Jonathan Alpert

speaker

146 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 13 Jul

Jonathan Alpert’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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Something You Should Know · Has Therapy Gone Too Far? & The Hidden Genius of Birds · 13 Jul 2026 podcast

My profession needs to stop labeling things as trauma and major mental health disorders.

You know, if breaking a fingernail is now seen as a trauma, then what the heck is a major accident or being assaulted?

Yeah, and I think what happened is there's no longer at least not as much the stigma that we had a few decades ago.

So there's more access to mental health treatment, which is a good thing.

People are much more comfortable discussing mental health and their struggles, which is also a good thing.

However, I think

you know, maybe we've shifted a bit too far.

And I talk about this in my book, Therapy Nation, where therapists maybe are pathologizing ordinary life experiences.

So for example, let's say you had a bad day or even a bad week.

That doesn't mean necessarily that you're depressed and you need to go on medication or even go to therapy.

Or let's say you have a boss that's a real jerk.

That doesn't mean it's a toxic work environment necessarily, but we have therapists that are quick to pathologize these ordinary life experiences that in many ways help to build character and strength, but they're making it into almost like a mental health catastrophe for a lot of people.

So that's where my concern really is with where the industry, the self-help and mental health industry has gone.

Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that.

And, you know, we all need someone to talk to, whether it's a friend, a family member or even a therapist.

But I do believe that therapy should have very clear goals.

If you're going in just to vent, that's probably OK.

But just be aware that you may not be actually getting better if you just go in every five, six, seven days and get stuff off your chest and go back and do it all over again in a week.

If you have, say, anxiety or depression, there are very clear ways to treat that.

And you don't need to be in therapy for life to get better and to improve and learn how to deal with that anxiety or depression.

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