. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/6 "2006-04-28T20:45:03Z")
I went through Lucinda’s program on tape for free from my local health centre library, and it is a good start at treating anxiety and depression. It’s based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which should be and hopefully is becoming the treatment of choice for anxiety disorders. I also took a short seminar on anxiety and depression from the same health centre, and the psychologist giving the seminar said that she and her colleagues had gone over Lucinda’s program with a fine-toothed comb and couldn’t find any reason to not give it a thumbs-up. Her program is a good start if you can get it for free like I did. Used in combination with other modes of treatment like CBT, bibliotherapy, self-help groups, one-on-one therapy, and in some cases, short term medication, it can be part of a very effective treatment program. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/7 "2006-04-28T21:24:29Z")
[QUOTE=glee] Her advert says her treatments will attack anxiety and depression. Not cure them. [/QUOTE] **glee** , for some people, you cannot “cure” depression or anxiety, you can only treat them. I have an anxiety disorder and will have it until I die. There’s no cure for OCD, just treatment to keep it under control. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/8 "2006-04-29T23:53:05Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] **glee** , for some people, you cannot “cure” depression or anxiety, you can only treat them. I have an anxiety disorder and will have it until I die. There’s no cure for OCD, just treatment to keep it under control. [/QUOTE] I used to believe that. I don’t any more. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/9 "2006-05-01T09:44:45Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] **glee** , for some people, you cannot “cure” depression or anxiety, you can only treat them. I have an anxiety disorder and will have it until I die. There’s no cure for OCD, just treatment to keep it under control. [/QUOTE] I realise this is a sensitive subject and hope I haven’t offended anyone. It is clear however that this particular treatment has never been properly tested and is run purely for profit. That makes it a scam. ---
**Author:** ![Melanie\_Wojtulewicz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@Melanie\_Wojtulewicz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melanie_Wojtulewicz)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucinda-bassett-quack/354068/10 "2010-08-09T23:41:46Z")
I ordered the program from Lucinda Bassett and after finding out how much it really cost, I sent it back. In the interim they started billing me $15.95 per month and started sending vitamins which I did not order and refust to take back. I am still fighting with them and my credit card to get my money back. I have now involved the Illinois Attorney General. Lucinda Bassett and her subsidiaries (Living Labs) should be regulated. Beware